Passenger on the westbound Zephyr prepare for about 12 minutes of darkness as the train gets ready to plunge in to the 6.2 mile long Moffat Tunnel. The train is passing underneath a small signal bridge that actually holds several cameras that UP can monitor from Omaha.
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Eastbounds, other than (perhaps) Amtrak, are kind of tough to shoot coming out of the Moffat Tunnel. With the fall of ATCS, there is no real way to know when one might emerge, so it tends to be luck of the draw. Today, luck was on my side as I was able to get a shot of BNSF's Provo-Lincoln manifest, all tank cars at the head end.
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A BNSF SD70ACe emerges back into the sunlight at the east end of the Moffat Tunnel. The east end of the tunnel also happens to be the west end of East Portal. This train went into emergency in the tunnel, about halfway through. Fortunately, the crew was able to take care of the problem, and it continued east.
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Three lights in a triangle arrange, reflecting off the rails, are the tell-tail sign of an approaching eastbound train coming up to the east end of the Moffat Tunnel. Of course, the question is what train is about to emerge.
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A westbound BNSF manifest is staring at a clear (green) signal on the main track leading into the Moffat Tunnel. In just a few moments, it'll be 15-20 minutes of darkness for the crew as they pass through the 6.2 mile long tunnel.
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Running about 1 hours and 45 minutes late, the eastbound Zephyr has just emerged from the Moffat Tunnel and the 6.2 miles of darkness underneath the Continental Divide. There is still quite a bit of snow on the ground even in late April. A lot of it being the result of a snow storm that came through the night before.
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The westbound Zephyr is approaching a clear (green) signal at the west end of East Portal. For many decades, trains could not get a signal more favorable that an approach (yellow) going in to the tunnel. However, when UP replaced the signals on the Moffat, a change was made and clear (green) signals are now available heading in to the 6.2 mile-long tunnel.
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An AC4400CW, still in Heritage 2 paint, brings up the tail end of a westbound loaded coal train as it dives into the 6.2 mile long Moffat Tunnel. 100 years ago, construction on the tunnel had started!
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At 7:22am, the sun has just started to light the valley in which the Moffat Tunnel is located. While this looks like it could possibly be an eastbound BNSF coal load, it is actually a westbound load with a trio of DPUs bringing up the rear. The train is diving in to the Moffat Tunnel, ultimately headed for Valmy, NV. The dawning sun also illuminates the fall colors, still showing bright on October 2.
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In the valley leading to the base of James Peak, the westbound Rocky Mountaineer approaches the east portal of the 6.2-mile long Moffat Tunnel. East Portal is a very popular spot for hikers, and there is a near-full parking lot in the scene. Hikers used to cross the tracks at the entrance to the tunnel, but UP had the trail head moved to go up and over the tunnel so hikers do not walk across the tracks.
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A view that, in one form another, with one type of train or another, has been repeated somewhere around a half a million times since the Moffat Tunnel opened 96 years ago. The structure built over the rails has cameras that allow UP dispatchers in Omaha to view the tunnel. It also has motion sensors that detect trespassers, warning them they are trespassing if they attempt to approach the tunnel portal.
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Almost exactly 100 years (give or take a few months) before this picture was taken, initial construction on the Moffat Tunnel started. A century later, and a BNSF SD70ACe brings up the tail end of the westbound Denver-Provo.
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The crew on BNSF 5781 is just moments away from experiencing 15-20 minutes of dark as the train enters the Moffat Tunnel. The train is approaching the highest active Class 1 mainline in the country. The apex of the tunnel is 9,239 feet above sea level.
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The Zephyr emerges from the east portal of the Moffat Tunnel and heads down the main track at East Portal, which is the name of the block (and siding). We are close to 9,200 feet above sea level here, the highest mainline on any Class 1 railroad, the highest elevation Amtrak reaches anywhere in the United States.
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After several days of testing these SD70ACe-T4s through the Moffat Tunnel, EMD has collected all the data needed and the consist will now head east back to Denver. The SD70ACe-T4 is supposed to go in to production a little later in 2016 and rumor has it that UP has already ordered several dozen copies.
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