Photo ID: 108968 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 25, 2023 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 496 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak When you think January, you likely think winter, and January 2023 is certainly delivering on that image! While the Front Range of Colorado is no stranger to snow, it is fairly typical for a storm to hit, and 2-3 days later, the snow has all but melted. However, this winter, frequent storms every few days and colder-than-average temperatures have resulted in the snow sticking around. Passengers enjoy the frigid winter scene from the confines of the westbound Zephyr here at the Blue Mountain road crossing. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108967 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 25, 2023 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 692 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak What do you think of this colorful paint scheme? As you can see, The scheme honors 50 years of the program Operation Lifesaver. The program started in 1972 and continues to operate to promote safety around railroad tracks to this day. This unit was unveiled by Amtrak in January 2022. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108966 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 25, 2023 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 655 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Kicking up a little snow along the main, the westbound Zephyr approaches the grade crossing at Blue Mountain Road. It has been a rather brutal winter for much of the United States, and once again, snow is falling here in the Denver-Metro area. AMTK 203 is painted in a special "Operation Lifesaver" scheme, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the program. Amtrak unveiled the paint scheme about a year ago, in January 2022. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108948 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, January 24, 2023 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 487 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak It is a somewhat gloomy scene just east of Tunnel 1 as a crazy late (17 hours) eastbound Zephyr crosses the Blue Mountain grade crossing. The train should have crossed this crossing around 5:30pm the previous night, but snow storms on Donner Pass have been wreaking havoc on rail traffic. This train departed Emeryville, CA seven hours late two days earlier, and lost an additional ten hours on the journey toward Denver. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108947 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, January 24, 2023 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 429 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Shades of the past mix with the present as AMTK 161, sporting a version of the original Phase I "Bloody Nose" scheme (complete with the Pointless Arrow), approaches the grade crossing at Blue Mountain. Incredible that Amtrak has been roaming the rails in the United States for over half a century! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108946 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, January 24, 2023 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 424 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak As a very late eastbound Zephyr approaches the grade crossing at Blue Mountain, we can take note of the progress on the Canyon Pines neighborhood slowly being built in to the side of the mountain above the tracks in the distance. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108862 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, August 25, 2022 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 615 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Four ALC-42s lead a 2 hour late Zephyr at the grade crossing at Blue Mountain. Alas, the light had faded enough that it wasn't quite possible to get a shot without some motion blur visible. The Zephyr has been running on yellow signals since Crescent, following a slow-moving loaded UP oil train. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108861 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, August 25, 2022 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 479 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific As the light rapidly fades, a pair of SD70ACes show some motion blur on the point of an eastbound oil train. The train will go in to the siding at Rocky and tie down. In the distance, notice the earth movement that is the result of the new Canyon Pines neighborhood currently under construction. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108846 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, November 11, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 752 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF BNSF 7467 passes by a huge herd of Elk which is casually hanging out a few hundred feet from the tracks, just west of the west switch of Eisele (Clay). Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108810 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, September 26, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 738 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A UP coal load, composed of older hoppers representing a variety of old railroads, passes by the hotbox detector at MP 22.6 at Blue Mountain. The train can be seen to the right, snaking its way around the bottom of Coal Creek Canyon. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108713 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, June 13, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 927 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak With daylight rapidly fading, the ISO on the old drone has be bumped up quite a bit for this shot of the eastbound Zephyr coming through the crossing at Blue Mountain Road. You can definitely pick up a bit of "noise" in the shot. As you can see though, there was a large gathering of railfans present to get a glimpse as Amtrak's Phase VI ALC-42...the future of power on Amtrak long distance trains. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108712 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, June 13, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 922 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Welcome to the future! Amtrak's GE P42DCs (the "Genesis" units) are really showing their age, being delivered in the late 1990s. AMTK 300 is the first ALC-42, a Tier-4 compliant Siemens "Charger". Amtrak has 75 of these on order to the tune of $850 million. The units are expected to run AMTK 300-374. AMTK 300 is wearing the "Phase VI" paint scheme. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108711 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, June 13, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 1089 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The eastbound Zephyr lost nearly two hours between Elko, NV and Salt Lake City, UT. The delay was then made worse by level 2 heat restrictions on various parts of the Moffat. The light is fading very fast as it makes its way toward the crossing at Blue Mountain Road. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108681 Date Shot Photo By Friday, June 4, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 776 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Under a high June sun, a westbound UP coal empty works its way through the S-Curves at Blue Mountain Road. Rumor has it that the mines at West Elk and Energy have picked up some new coal contracts. Hopefully, that'll mean a few more UP coal trains showing up! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108680 Date Shot Photo By Friday, June 4, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 794 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific One of the older GEs on the roster these days, an AC4400CW, and one of the newer GEs on the roster, an ET44AC, are two of the leaders on this westbound coal empty at Blue Mountain Road. 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