Running about three hours behind schedule, the westbound Zephyr makes its way around the curve toward Blue Mountain Road. The good news is that there are no eastbounds for the Zephyr to contend with, and the train already has clear signals all the way to Winter Park.
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Unfortunately for passengers, they will run out of sunlight in another 90 minutes and make most of the run to Glenwood Springs (and points west) in the dark. However, while unfortunate for the passengers, the evening lighting is really fantastic for pictures that would not normally be lit in such a manner!
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Every once in awhile, something happens that causes the Zephyr to be really late. This is one such example as the Zephyr is 10 hours late and rolling through awesome evening light at Blue Mountain. A BNSF manifest derailed in Illinois and, as a result, the Zephyr had to pull all the way back to Chicago and get re-routed on a different subdivision around the derailment.
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It is two minutes past 7 o'clock in the evening as the westbound Zephyr rounds the curve out of Eisele and approaches the grade crossing at Blue Mountain. Some fantastic lighting for the late CZ.
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Plenty of green with some yellow flower mixed in creates a beautiful scene as the eastbound Zephyr rolls toward the Blue Mountain Road grade crossing. The train has green signals the rest of the way in to Denver.
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The eastbound Zephyr, running right on time, makes its way through the S-Curves at the base of Coal Creek Canyon on the approach to the grade crossing at Blue Mountain Road.
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Up had four crew members riding along on the back of this flat car to monitor the move of this classic crane west on the Moffat. Among the crew members is Ed Dickens, who is in charge of the steam and heritage fleet for UP.
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This old D&SL crane rolls west on the main at Blue Mountain Road after spending a few decades in storage at Burnham. Note the "big hook", which is tied down with a yellow strap to the flat car, keeping it in place.
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There was quite a photo line setup for this rare westbound move at Blue Mountain Road! There must have been no less than 15 photographers set up with cameras along the road. The train is headed for Granby to drop off the crane.
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It is cool how the continuous welded rail on rail trains spans across each of the flat cars in the consist. Here, you can see the rail running directly across these two rail cars, coupled together.
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Rail winds its way through S-Curves at Blue Mountain Road. A rail train can carry 40 rails, each rail being 1/4 of a mile in length. That means this train is ten miles in length.
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A UP SD70M and a BNSF ES44DC lead a westbound rail train through the curves at Blue Mountain on its journey west. It is ultimately headed for California.
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In the past few years, UP has made a concentrated effort to patch the remaining non-UP units on its roster, as well as repaint units in predecesor paint schemes. UP 6408 was original SP 362, delivered in October 1995. It recently received a full repaint in the "flag and wings" scheme.
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On a beautiful March morning, a coal load winds through the curves at Coal Creek and Blue Mountain on its way east. Of the seven units on the train, the lead unit (ironically) is by far the one that looks the worst for wear! That's okay though...gives the train a little personality. More than likely, this is the original paint scheme from when this guy was first delivered to UP in November 1995.
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One of my favorite places to shoot would have to be the S-Curves at the base of Coal Creek Canyon. Love in shots like this how you can see the DPU, the train just ahead of the DPU, and the train way, ahead of the DPU on the other side of CO-72. The distance between the tank cars in the foreground and the background is about 1,500 feet.
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