The westbound Zephyr is right on time as it approaches the Blue Mountain Road grade crossing. A summer cold front moved in to the Denver area yesterday, producing a lot of overnight rain setting up a sky full of dramatic clouds in the morning.
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UP's MGJNY wraps through the S-Curve west of Eisele (Clay). The rear end of the train is crossing over the Blue Mountain grade crossing. The train includes four leased GMTX GP38-2s The lease has expired on them and the are being returned to the leaser. The last two units, a pair of GP15-1s, have been sold and are heading to Texas to be prepped for deliver to their new owner.
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The lighting isn't great, but I had to nab a shot of UP 1995 nonetheless as this heritage unit is the one that seems to allude me the most. It had in fact been nearly 11 years since I last saw the unit! It was the third unit on the MGJNY early this morning. The train was called at Grand Junction at 6pm the previous night. It probably would have come down the front range in darkness, but the train had to pick up three units in Bond.
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UP's MGJNY (Manifest, Grand Junction to North Yard) descends from Tunnel 1 and approaches the grade crossing at Blue Mountain Road. You may note the third unit in the consist is UP 1995, the Chicago North Western heritage unit. The unit was originally scheduled to lead the train, but a defective cab heater resulted in it being third in the consist.
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A C44-9W and an ES44C4 bring up the tail end of BNSF's Provo-Denver manifest just east of the grade crossing at Blue Mountain. As is rather common, a majority of the train is made up of tank cars.
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A trio of Heritage 2 C44-9Ws lead an eastbound BNSF Provo-Denver through the S-Curves at Coal Creek and Blue Mountain. It is a little unusual to see three Heritage 2 units together like this in 2020! Another two DPUs are bringing up the tail end, currently obstructed behind trees and a small cut in the distance.
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After meeting the Zephyr at Plain, the eastbound Provo-Denver got lights to continue east toward Denver. Here, a trio of C44-9Ws leads the train toward the grade crossing at Blue Mountain.
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Two ES44ACs and an AC4400CW bring up the tail end of this unit oil train. The covered hopper is what is known as a buffer car, to buffer the power from the tank cars filled with crude oil. Looks like UP 5361 saw some decent snow action recently.
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This is the second unit oil train in as many days, and the first stalled out on the hill between Tabernash and Winter Park. To avoid the same thing, Up ran this train 3x3 up the hill. Interestingly, the three DPUs are elephant style, facing the "wrong way" (in terms of what's ideal of photography).
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An ES44AH leads two AC4400CWs and a long, heavy, loaded oil train out of Tunnel One. The head end is about to pass the fire station near the grade crossing at Blue Mountain Road.
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Winding through the S-Curves at Coal Creek and Blue Mountain, this unit oil train is making its way to Denver. The train has 94 loaded tank cars, weighing in at over 12,000 tons! Three GEs bring up the front past the detector at MP 22.6.
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An ET44C4 and an ES44AC bring up the tail end of BNSF's Provo-Denver manifest. This angle, just east of the bridge over CO-72 at Coal Creek, really exemplifies the S-Curves through Blue Mountain.
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I must admit that the Kansas City Southern "Retro-Belle" paint scheme is one of my favorite paint schemes among railroads today. With the nearest KCS tracks being in Kansas City, it is not too often that one shows up in Denver. It is even less common when one leads a train west on the Moffat, such as on this day.
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If UP ever decided to sell the Moffat at some point in the future, imagine the interesting scenario in which Kansas City Southern is somehow the railroad to buy it! If that were to somehow happen, then sights like this one would actually be common place. That has not happened, of course, and in this shot we see a KCS SD70ACe being power shared on the point of a westbound UP coal empty.
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Fall is setting in to the Denver area in a big way in the second week of October. No snow on the ground in the metro area yet, but temperatures have dropped down in to the 30°F range. An eastbound BNSF manifest winds through foggy curves at Blue Mountain after meeting a westbound at Plain.
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