Photo ID: 112412 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 4, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Elba to Sagers (MP 516.2 to MP 519.9) Grand County, UT 227 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Amtrak The eastbound Zephyr is trying to make up a little time this morning as it is currently running roughly two hours behind schedule. With the Book Cliffs as a backdrop, the train is moving at around 70 MPH across the Utah desert. A BNSF manifest is in the siding at Elba, waiting for the arrival of the Zephyr. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112411 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 4, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Elba to Sagers (MP 516.2 to MP 519.9) Grand County, UT 235 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Amtrak Passing by the intermediate signal on the approach to Elba, the eastbound California Zephyr is hustling along at track speed as it has clear (green) signals ahead. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112410 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 4, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Elba (5,490 ft) Grand County, UT 215 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) BNSF Although BNSF has nearly 800 SD70MACs on the roster, it seems that large swaths of them are in storage these days. It actually feels a little rare to catch one out on the mainline. If you look closely, you might also notice that BNSF 9725 is now designated as an SD70MACe. BNSF partnered with Progress Rail to update 24 SD70MACs. The upgrades included replacing the original Siemens electronics with modern Mitsubishi electronics, installing new traction motors, and upgrading the cab to an isolated cab for crew comfort. The units also received the New Image paint scheme, if they were not already sporting it. Most SD70MACs still wear the Heritage 2 scheme. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112409 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 4, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Elba (5,490 ft) Grand County, UT 230 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) BNSF If you are a railfan, you are likely aware of the fact that it is not uncommon to find Montana Rail Link (MRL) SD70ACes on BNSF trains. BNSF purchased and took over control of MRL at the start of 2024. When that happened, BNSF also took over ownership of all MRL power, and the SD70ACes in particular have been scattered throughout the BNSF system. Here, MRL 4306 sits as the second unit on the Denver-Provo in the siding of Elba. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112408 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 4, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Elba (5,490 ft) Grand County, UT 231 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) BNSF BNSF's Denver-Provo, with an MRL SD70ACe second out, sits in the siding at Elba. The train met its counterpart here a few minutes ago, but is going to continue waiting for the eastbound Zephyr, which has already departed Green River. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112407 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 4, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP RG548 (West Solitude) Grand County, UT 308 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific A look west from the west switch of Solitude. UP has what is known as a Form B active through here. For a Form B, a track foreman is in charge and puts up red flags around the work zone. Trains are not allowed to enter the work zone without explicit permission from the track foreman. As you can see, it appears that UP is replacing a lot of ties through here. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112406 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 4, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP RG548 (West Solitude) Grand County, UT 259 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific When a UP coal load derailed at the west switch of Solitude, the derailment damaged the switch itself. When UP repaired the tracks to get the mainline reopened, they did not bother to actually replace the switch. As you can see, the switch points are entirely missing. Not sure what this will mean for the siding of Solitude. UP has used it for long term storage of cars. Indeed, there are cars being stored there even when this picture was taken. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112405 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 4, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP RG548 (West Solitude) Grand County, UT 279 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific A team of UP maintenance of way employees are gathered at the west switch of Solitude, working to continue some cleanup efforts after a loaded coal train derailed here at the west switch about 10 days earlier. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112404 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 4, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Floy to Solitude (MP 540.9 to MP 546.2) Grand County, UT 131 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) BNSF UP has been working to replace all the block signals out in the desert. However, due to the low levels of traffic...particularly the low levels of UP traffic...the replacement has been going very slowly. That actually allows for shots like this to still be possible! Not only is the original Rio Grande intermediate signal still being used here, but it still has its lunar indication! Rio Grande used this on uphill climbs, providing for a restricting signal that would allow trains climbing a grade to proceed by the intermediate without stopping. A BNSF Provo-Denver has just passed by, activating the restricting aspect. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112403 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 4, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Floy to Solitude (MP 540.9 to MP 546.2) Grand County, UT 238 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) BNSF Six units lead BNSF's Provo-Denver through the middle of the Utah desert on the Green River Subdivision. It is shots like this why the Utah desert has become my favorite place for rail photography. There is always a risk when shooting out there that no trains will run all day. That absolutely can happen. But even when you are lucky enough to catch one train, you can do some pretty fantastic things with it! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112402 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 4, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Floy to Solitude (MP 540.9 to MP 546.2) Grand County, UT 282 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) BNSF There are some truly magnificent views amongst the dirt mounds in the Utah desert between the sidings of Floy and Solitude. BNSF's Provo-Denver is making its way through S-Curves in the area, as those impressive dirt mounds build up from the ground The Book Cliffs and Green River are visible off in the distance. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112307 Date Shot Photo By Friday, May 2, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Brendel (5,100 ft) Grand County, UT 138 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific In the distance, you can see the new burial site for Uranium mill tailings that are being transported by Union Pacific with the Department of Energy from a previous site near Moab that threatened ground waters and the Colorado River itself. Roughly 14 million of an estimated 16 million tons of tailing have already been transported here. The project is expected to be complete by the end of the decade. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112306 Date Shot Photo By Friday, May 2, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Brendel (5,100 ft) Grand County, UT 203 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific Starting in 2009, the Department of Energy set forth on a project to clean up an estimated 16 million tons of Uranium Mill Tailings at the former Atlas Minerals Corporation site, close to the Colorado River near Moab. UP upgraded much of the rail on the Cane Creek Sub, even installing some welded rail, to support the project. Uranium mill tailings are loaded onto trains that are taken up the Cane Creek Sub to the Crescent Junction Disposal site, created for the project. Here, the tailings are buried in a safe location with no ground water implications. UP 5302 and UP 6967 are two of the units that currently have the duty of moving roughly 4,700 tons in each trainload. The train does not run Friday through Sunday. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112305 Date Shot Photo By Friday, May 2, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Thompson to Brendel (MP 528.8 to MP 533.3) Grand County, UT 110 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific The Potash Local rolls east with 35 empty covered hoppers just east of Brendel. It is at Brendel that the train will depart the mainline (and the Green River Sub), and enter the Cane Creek Sub. The train already has their warrant from the dispatcher, so they are ready to head south. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112304 Date Shot Photo By Friday, May 2, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Sagers (7,760 ft) Grand County, UT 103 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Green River (UP) Union Pacific UP's Potash Local is in the siding at Sagers, having just met the quickly-moving eastbound California Zephyr. The Potash Local only runs once a week, always on Fridays. Monday through Thursday, the same power is generally used on the Minturn Local, running east out of Grand Junction. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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