A look down the platform along the Grand Luxe Rail Express on Track Two at Union Station while post-game fireworks are set off at Coors Field in the distance.
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Even though the Rockies lost to the Diamondbacks (4-2), ending an 11 game winning streak, fans still get to enjoy fireworks after the game. It just so happens that the Grand Luxe Rail Express is at Union Station underneath a quickly rising full moon.
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I didn't alter this shot at all using PhotoShop. This is actually what came out of the camera (as the saying goes). It can be difficult to get shots like this as the neon can be a bit underexposed or the moon can be a bit overexposed. Hard to find a "happy medium".
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The last car of the Grand Luxe Rail Express (formerly the American Orient Express) sits in track two at Denver Union Station under a full moon. The train will sit at the depot tomorrow as new guests arrive before departing Sunday morning for a westward journey to San Francisco.
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Built over sixty years ago, UP 844 was the last steam engine delivered to Union Pacific and it is still going strong! Here, it "idles" at Union Station, awaiting departure time for a trip down the Joint Line.
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With thirty minutes remaining until departure, passengers and rail enthusiasts are both setting up on the platform to get into position for the departure of UP 844 down the Joint Line.
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On the morning of Saturday, August 25, 2007, UP 844 led a passenger special down the joint line. It was the first (public) passenger train on the Joint Line since 1997. This is how the day started out for me. Steam rising up in front of Union Station.
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A waxing gibbous moon rise over Union Station while UP 1989 sits on Track 3 behind UP 844. Tomorrow, the units along with the UP passenger cars behind them will make the 240-mile round-trip from Denver to Pueblo and back for the 2007 Colorado State Fair.
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Getting close to 9 o'clock at night and UP 844 rests quietly awaiting its busy day tomorrow. In the meantime, we enjoy something of a flash-back to yesteryear when steam-powered trains frequented Union Station on a daily basis.
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Sometimes you have to get "down and dirty". In the last few seconds (literally) of sunlight, I grabbed this rail-level shot of UP 844 and the Colorado State Fair special. Yes, that is the Rio Grande Heritage Unit (UP 1989) as the diesel helper.
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There are railfans in the world that could tell you what ever single lever, rod and hose in this shot are used for. I am not one of those railfans (I'm more of a diesel-era railfan), but I find the complexity of the machinery fascinating nonetheless!
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Just minutes before sunset, the low sun casts a nice shadow across the front of UP 844. The steam engine was built in the 1940's for Union Pacific and was in fact the last steam engine delivered to UP. A fitting tribute to an era many decades gone now.
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Who knows if this shot will ever be possible again! First of all, passenger trains seldom pull power-first into Union Station. Second, the Union Station redevelopment project is going to allegedly bury the station tracks, making it hard to get trains and Union Station in the same shot!
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UP 844 and train are in town for the first passenger special run on the Joint Line in 10 years! The summer of 1997 was the last run, with UP 844 in fact! In that year, the special turned west at Pueblo to head over Tennessee Pass. This run will turn around in Pueblo (for the Colorado State Fair) and return to Denver on the Joint Line.
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The Denver area has changed much since UP 844 first rolled onto UP rails back in 1944! 63 years later, UP 844 leads the Cheyenne Frontier Days train which will depart Denver two days later. The diesel "helper" unit is UP 5327, an ES44AC that is less than a year old!
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