Photo ID: 110283 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 3, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Gilpin County, CO 128 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A few inches of fresh snow fell overnight in the Colorado high country. It is still overcast and snowing ever so slightly this morning as UP's MGJNY, with 60 cars, heads west on the main at Rollins. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 109474 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, September 17, 2023 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 194 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak As we draw closer to fall and winter, the days continue to grow shorter and we get closer to the eastbound Zephyr making its run down the east slope of the Moffat in darkness. However, the days are still long enough here in mid-September that, even as the sun gets low in the western sky, there is still plenty of light as the Zephyr rolls east on the main near the east end of Rollins. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 109473 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, September 17, 2023 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 183 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The afternoon sun glints off the side of the Zephyr as it rolls east at track speed on the main at Rollins. The eastbound Zephyr has a tendency to run pretty late, but on this particularly afternoon, it is only 30 minutes late. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108860 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, August 25, 2022 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 459 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The eastbound Zephyr has quite a colorful (and new) consist! There is no P42DC to be found. Instead, a quartet of Siemen-built ALC-42s lead the train east. These new units will slowly replace the aging P42DC fleet, at least on long distance trains. The lead unit, AMTK 301, sports a 50th Anniversary celebration scheme. The remaining three units wear the Phase VII scheme, the newest scheme introduced by Amtrak and the official scheme, for the time being, moving forward. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108700 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 561 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific An ES44AC leads this coal train (on the right) and second up (on the left) is an ET44AH. I always think it is interesting to have a great compare and contrast shot between two models. In this case, of course, it is a straight-down comparison. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108699 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 574 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific This shot gives a top-down comparison between a Tier-3 ES44AC (on the right) and a Tier-4 ET44AH (on the left). The slope of the radiator housing on the ET44AH (from the outside to the middle) is noticeably greater than the ES44AC. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108698 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 568 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific This is the latest engine that is offered by General Electric. It is the ET44AH and it was first put in to production about six years ago. It is compliant with Tier-4 emissions standards. The Tier-4 units are more complex and, in general, have required more maintenance than Tier-3 (and older) units. Consequently, Tier-4 units from both GE and EMD have not been particularly big sellers. UP has 170 of these ET44AHs on the roster. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108697 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 555 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific The siding of Rollins is the longest siding on the east slope of the Moffat at right around 8,300 feet. Ironically, for a long time, it was the shortest siding at only 4,300 feet. In the early 1980s, Rio Grande extended the siding a few hundred feet to the west and a few thousand feet to the east. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108696 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 664 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Several years ago, UP installed a permanent derail on the siding at Rollins as it was not uncommon for train to be tied down here to wait for a recrew. As it happens, that is what is going on here with this coal train. The conductor is in the process of applying hand brakes on the train and, once done, he will come back here to the derail and align it for the derail position. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108695 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 564 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Sitting in the siding at Rollins alongside South Boulder Creek, UP 7485 is facing a red signal at the east end of Rollins. The crew has been instructed by the dispatcher to tie the train down, so the conductor is out of view around the corner applying hand brakes to the train. A van is on the way up from Denver to pick up the crew. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108694 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 557 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Folks working in the white building will have to put up with the sounds of idling engines for the next 18 hours or so! This coal train has been told that they cannot continue east on the Moffat due to maintenance. The train is currently being tied down and will not be moving until tomorrow morning. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108693 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Gilpin County, CO 561 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A look right in to the face of UP 8976, an SD70AH. The SD70AH is nearly identical to an SD70ACe. The only difference is that the "AH" model has an additional 8,000 pounds of weight, allowing it to have slightly better traction. Useful on heavy trains, such as coal trains! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108692 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 570 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific An eastbound coal load sits in the siding at Rollins, across a field from South Boulder Creek. The train is in the process of being tied down, as maintenance will not allow any trains to run on the east slope of the Moffat right now due to heat affecting the rails. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108316 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, July 7, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 692 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific This eastbound coal train has now been at Rollins for close to 14 hours. That was due to a defective gondola, which has been set out in the house track to the left. The dispatcher let the eastbound Zephyr and BNSF's Provo-Denver around the coal load through the siding before also getting the coal load a clear signal to finally proceed east. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108311 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, July 7, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 693 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Notice anything unusual about this shot? Such as the fact that you can see right through the gondola to the rail head and ties below!? The bottom of the gondola ripped apart and away from the car somehow, dumping a significant portion of the cars coal in the process. Much of the coal still remains, teetering in the car. The car is in the house track at Rollins where it will wait until UP figures out what to do with it. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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