Photo ID: 106459 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS012 (East Leyden) Arvada, CO 1258 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF What is this? An all-EMD lashup on a BNSF train on the Moffat? For the last two decades or so, BNSF has very much favored GE to EMD. In the last 20 years, BNSF has purchased 810 SD70ACes compared to just over 2,800 ES44DC/AC/C4 and ET44C4s. So it's no wonder a solid set of EMDs are a bit of a novelty. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106460 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS012 (East Leyden) Arvada, CO 1230 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF BNSF has picked up some new business in the Salt Lake City area, quite possibly business that UP lost in favor of BNSF. Here, a unit sand train (the third such train in as many weeks) heads west on the main at Leyden with a trio of elephant-style SD70s (two SD70ACes and an SD70MAC) on the point. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106461 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden (7,020ft) Arvada, CO 1267 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF The sound of three EMDs on the point of a westbound sand train sound mighty fine as the train passes by a tree and some very yellow/brown shrubs not too far from the east end of Leyden. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106462 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 1164 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF The westbound sand trains that BNSF has been running on the Moffat are quite heavy. And that is fortunate for me as it gives me plenty of time to reposition ahead of the train! After shooting the train near east Leyden, I was able to get ahead of it and set up in Barbara's Gulch for this shot. The train is making less than 15 MPH. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106463 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 1185 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF A wider angled shot of Barbara's Gulch lets you see the actual gulch that the tracks follow on the approach to Rocky. A westbound BNSF sand train creeps along at 13 MPH through the gulch on clear signals. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106464 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 1164 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF Looking over the top of this sand train in the foreground, we find a pair of units (an ES44AC and an SD70ACe) shoving on the tail end of the train, giving the train a total of 21,600 horsepower. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106465 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 1322 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF This shot is certainly on the wrong side of the tracks, lighting-wise, but I still like the look of the BNSF sand train pushing through the last bit of Barbara's Gulch as the train approaches Rocky. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106466 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 1351 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF This westbound sand train, moving away from the camera, likely has all units on the train in Run 8 right now in order to maintain the 13 MPH they are currently mustering. However, they will likely throttle back to Run 7 as they come around Big Ten Curve, which happens to be visible near the top of the frame. High winds are necessitating a 10 MPH slow around for all trains around the curve. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106467 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1452 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Coal is not quite dead on the Moffat just yet! A brand new ET44AC leads this eastbound "Public Service" coal train out of Leyden. 3 new gas generators have been built and are online at the Cherokee Power Plant in northeast Denver. One "old" coal burning unit is being converted to burn gas. Until that conversion is completed (sometime in 2017), this coal train will still run a few times a month. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106468 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1279 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific If coal trains do ever cease on the Moffat, I am going to miss the standard operation of three mid-train swing helpers found on each train. These units will be cut out of the train at the Pecos Crossover and go into North Yard for servicing. Typically, the units would have been sent west again for swing helper service. But with so few coal trains running right now, who knows if that'll actually be the case for these three units. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106469 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1341 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific The last two DPUs, bringing up the rear of the Public Service coal load, are about to cross Simms Street. Parallel to the tracks in 76th Avenue which, about 100 feet behind the photographer, turns into a private drive for the houses located along it. Their mailboxes can be seen standing here...how I'd enjoy one of those houses! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106470 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden (7,020ft) Arvada, CO 1171 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A westbound coal empty heads west on the main at Leyden. To give you an idea of how much coal has declined recently, this was the first coal empty to come across the KP in eastern Colorado in 19 days! The last empty on the KP was on February 2nd. Other empties have run west on the Moffat since then, but regardless, coal has thinned out a lot. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106471 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden (7,020ft) Arvada, CO 1301 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific 30 years ago, the area around Leyden was rather rural, with just a few houses along the tracks on the south side (which are still there). Today, however, Leyden is smack in the middle of suburbia with new neighborhoods all around an Arvada's newest high school (Ralston Valley High School) nearby as well. Running amidst it all is this westbound coal empty which is actually headed for the Savage loadout near Price, UT. From there, it will continue on west to Victorville, CA. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106472 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 1308 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF The lead unit on this BNSF manifest is one of the newest units on BNSF's roster. BNSF had some "carbon credits" that they used to purchase some Tier-3 ES44C4s in 2017. BNSF 4204 is one such example of the credit units. It was delivered at the start of February. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106473 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Barbara's Gulch (MP 15.9 to MP 17.2) Arvada, CO 1284 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF After meeting a coal empty at Rocky, this Provo-Denver manifest is now rolling east through Barbara's Gulch with a clear shot the rest of the way into town. The original crew that took the train out of Grand Junction could only make it as far as Cliff. There, a Denver-based relief crew took over for the rest of the journey into Denver. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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