The sun is just about to peak over the ridge of Ruby Canyon five minutes after 6am as the MNYPV-03 makes its away along the Colorado River.
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Down in the base of Dominguez Canyon along the Gunnison River, UP 6222 (patched Espee 175) is heading east (geographically south at the moment) toward the mine at Somerset.
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Espee (and former Espee) power is not at all uncommon on the North Fork Subdivision. Particularly AC4400's from 100-199 on Espee's roster. This is because these units were not equipped with DPU capability. Coal trains on the North Fork run with two units on the point; no extra help. Therefore, it makes sense to use units that can't be utilized as DPU units elsewhere.
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After meeting a westbound coal load at Roubideau (pronounced ROO-BEE-DOO), UP 6222 now has a track warrant to depart east out of the siding.
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Getting ready to release its track warrant (entering Yard Limit territory), UP 6222 is about 90 miles (trackwise) east of Grand Junction approaching Bowie mine. The train will continue east to the loadout at Somerset.
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Approaching the end of its journey, UP 6222 is moving along at 10 MPH on the approach to the loadout at Somerset. The train runs along Highway 133 on the way into Somerset.
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Positioned underneath the the loadout, the train is about to start pulling west under the loadout. The engineer will set a "cruise-control" type function on the lead AC that will keep the speed steady at 1.5 MPH while loading.
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The tipple at Somerset is filled with coal as a UP hopper prepares to be pulled under the tipple to be loaded. The coal is brought down to the loadout using a series of conveyor belts.
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Amtrak 5 is running about an hour late as it enters the siding at Glenwood to prepare to make its 10 to 15 minute station stop.
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Trying to make up some time on the way out to Grand Junction, Amtrak 5 hustles along I-70 at Chacra, leaving Glenwood Springs behind.
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While Amtrak 5 is running about an hour late, Amtrak 6 is running close to six hours late! Amtrak 5 (on the right) met its counterpart (on the left) at Clifton, a few miles east of Grand Junction. Amtrak 5 actually stopped briefly at Clifton to wait for Amtrak 6 to clear the station in Grand Junction.
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A BNSF trackage rights train, the MDVRBJ (Denver to Riverbank, CA) pulles into the station track at Grand Junction (about fifteen minutes after Amtrak 5 made its departure westbound). The train will cut off some cars in Grand Junction before continuing west across the Utah Desert.
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An extremely short Denver to Riverbank, CA manifest approaches the east switch of Agate in the Utah Desert in the rapidly setting evening light. The train has three C44-9CW's (13,200 horsepower) to take the 13 cars in tow across the desert.
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In the last few minutes of direct sunlight, we look at the sillouhette of the signal at the east switch of Sagers. It is 8:20pm as the sun sets behind the Book Cliffs.
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The last train to pass by the east end of Sagers in daylight (well, what's left of it anyway) was BNSF's Stockton to Denver manifest. The last few hints of sunlight are rapidly fading at 9:00pm as BNSF 4861 east heads quickly toward Grand Junction.
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