The head end of the westbound Zephyr is about to duck in to Tunnel 1 as it climbs its way up from the base of Coal Creek Canyon.
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A pair of SD70s (an SD70M and an SD70ACe) lead a D&SL crane west on the Moffat mainline on the climb up to Tunnel 1. It would be interesting to know of all the things this crane has seen over the course of its life!
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The tail end of a rail train makes its way up toward Tunnel 1. I liked the fact that a single (empty) Rio Grande hopper brought up the end of the rail train as it works its way over the Moffat.
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I am making it a point to try to get a lot of shot of the tracks ascending from Coal Creek to Tunnel One because, in a relatively short period of time, it is very likely the mountain side behind the train will be covered in single family homes! Here, a single DPU brings up the tail end of a westbound coal empty, disappearing in to Tunnel One.
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Okay, going for a bit of a perspective change here! Shooting underneath the train in the foreground, the lead units of a westbound coal empty approach Tunnel One as seen from near the Blue Mountain grade crossing.
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Passengers onboard the westbound Zephyr are about to dive in to their first of many tunnels on the journey west of Denver. The east portal of Tunnel One is just ahead of the lead P42DC. From looking in the windows of the Lounge car as the Zephyr rolled by, it looked like there was a pretty good crowd aboard for this New Year's Day adventure.
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A very colorful consist emerges from the east portal of Tunnel One. Only two of the six units on the head end of this eastbound are BNSF, but the train itself is indeed BNSF. The first three units were on a Denver-Provo which I shot a few days ago on Thursday.
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An eastbound coal load rolls out of the east portal of Tunnel One. The train will cut out its mid-train swing helper in Denver and a new crew is called for 10:20am to take the train east on to the Plains.
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A little bit of sun peeks out from behind the clouds as the Zephyr approaches the east portal of Tunnel One.
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The nose of an ES44AC is about to disappear in to the east end of Tunnel 1 as it pushes on a westbound manifest. The perspective of the shot makes it appear that the tracks are closer to the left tunnel wall, but they are in fact centered through the tunnel.
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An SD70M and an ES44AC bring up the tail end of a manifest that is headed for Phippsburg, CO on the Craig Branch. Visible in the shot is the east portal of Tunnel 1. The train will pass through this and another 26 tunnels before reaching the Moffat Tunnel, roughly 26 (rail) miles ahead.
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There was a train following UP's Engineering Special and I had no idea what it was going to be. I was certainly surprised when I saw it was EMD's SD70ACe-T4 test train! When the train was up at Tabernash in March, it stayed for four days. Apparently a day and a half was all they needed this time around.
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It is quite common for UP to send an Engineering Passenger Special over parts of the system in the late Spring. The special frequently runs over the Moffat and this year was no exception. The train was called out of Helper at 7am and made good time across the former Rio Grande. Here, it emerged from Tunnel 1 and descends toward Blue Mountain.
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In general, unit oil trains are only 3/5 to perhaps 2/3 the length of an average coal train. A point demonstrated in this shot as you would not be able to get both ends of a coal train in this frame. The head end of unit empty oil train is about to head into Tunnel 1 as the covered hopper buffer car on the rear rolls clear of the hot box detector at MP 22.6.
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One of the BNSF units on this train is offline and not loading. Not sure which one, but the train had to stop at Rocky after developing an issue with one of the three units. BNSF's yard in Denver sent the Norfolk Southern unit west (light) to pop on the front of the train and assist in the journey west to Provo, UT.
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