Photo ID: 106221 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, September 28, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1550 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific, Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey With elephants no longer a part of the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circus, the circus train is now once again running over the Moffat (rather than through Wyoming) when moving between Denver and Salt Lake City. Such was the case on this morning as the circus is coming to Denver! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106065 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, June 8, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1363 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A single SD70ACe leads an eastbound coal load down the main at Plain. The train held the main at Crescent in order to meet a very late (six hours) California Zephyr. After clouds build, threatening the possibility of a thunderstorm. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106064 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, June 8, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1381 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific I was trapped on the uphill side of this coal train (meaning I could not drive away until it passed), so I decided to wander around the area and came up with a bit of an artsy shot between a pair of trees not far away from the tracks. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106063 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, June 8, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 2057 (2 Comments Posted) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific What's this? A coal train!? Funny how ten years ago, the Moffat was busting at the seams (no pun intended) with coal trains. Now, the Moffat regularly goes days between coal trains. In fact, there are only two mines left in Colorado (as of this photo) that are loading on trains*. The West Elk Mine on the North Fork Branch and the Energy Mine on the Craig Branch. This particularly train loaded at Energy. * Axial Mine on the Craig Branch does still loads trains, but they are "captive trains"...they run between the mine and the Hayden and Ute Power Plants in the Steamboat and Craig area. The trains never leaves the Craig Branch. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106062 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, June 8, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1574 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific An eastbound appears from behind the trees at Plain on the approach to the grade crossing. The two cars in the house track actually derailed on the MNYRO nearly two months ago. There is apparently no urgency to get them fixed and on their way! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106005 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, May 26, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1742 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The eastbound California Zephyr, running about 15 minutes early, rolls down the main track at Plain. Amtrak is the third of three non-freight trains to descend the Moffat this afternoon! UP's Engineering Special and EMD's Testing Special have both already passed by. Amtrak here is sporting a standard consist that includes two P42DCs, baggage car, three sleepers, dining car, sightseer lounge car, and three coaches. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105940 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, May 4, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1599 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF I was really hoping the sun would still be far enough to the east to offer up some light along the left side of the train. Turns on the train was headed directly into the sun at this point, so neither side would have been ideal. Ah well! Six units lead up BNSF's Provo to Lincoln manifest as it glides down the main at Plain. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105939 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, May 4, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1672 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF An eastbound BNSF manifest comes through Rainbow Cut and approaches the grade crossing at Plain. Also at Plain are a pair of cars involved in a derailment a week earlier. They have been sitting on the siding (making it unusable for meets) ever since. Later in the afternoon, the West Local would come up to Plain and move the cars from the siding over to the House Track, finally freeing the siding up for DS-82. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105930 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, April 30, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1553 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A pair of cars that were involved in a derailment a few days earlier sit on the siding (not the house track) at Plain on the last day of April. A descent winter storm blew through the area five weeks after winter ended. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105929 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, April 30, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1579 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A few days prior to this picture, the MNYRO derailed a few cars between Plain and Crescent. It was a minor derailment (no cars fell over), but the two cars involved were set out at Plain. For reasons unknown to me, the cars were not spotted on the house track. Instead, they were put on the siding just west of the grade crossing and a portable derail was put on the rail. The cars would remain there for a week, preventing Plain from being used for meets. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105831 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, February 17, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1702 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific The West Local throttles up a bit to accelerate to track speed as it crosses the grade crossing at Plain. It is exceptionally rare for the West Local to go west of Rocky. On this day, the local is headed to East Portal at the Moffat Tunnel. The tank car is filled with gas for the backup generators used for the ventilation fans in the case of a power failure. Prior to this, it had probably been at least a year since the local was this far west. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105697 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 6, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1531 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF It is well past sunset as this westbound BNSF manifest rolls west down the siding at Plain. The crew on this train is based out of Grand Junction. This is a recent change on BNSF as they eliminated the crew change point in Kremmling. Grand Junction crews now take eastbounds as close to Denver as possible. If they don't make it, a van comes and picks them up and a Denver crew takes the train the rest of the way in. Then, the Grand Junction crew (after staying the night in Denver) takes a westbound back to Grand Junction. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105693 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, December 31, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1797 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) American Railway Explorer, Amtrak Starting from when I was downtown early on this morning and learned that the California and Kansas would be departing on the back end of the Zephyr, I had this exact shot in mind! The California and the Kansas rolling through Plain in the snow on the back of Amtrak. This could almost be a shot from 1985 when Rio Grande used to, on occasion, run its business cars on Amtrak between Denver and Salt Lake! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105692 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, December 31, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1466 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak As an eastbound manifest rolls slowly down the main at Plain, the westbound California Zephyr glides west on the siding toward the grade crossing. You may notice that the baggage car looks quite new and shiny. Amtrak recently put in a huge order for baggage cars and are replacing all of them. It took some time, but they are finally showing up on the Zephyr! It is interesting to note that the baggage car is wearing the Phase III paint scheme... Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105690 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, December 31, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 2034 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific An eastbound manifest rolls down the main at Plain on an approach (yellow) signal. The manifest is meeting the westbound California Zephyr and DS-82 set the meet up perfectly! Neither train would end up having to stop, creating a "rolling meet". Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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