A trio of SD70ACes leads this eastbound Provo-Denver as it approaches the west end of Leyden. While much of the mid-west is buried under multiple inches of snow, the Denver area has seen hardly any snowfall so far this winter season.
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The westbound Zephyr came to town with an extra coach this morning. The extra coach was dropped off in Denver because one of the coaches on the Winter Park Express has defective bathrooms. The coaches will be swapped out tonight, and the defective coach will likely head to Chicago tomorrow evening. Here, the Zephyr is just west of Leyden.
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The Winter Park Express is hustling along at track speed west of Leyden as some snow is falling. This is the first day of expanded service. Two coaches were added to the Winter Park Express this week. This is the longest the train has been under Amtrak in the last few years.
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Even though the sun has technically risen, it stills looks to be blue hour out as the Winter Park Express heads west at MP 14. There is a small winter storm blowing through this morning. Snow is lightly falling, but the wind is blowing hard. It is 30°F (-1°C) out, but with the wind, it feels like it is about 10°F (-12°C).
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Just west of Leyden, the Winter Park Express Ski Train is making its way west. Two additional coaches have been added to the train since last weekend. Amtrak worked with Winter Park and the State of Colorado to expand service. The train will have seven cars (six coaches plus the lounge car) for the rest of the season, and it will run Thursdays through Mondays!
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Mechanical issues before departing Chicago, and then severe weather in the mid-west has resulted in a more than five hour delay for the westbound Zephyr when it departed Denver today. Just west of Leyden, the train is making track speed, attempting to make up time.
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Mostly overcast skies are reducing light, resulting in a slight blur of the lead units on the morning Winter Park Express Ski Train here. At some point in the next few weeks, two more coaches are slated to show up to extend the length of the train. For now, five Superliners (four coaches and a lounge car) house the skiers.
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There is a temperature inversion east of Denver, creating a low layer of clouds over the ground. As the sun is rising, it is creating a bright blast of light to the east as the westbound Winter Park Express heads west out of Leyden.
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The first P40DC that I've seen on the Zephyr in awhile, AMTK 824, showed up on the westbound Zephyr this morning. Now, in reality, AMTK 824 is now a P42DC after having been rebuilt. But it still retains its P40DC number on the roster. The two units are leading the train at track speed as it hustles west. The body of water in the distance is Standley Lake, a source of drinking water for the Denver suburb of Westminster.
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Just west of the west switch of Leyden, the Zephyr is headed west at track speed. Note the cars in the siding at Leyden in the background. This is not actually a train (per se), which is to say it does not have power. These open gondolas have been sitting, tied down in long term storage for a little over two months now, removing Leyden as a siding the dispatcher can use for meets.
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In 1997, a railroad named Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM) was created as a joint venture between Kansas City Southern and the Mexican company Grupo TMM. The railroad was born out of the failing (and Mexican government-owned) railroad Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México. In 2005, Kansas City Southern bought Grupo TMM's 46.6% stake in TFM, and the railroad was renamed Kansas City Southern de Mexico. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Kansas City Southern. The paint scheme of KCS de Mexico is virtually identical to KCS.
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Three units bring up the tail end of an eastbound loaded oil train. The final unit is a Kansas City Southern de Mexico Retro Belle. This unit, along with all of its brothers and sister, will eventually be repainted in the (predominantly red) paint scheme of the recently-formed CPKC. Born out of a merger between Canadian Pacific and KCS.
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UP 7634 and three additional units lead a westbound oil train in the east end of Barbara's Gulch. The tower in the background is a bit of an icon among railfans in the Arvada area. It has been here for about 50 years, originally built as part of a coal mine.
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The days are short in the winter months, but the quality of light is absolutely fantastic! Four units lead this westbound oil empty on the main between Leyden and Rocky.
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85-90% of BNSF manifests on the Moffat (not including oil trains) run with a 3x2 power configuration. This morning is no exception as a pair of ES44ACs bring up the tail end of the Provo-Denver. Interestingly, BNSF 6149 led the Provo-Denver three days earlier. So, it clearly had a quick turnaround and was sent west on the Denver-Provo and, now, is once again coming east!
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