It is nothing but wall-to-wall snow in Byers Canyon on this chilly January afternoon. A storm the night before left a couple of new inches, and temperatures well below freezing prevented much of the white stuff from melting. A westbound UP coal empty winds its way through the frigid canyon, headed for Energy Mine on the Craig Branch.
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A couple of miles west of Granby finds an Energy Mine-bound coal empty on the move with seven units. After loading at the mine, the train will likely be setup in a 2x3x2 or 2x4x1 configuration for the trip back east.
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The tracks and US-40 each share one side of Byers Canyon just west of Hot Sulphur Springs. Trains are limited to 20 MPH (Amtrak can go 25 MPH) through the canyon, making it a great place to get a few pictures and get ahead of trains. On a frozen January afternoon, the eastbound Zephyr makes its way along the Colorado River.
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Running about 10 minutes late, the California Zephyr knocks down a clear signal at the east end of Troublesome as it hustles east. Amtrak along this stretch of the former Rio Grande is allowed to max out at 70 MPH!
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A look at the two private cars on the tail end of the California Zephyr, both owned by Patrick Henry Creative Promotions. The cars are based out of Houston, but were being used on this day to take some passengers from Chicago to San Francisco. In this shot, the train has just emerged from Tunnel 39 and is now in Little Gore Canyon.
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God's Country. Rain or shine, summer or winter, it is hard to beat the scenery of the Colorado Rockies! The Zephyr, about to enter Tunnel 39, is dwarfed by the vast valley around Azure in which the Colorado River can be found.
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The westbound Zephyr wraps around the long curve east of Tunnel 39. After the train run through the roughly 300-foot-long tunnel, it will be in Little Gore Canyon.
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Perhaps you have seen buses in your town that have ads plastered on the side of them? Well, Amtrak has a Superliner with a similar ad for Cable Cars in San Francisco. Apparently, the car spent much of last year running on the Coast Starlight and has now moved to the California Zephyr.
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The westbound California Zephyr has just exited from the west end of Byers Canyon. The engineer is now throttling up as track speed has increased from 20 MPH to 70 MPH! Despite Amtrak receiving a huge number of new baggage cars at the end of 2014, the new cars still haven't made an appearance on the Zephyr.
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The headwaters of the Colorado River in Byers Canyon are quite high as the westbound Zephyr glides by on the opposite side of the canyon from the photographer. Even with the cover of the clouds, Byers Canyon look amazing.
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In a lot of ways, this turned out to be one of my favorite shots of this particular day. The Zephyr certainly isn't an overpowering component in the shot, but that's okay. Just a nice, lazy day in the Colorado high country along the Colorado River!
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The towering 14ers of the Rockies are many miles to the east now, but that doesn't mean the mountains are gone. In fact, the westbound Zephyr is still close to 7,000 feet above sea level!
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The Zephyr makes its way through one of the numerous (too many to count) S-Curves along the Colorado River. The tracks actually follow the river for over 230 miles, from Granby, CO to Westwater, UT.
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After winding through Gore Canyon, the Zephyr approaches a clear signal at the east end of the siding of Azure. This is looking down on the train from the location know as "Inspiration Point" along Grand County Road 1.
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