Photo ID: 105753 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 27, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1397 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific You know me! Always a sucker for an EMD roster shot. And these are becoming easier to get on the Moffat lately, too. UP seems to be less picky about what power winds up where. Seems that most coal trains (what few that are left) have at least a few...if not a majority...EMDs on them. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105752 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 27, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1277 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) XCLX Why take a picture of a coal hopper? Because they are becoming less and less common. The hoppers that say XCLX on the side seem to be dropping off particularly fast, as Xcel Energy is refactoring many of its plants to burn natural gas rather than coal. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105751 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 27, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1349 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Here is a statement I honestly never thought I'd say: coal trains are a dying breed. Less than ten years, there were rumors that the Moffat was nearing capacity due to all the coal trains. As many as 24 trains (12 each way) were running in a 24 hour period. Now, 1 train in a 24 hour period seems lucky. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105750 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 27, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1395 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific On clear and temperate January afternoon, a coal load heads east out of the east end of Leyden. This coal train is the "Public Service", headed for the Xcel Energy Cherokee Power Plant in northeast Denver. This train likely has less than a year left in it before it is gone forever. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105607 Date Shot Photo By Friday, October 2, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1443 (1 Comment Posted) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF A seven car eastbound BNSF Officer's Special crossing Simms Street in Arvada. A number of people are visible sitting in the stadium-style seating in the picture window at the back of the train. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105606 Date Shot Photo By Friday, October 2, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1338 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF An eastbound BNSF Officer's Special, with a single ES44DC for power, approaches the Simms Street grade crossing. In the last 36 hours, the train traversed the entire Rio Grande main line between Salt Lake City and Denver! The train tied up for the night in Grand Junction the night prior to this picture. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105605 Date Shot Photo By Friday, October 2, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1355 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF From time to time, both Union Pacific and BNSF will run an Officer's Special train. Sometimes, management is checking out specific projects or railroad infrastructure. Sometimes, they are simply headed to meetings and are taking a train instead of a plane. Sometimes they are even shmoozing with large customers. I'm not sure which is correct on this day, but a BNSF Officer's Special came over the Moffat, arriving in Denver shortly before 5pm. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105465 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, August 12, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1380 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF After meeting is westbound counterpart at Leyden, BNSF's Provo to Denver heads east on the approach to the Simms Street grade crossing. The train will take Main 2 at CP DS007 and wait on Main 2 between Arvada and C&S Junction for the eastbound California Zephyr to pass it on Main 1. This is the first BNSF train I've seen in awhile that had an all-Heritage 2 consist! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105398 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, August 6, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1421 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Southern Pacific Despite the funky shadowing, I couldn't pass up posting a roster shot of SP 352! The nose is badly faded, the frame stripe and battery box door are yellow, and the fuel tank has lord only knows what all over it...but it is still an unpatched Espee unit! As of this picture, this is one of only 10 remaining unpatched Espee AC4400CWs. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105397 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, August 6, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1510 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Southern Pacific, Union Pacific Leaves of a tree frame this shot of an early morning eastbound coal load approaching the grade crossing at Simms Street in Arvada. This is the Valmont coal train. It is headed for the Valmont power plant in Boulder, CO. It is one of the coal trains that regularly loads at Energy Mine on the Craig Branch. If Valmont goes to all natural gas (which they are pushing for in 2017 or 2018), it'll be another coal train taken off the Moffat! Another thing that probably won't be on the Moffat in 2017 is SP 352! One of the last-remaining unpatched Espee units. Not bad, considering it has been almost 19 years since Espee ceased to exist. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105396 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, August 6, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1777 (2 Comments Posted) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Southern Pacific, Union Pacific Thanks to a tip I received the night before, I was aware that an unpatched Espee AC4400CW was leading a coal train down the Moffat. Finding an unpatched Espee unit is rare enough in 2015, let alone finding one on the point! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105116 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 15, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1927 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Winter Park Express As the eastbound Ski Train approaches the Simms Street grade crossing, thanks goes out to Amtrak (as well as Winter Park and Union Pacific) for putting together this train. It was a real class act and appears to have been a huge success. After six years of no Ski Train, it was great to have one to chase again, if only for two days. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105050 Date Shot Photo By Friday, March 6, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1285 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF It seems that, in general, "taggers" (those individuals that choose to apply graffiti) tend to hit rail cars and not engines. BNSF 5293 seems to be an exception, however. BNSF has applied some orange paint to cover the graffiti, but has not yet had the chance to reapply a BNSF logo to the long hood. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105049 Date Shot Photo By Friday, March 6, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1357 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF After a few weeks of a lot of snow and fairly frigid temperatures, the sun is shining and the snow slowly recedes as a nice looking BNSF manifest glides by. A (relatively new) ES44C4 runs on the point of the manifest. These units were, for quite a while, only owned by BNSF. In fact, BNSF now owns over 1,000 such units. Recently, Florida East Coast became the second railroad to own these, with their order for 25. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105048 Date Shot Photo By Friday, March 6, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1303 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF BNSF's eastbound trackage rights manifest is approaching the grade crossing at Simms Street. For several years now, this train has been largely dominated by tank cars. Thanks to trackage rights...and an operating agreement between BNSF and Utah Railway...a lot of the tank business in the Salt Lake City area goes to BNSF. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

Previous Page     Next Page