A westbound UP oil empty wraps around the east edge of Big Ten Curve along the wind break hoppers. The head end is now on the south edge of Big Ten, heading toward Eisele (Clay). The buffer car is a classic CP Rail "Pac-Man" covered hopper.
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The engineer of the westbound Zephyr gives a friendly wave out the window as the train moves at track speed up toward Tunnel 1.
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The overcast skies provide a nice opportunity to get a shot of the Zephyr wrapping through the curves at the base of Coal Creek Canyon. In the distance, you can see the steal tower that lies right along the rails between Leyden and Rocky.
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The westbound Zephyr is moving at track speed as it approaches a clear (green) signal at the west end of Leyden. The Zephyr is still sporting the typical seven Superliner consist that it has generally had throughout the winter.
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On a chilly, overcast January morning, the westbound Zephyr passes by a string of empty well cars that were seemingly placed in storage the previous day here in the siding at Leyden.
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A look down in to the inside of an empty well car sitting in storage on the siding at Leyden. As you can see, most well cars do not have a solid base, but rather are mostly open. They only need enough strength to support the containers placed in them. This patchwork is sturdy, yet keeps the overall car weight much lighter as less steel is used.
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You can clear see the derail is set here at the east end of Leyden as a 6,400 foot long string of empty well cars sits in the siding without power. It appears that there will be no meets here at Leyden for the foreseeable future, as these cars appears to be in storage.
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A massive string of empty well cars, measuring around 6,400 feet, was taken out to Leyden (from Denver) by UP early in the pre-dawn hours of January 3. The power cut off and returned light to Denver. It would appear that UP is planning to keep them in long term storage here at Leyden!
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A single ES44AC brings up the tail end of an eastbound coal load, rolling through Barbara's Gulch. In the distance, you can see a trio of mid-train swing helpers that will be removed from the train once it reaches Denver.
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The two lead units on an eastbound coal train pass by the metal monstrosity that was built about 50 years ago, having something to do with mining in the area.
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An SD70ACe and a C44ACM both sport UP's newest paint scheme as of 2023. The huge flag, which has been a prominent feature of the scheme for two decades, is no longer on the long hood, but instead is much smaller on either side of the nose. Additionally, and unfortunately in my opinion, the wings have also been removed from the nose.
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An eastbound coal load approach what remains of the turnout to the long defunct Chem Spur. The sole customer on the spur, Mesa Oil, moved to a new location in Denver about a decade ago when UP dropped service from twice a week to once a week. Once that happened and there were no longer customers on the spur, UP removed from the frog and it has been out of service ever since.
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It is a beautiful January morning as an eastbound UP coal load rolls past a clear (green) signal at the intermediate signal at MP 16.1. While relatively rare in 2024, UP does still load a handful of coal trains on the North Fork Branch at the West Elk Mine, this train being one such example.
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An eastbound UP coal load slowly rolls through Barbara's Gulch in between Rocky and Leyden. In the distance, you can clearly see the grade running through the west end of Eisele (Clay).
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On the south side of Big Ten Curve, a pair of freshly painted UP units lead their coal train toward the wind break just out of view of the camera to the right. In the distance, not the trio of mid-train swing helpers, assisting in the dynamic braking effort of the train down the grade.
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