Photo ID: 106946 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 5, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1216 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak This year's Winter Park Express has three Superliners with a bright pink wrap on them! Hopefully the wrap will stand out to motorists that might just see it and decide a trip up to Winter Park by train sounds like a good idea! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106945 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 5, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1382 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Under partly cloudy skies, the first run of the 2018 Winter Park Express (Amtrak's own take on the Ski Train) heads west on the main at Plain. Unfortunately, Amtrak was unable to get the F40PH "cab" unit that they had last year, meaning the power here will have to run around the train at Fraser each day before returning back east. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106811 Date Shot Photo By Friday, December 8, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1279 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Got power? Twelve units glide east down the main at Plain...but why east? Light power like will head west, destined for the Glenwood Springs yard to be used as mid-train swing helpers on coal trains. So why are these units headed east? The answer is because eight of the units are being moved from "dead lines" in Grand Junction to "dead lines" in North Platte, NE. UP has hundreds of units in long term storage in Grand Junction. These eight are being moved...possibly to be sold off at auction. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106724 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, November 28, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1203 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) CSX, Union Pacific A pair of CSX GE's (in the newest version of the "Dark Future" paint scheme) lead this eastbound coal train down the siding at Plain. The train will slow to a stop at the east switch as the empty on the main is too long (by a car and a half) to clear the east switch. This was good news for me, as it gave me time to set up for additional shots at Blue Mountain! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106723 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, November 28, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1388 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) CSX, Union Pacific For the third time in three months, a coal train runs on the Moffat with CSX power. Seems that there is a contract for a customer east of the Mississippi that uses CSX and UP. But rather than power swapping, the train just runs the distance with CSX power! The train has been appearing every four weeks (or so) since September. It's a little hard to tell, but the ditch lights on CSX 3202 are flashing...an option that CSX has chosen for its ditch lights, but UP and BNSF have not. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106722 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, November 28, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1154 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A westbound empty pulls on the main at Plain toward Rainbow Cut. This is something an iconic and timeless view for me. I remember coming to this spot at Plain many, many times with my dad as a kid and watching Rio Grande trains, both coming and going, from this vantage point. Note the pile of old ties that were replaced as part of the maintenance blitz back in October. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106721 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, November 28, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1110 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific There has been a slight uptick in coal trains on the Moffat lately. In fact, this Energy-bound coal empty will be meeting a coal train that loaded at West Elk Mine on the North Fork Branch. This particularly empty is quite long, which is why the dispatcher has him on the main. Even still, it will not be able to clear the east switch at Plain until the load is in the siding at in the clear so the empty can start pulling west. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106720 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, November 28, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1113 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific This westbound coal empty has been sitting here on the main, just east of the grade crossing, for about 45 minutes. The Zephyr was ahead of it and met an eastbound at Rollins. Cliff was plugged with maintenance of way, so there was nowhere else for the empty to go. Now, the eastbound is out of Crescent and DS-80 and told the crew they can pull into the clear. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106628 Date Shot Photo By Friday, September 29, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1253 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The westbound Zephyr is on the siding at Plain meeting an eastbound coal load. It is also passing some maintenance equipment tied down on the house track. An old switch frog sits alongside the house track. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106627 Date Shot Photo By Friday, September 29, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1235 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific This AC4400CW has no doubt traversed the Moffat many, many times...but for many of those, it wore a gray and scarlet paint scheme. This is a former Espee unit, which has now received a full repaint. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106626 Date Shot Photo By Friday, September 29, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1292 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific An eastbound coal load slows as it approaches a red signal at the east end of Plain. The train will be meeting the westbound Zephyr, which will run through the siding. Both of these units on the head end are ex-Espee AC4400CWs! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106601 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, September 24, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1232 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific This eastbound unit covered hopper train is stopped at the grade crossing at Plain. The conductor has the walk the train, and it is going to be quite a task as the train is 123 cars long! In the last 36 hours, a cold front has moved into the Denver area, giving everyone the first real taste of fall. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106600 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, September 24, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1109 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific The first eastbound to run over the Moffat in eight days! The Moffat had been entirely closed for extensive maintenance and just opened overnight to allow trains to start rolling again. A former Espee AC4400CW (SP 202) leads the train for the journey east. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106549 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, September 14, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1268 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF An eastbound BNSF officer's special (train symbol OSTODEN2-11) glides down the main at Plain in semi-cloudy morning light. This would be the only train to sneak through this morning as UP has dedicated work windows for maintenance crews between sunrise and around 12:30pm. During these work windows, the westbound Zephyr is holding at Union Station in Denver until 12:30pm. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106481 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, February 22, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Plain (6,530 ft) Arvada, CO 1240 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Ever wonder how rail is transported from the mill to its destination? This is it! A train allows rail to be stacked 10 wide and 5 high, for a total of 50 strips of rail. With each strip roughly 1/4 mile long, that means the train has 12 1/2 miles of rail. Of course, there are two rails to make up the tracks, so that is 6 1/4 miles of track on this train. That is enough to replace all the rail in the Moffat Tunnel. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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