Quite a few local railfans received the news regarding this westbound UP passenger train. As expected, many of them (myself included) were gathered at Blue Mountain Drive for a couple of shots of the afternoon move.
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This UP passenger train is supposedly deadheading westbound to Grand Junction this afternoon. It came south on the Greeley Sub yesterday morning, and stayed overnight at North Yard last night. There is speculation that the train might have something to do with the UP/NS merger, announced on July 29th. But that is entirely speculation.
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UP 6045 is still slowly moving along, thanks to another (of many) slow orders that are encompassing the Moffat this summer. The train is winding through the S-Curves just east of the grade crossing at Blue Mountain Drive.
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Several local railfans, including myself, are gathered at the Blue Mountain Road Crossing, watching the brand new Amtrak Cascades AIRO trainset passing by on its way toward the Transportation Technology Center near Pueblo, CO.
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This spring has been quite a bit cooler in the Denver area than the average area, and it certainly has been a wetter spring than on average. In May, 3.9" of rain fell in Arvada, nearly double the average of 2.2" for the month. The result has been the greening up of the area. The valley here at Blue Mountain Drive looks fantastic and alive as the morning Zephyr heads west.
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Just a matter of minutes before rain started falling, an eastbound manifest crosses Blue Mountain Drive. The train is only about a half mile long, and does not have a rear DPU on this particular day.
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BNSF 6158 comes around the curve from Blue Mountain Drive to turn directly into the rapidly rising sun as it approaches the west end of Eisele (Clay). If you look closely, one of the tank cars to the left is passing by the silver control box for the hotbox detector at MP 22.6.
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The westbound Zephyr is running with an extra Superliner this morning. Specifically, there is a diner catching a ride on the end of the train. Most likely, the car was repaired at the Beech Grove, IN shops and is headed back to the west coast to be put into service.
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As AMTK 77, leading the westbound Zephyr, kicks up some snow with its plow at the grade crossing of Blue Mountain Drive, one of the engineers in the cab offers a friendly wave.
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The bitter cold that has enveloped the Denver area is starting to lift, but a strong wind has moved in. With gusts of 40 MPH, the westbound Zephyr, running about 45 minutes late, approaches the grade crossing at Blue Mountain Drive.
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Just before 2pm, BNSF's Provo-Denver is making its way through the multiple curves between Tunnel 1 and the west end of Eisele (Clay). Although there are six units on the head end, only three of them are actually online. The trailing three are all catching a ride on the train this afternoon.
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BNSF 9037 is blowing its horn as it approaches the grade crossing at Blue Mountain Drive, rolling along at track speed. In the distance, you can clearly see the back half of the train, still descending from Tunnel 1 on the other side of CO-72.
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AMTK 140 and AMTK 207 have the duty to lead the westbound Zephyr this morning. The train is approaching the Blue Mountain Drive grade crossing in a winter wonderland as fresh snow continues to fall.
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A pretty substantial snow storm has set in along the Front Range. A total of 5-6 inches (12-15 cm) is forecast to fall, with right around 3 inches (7 cm) having fallen so far. The westbound Zephyr is indifferent to the snow, however, as it approaches the Blue Mountain grade crossing, moving along at track speed.
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The morning Zephyr is just a little bit behind schedule as it crosses over Blue Mountain Drive. There is still a fair amount of snow on the ground here from multiple storms the week before that left nearly a foot of snow on the ground. Today, however, the temperature will climb to around 50°F (10°C), melting a bit more of the remaining snow.
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