Photo ID: 113380 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, November 26, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 9 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak On the busiest travel day of the year, the day before Thanksgiving, the westbound Zephyr heads west through Barbara's Gulch. Interestingly, the Zephyr is running without a lounge car this morning, instead running with a pair of dining cars. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113314 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, November 13, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 41 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Here in Barbara's Gulch east of Rocky, a UP tie extractor has shifted and, instead of pulling ties out on the south side of the tracks, it is now pulling them out on the north side of the tracks. Maintenance workers are walking the rails and make sure old tie plates have been moved out of the way ahead of a crane that is piling up old ties. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113313 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, November 13, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 39 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A Union Pacific tie extractor is pulling designed old ties out from underneath the rails, leaving them along the right of way. A hundred feet or so behind the extractor, a crane is working to clean up the old ties. It is picking them up three or so at a time and putting them in piles along the right-of-way to be picked up by a work train in the future. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113312 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, November 13, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 37 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific An overhead view of the tie extractor as it works to pull out old ties, marked with green paint, from beneath the rails. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113311 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, November 13, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 39 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific This piece of maintenance equipment is picking up old ties that have been removed by the tie extractor, running ahead of this machine. Work trains dropped off new ties along the right-of-way a few weeks ago. However, if a few extra ties are replaced, this crane has some new ties in tow that it can lay on the ground if they are needed. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113310 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, November 13, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 31 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific UP is in the midst of a major maintenance project on the Moffat. This particular piece of equipment is called a Tie Extractor/Inserter (TE/IE). A clamp on the side of the machine grabs onto a tie on the outside of the rail and pulls the tie out from under the rails. As you can see, not every tie along the rails is being replaced. The new ties are laying at (roughly) 45° angles to the rails. The old ties are perpendicular and will be picked up by the next piece of equipment. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113268 Date Shot Photo By Monday, October 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 62 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The morning Zephyr is running about 20 minutes late today, after a bit of a delay getting out of Union Station. The train is approaching the narrowest part of Barbara's Gulch on the journey west. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113186 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, September 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 115 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific You can see three mid-train swing helpers off in the distance, and a single one at the tail end of this MNYGJ. This thrice weekly manifest is typically called in the evening, around 6pm. And, as a result, it typically departs North Yard westbound well after dark. However, it was called at 2pm today (for whatever reason), and made it west just before the light was gone. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113185 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, September 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 116 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific The sun has just dipped behind the Rocky Mountains to the west as a single DPU on the tail end of this manifest, headed for Grand Junction, rolls west through Barbara's Gulch. Due to the length of the train (117 cars), there is also a trio of mid-train swing helpers. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113184 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, September 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 120 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific It is just moments before the sun dips behind the Rocky Mountains to the west, although direct sunlight is not apparent here as there are clouds in the western sky. This MNYGJ has 117 cars and is roughly 7,000 feet in length as it roles west through Barbara's Gulch. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113183 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, September 27, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 117 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific The second of two UP manifests heads west through Barbara's Gulch. This is the first time in I don't know how many years that UP ran two manifests on the same day. Even more impressive is that both ran in daylight. This MNYGJ is headed for Grand Junction. It has 117 cars! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113091 Date Shot Photo By Monday, September 15, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 269 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak AMTK 169 leads the westbound Zephyr this morning, the train coming around the curve at the narrow, west end of Barbara's Gulch. The train is passing underneath CO-93, on the approach to the east end of Rocky. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113045 Date Shot Photo By Friday, September 12, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 284 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The westbound Zephyr is making track speed here in Barbara's Gulch as it hustles west, right on time this morning. The dust you see is actually from a lot of fresh ballast that was recently laid along the mainline here. Wind from the fast-moving Zephyr is blowing the dust up around the train. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112964 Date Shot Photo By Friday, August 29, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 514 (1 Comment Posted) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF At the east end of the narrowest part of Barbara's Gulch, BNSF's Provo-Denver is headed east toward Denver. The train just departed Rocky and is passing underneath CO-93. In the distance, you can clearly see the wind break on Big Ten Curve. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 112915 Date Shot Photo By Monday, August 11, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 446 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A power car and nine of UP's passenger cars heads west through Barbara's Gulch. The train is missing several of UP's passenger cars. Not sure why this train is headed west. It is supposedly a deadhead move, and it is headed to Grand Junction this afternoon. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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