A pair of tampers work to ensure that the ballast is properly set, the ties are positions, and the rails are aligned and stabilized so that trains can run over the rails after new ties have been inserted under the tracks.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
This machine is a continuous-action surfacing tamper. It lifts, lines, and tamps the track, as well as dynamically stabilizes the rails so that trains can safely run at track speed over the track. This is the final piece of equipment in the tie gang.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
Here, we see a Union Pacific track tamper. It moves from tie-to-tie...every tie, regardless if it is new or not...grabs the tie and shakes it to ensure the ballast falls properly under and around the ties. The long pole/extension in front of the tamper ensure that the rails are aligned and in gauge.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
This machine is a small tamper that is making sure that the new ties are positioned properly under the rails before they are spiked down.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
This tie plate inserter is setting out new tie plates on top of the new ties that have been installed just minutes earlier. Once the tie plates are in place, a spiker will come next and spike down the plates/ties.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
This Tie Extractor/Inserter (TE/IE) is currently working as an inserter. A crane has placed new ties along the right-of-way and the inserter is sliding the ties underneath the rails.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
A string of maintenance equipment works to replace the ties along the right-of-way west of Leyden. UP has laid new ballast and is now replacing thousands of ties on the Moffat over the course of the next few months.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
In this overhead shot of the mainline west of Leyden at MP 14.5, you can clearly see the tie gang and the work they are doing. All of the ties you see that are perpendicular to the rails are new ties that are waiting to be installed beneath the rails.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
This is what a major maintenance project on a Class 1 railroad looks like! A long line of machines, each with its own specific purpose, stretch west on the tracks west of Leyden. At the front of the line (closest to the camera) is a crane that is piling up old ties.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
A trio of DPUs bring up the end of this eastbound loaded oil train. The train is rolling away from the camera and toward the west switch of Leyden.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
Three units lead an eastbound BNSF oil train on the straightaway along CO-72 just west of Leyden. The train is, of course, headed downhill, but there is still a lot of heat coming off the top of the units (distorting the air above) thanks to the dynamic brakes workings to slow the train.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
BNSF's eastbound Provo-Denver manifest is headed directly into the sun just west of the west switch of Leyden. The right-of-way has piles of new ties that are waiting to be installed.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
The Rocky Mountaineer's Rockies to the Red Rocks is only making one trip west per week between Denver and Moab throughout the month of August. In the high heat of the summer, demand for the Mountaineer is decreased, so the train does not run Sunday through Tuesday. It only runs Wednesday through Friday. This morning, the Mountaineer has its GP40-3s and is making track speed.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
After meeting its counterpart, the MNYGJ, at Rocky, this eastbound UP manifest (the MGJNY) is headed for North Yard in Denver right at sunset. Clouds largely cover the western sky as a bit of sunset colors appear behind the train and the Rocky Mountains.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
UP 1540 has likely just completed a regular inspection and is being transported back to Grand Junction on the MNYGJ. The GP40-2, now rebuilt as a GP40N, was delivered as WP 3550, just over 45 years ago in April 1980.
Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster
or add a comment to the picture.
