The head end of this Somerset-bound coal empty is coming up on the west end of Little Ten Curve while empty hoppers enter the curve on the east side.
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A westbound coal empty with eight units on the point (only three of which were online) heads down the mainline at Rocky toward Little Ten Curve. The Rocky Spur ("Rocky Industrial Lead") can be see through the distortion of the exhaust above the lead unit. Two gons and a green work caboose sit on the house track.
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The eastbound California Zephyr works its way down in elevation toward Little Ten Curve on the approach to Rocky. The east end of the siding of Clay can be seen in the foreground, now more than a mile behind the Zephyr (by rail).
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Have you ever seen the California Zephyr running in what appears to be a distributed power formation with one P42 on the point and a second on the end? Turns out, in this case, the Zephyr is being taken back to Denver. A major rock slide required it be pulled back to town. The P42 on the left side of the shot is providing HEP and the P42 on the right is pulling the train eastbound around Big Ten Curve.
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A long lens look at both the head end and the tail end of this westbound BNSF manifest. Thanks to the sharp left turn at Little Ten Curve, you can readily see both end of this train, stopped on the siding at Rocky.
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A very frosty afternoon along the western edge of the city of Arvada (a suburb of Denver). BNSF's daily Denver to Provo (UT) manifest takes the siding at Rocky to prepare to meet a pair of trains, including Amtrak 6.
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A 19mm wide angle shot of the lower half of Big Ten Curve. The power for this coal empty has no trouble getting the train up and around the curve toward Clay.
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Just west of the west switch of Rocky, a coal empty destined for the Energy Mine climbs up the nearly 2% grade toward Big Ten Curve and Rocky. I'm a fan of this spot as it offers a nice view of westbounds as well as the flatirons off in the distance.
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A look at the Denver-Metro area as seen from Blue Mountain Road above Big Ten Loop. Not the eastbound California Zephyr heading down the loop with the Rio Grande Heritage Unit in the lead.
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In the 1980's, it was not uncommon to find a Rio Grande pilot engine on the point of Amtrak, particularly when a business car was catching a ride on the tail end. If Rio Grande was still around in 2009, it might look something like this!
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UP 1989 leads the MNYRO west out of Rocky. Just a few minutes later and the train will be running down the main at Clay which can be seen in the foreground.
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Coming around Big Ten Loop is a deadhead special! This equipment is from the former Grand Luxe Express (and before that, the American Orient Express). The cars were purchased by Phil Anschutz, who just sold the Ski Train. The reason? Well, that isn't clear just yet...
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A telephoto shot of the head end power on a coal load descending down off of Big Ten Curve toward Rocky. Off in the distance, a car is visible driving south along Colorado Highway 93.
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After passing the [wind break] hoppers on Big Ten, this eastbound manifest is continuing east on the main track toward Rocky. This was shot from Jefferson County Open Space between Clay and Rocky.
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