Photo ID: 112046 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP RG527 (East Thompson) Grand County, UT 19 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific The last eight or so cars and DPU on this westbound coal load are hanging out of the east end of Thompson. The train is holding off the grade crossing in Thompson Springs until the westbound Zephyr, which will run around the train, gets a bit closer. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112045 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP RG527 (East Thompson) Grand County, UT 18 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific This westbound coal load is taking the siding at Thompson to wait for the westbound Zephyr to overtake it. Unfortunately, the next two sidings to the west (Floy and Solitude) both have cars being stored on them, so Thompson has to be the place to wait. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112044 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Sagers to Thompson Grand County, UT 20 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific Following on the yellow signals of a coal train ahead of it, another loaded coal train is making its way up Thompson Hill. This train, similar to the one it is following, is configured 2x(0)x1. However, this train only has 75 loaded hoppers in tow, make it quite a bit shorter and lighter. The 4th tallest mountain in Utah, Mount Waas, stands tall in the distance at an elevation of 12,331 feet (3,758 meters). Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112043 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Thompson Curve Grand County, UT 26 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific This westbound coal load has been struggling to climb the 1% grade of Thompson Hill. And it is not too surprising, seeing has how the train only has three units, setup in a 2x1 configuration, to make the climb. This shot offers a great view of both the head end and the tail of the roughly 5,700 foot long train. The lead unit, incidentally, is former SP 265, delivered in scarlet and gray in June 1995. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112042 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Thompson Curve Grand County, UT 27 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific Just east of the siding of Thompson, you'll find this absolutely fantastic S-Curve. A westbound coal train, which loaded at the West Elk Mine in Colorado, is headed for Trona, not far from Mojave, CA. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112041 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Sagers to Thompson Grand County, UT 24 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific Union Pacific has very slowly been replacing the signals out in the desert. By "very slowly", I mean I saw some signal masts that were up in 2023 that seemingly not been touched in the past two years! I'm not complaining, however, as it means there are still opportunities for shots like this! A westbound coal load passes by old Rio Grande intermediate signals on the approach to Thompson. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112040 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Sagers to Thompson Grand County, UT 26 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific I absolutely love the beauty of the Utah desert. Parts almost look like the surface of the moon, such as these dirt mounds on the opposite side of UP 6401 and UP 8584, working as hard as they can to carry a California-bound coal load up the 1% grade of Thompson Hill. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112039 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Sagers to Thompson Grand County, UT 27 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific This westbound UP coal train is going less that 20 MPH as it limps along, trying to tackle Thompson Hill. Some bad order units had to be removed from the train in Grand Junction, yet UP still said to send the train west, despite it being rather underpowered. For the astute observer, you might notice that there is in fact a second train in this shot! In fact, a second westbound coal load is visible to the right side of the shot and slightly up, in the shadows! This train is between Elba and Sagers, a few miles east, riding the yellows of this first coal train. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112037 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Seven Mile Grand County, UT 29 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Cane Creek (UP) Rocky Mountaineer At milepost 21 on the Cane Creek Sub, at a location that is, ironically enough, named Seven Mile, the Rocky Mountaineer's Rockies to the Red Rocks has completed the journey to the Red Rocks. Employees of the Mountaineer have detrained and are gathered for a briefing in advance of the upcoming season, set to start in a couple of weeks. A bus stands by to take the employees to a hotel in Moab for the night. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112036 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Bartlett Wash Grand County, UT 24 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Cane Creek (UP) Rocky Mountaineer With only a few miles left in its run, the Rocky Mountaineer crosses over Bartlett Wash on the UP Cane Creek Subdivision. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112035 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed MP 14 Grand County, UT 27 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Cane Creek (UP) Rocky Mountaineer Just before crossing over a greaser, which helps lubricate the tracks and wheel flanges to slow the wear and tear on the rails, the Rocky Mountaineer crosses a cattle guard. The train will pass underneath UT-191 just ahead, right near the Canyonlands Airport. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112034 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed MP 5 Grand County, UT 23 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Cane Creek (UP) Rocky Mountaineer The engineer on the Rocky Mountaineer "Rockies to the Red Rocks" offers up a friendly wave as the train heads south on the Cane Creek Subdivision, not far off from its final stop of the day. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112033 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed MP 5 Grand County, UT 28 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Cane Creek (UP) Rocky Mountaineer With the desert mainline now behind it, the eight car Rocky Mountaineer is now headed south on the track warrant controlled Cane Creek Subdivision. The tracks largely parallel UT-191, with lots of traffic headed to or leaving Moab. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112031 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, March 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Sagers to Thompson Grand County, UT 29 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Rocky Mountaineer Some maintenance of way work at Sagers resulted in the Rocky Mountaineer briefly stopped and then running through the siding. Now back on the main, the GP40-3s are throttling up as the train really bites into the 1% grade on the climb up Thompson Hill, kicking out a little exhaust for their effort. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111981 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Troublesome (5,570 ft) Grand County, CO 50 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A single ES44AC brings up the tail end of UP's MNYGJ at Troublesome. Those that have seen a lot of pictures from the Moffat can probably recognize the pretty significant difference in makeup of UP's North Yard / Grand Junction manifests compared to BNSF's Denver / Provo manifests. The UP manifests are primarily composed of covered hoppers, whereas BNSF manifest are primarily composed of tank cars. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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