Photo ID: 108101 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Reno Jct Campbell County, CO 622 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF, Union Pacific The infrastructure required to keep trains running in the Powder River Basin is impressive to say the least! In this shot, you can clearly see three sets of signals, four tracks all with concrete ties and welded rail, six turnouts, and 12 propane tanks to fuel the switch heaters for the six turnouts in the brutal winters. At the moment, the signal on the Black Thunder Lead shows a diverging clear for a load coming out of the mine, and a clear signal on Main 3 indicates another eastbound is heading this way too. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108102 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Reno Jct Campbell County, CO 657 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) Union Pacific Having just received a fresh crew, this UP load is on the Black Thunder Mine Lead, but will cross over to Main 1 just ahead for the trip eastbound (geographically south) out of the Powder River Basin. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108103 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed MP 59.4 Campbell County, CO 637 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) Union Pacific A UP empty with a pair of SD70ACes on the point makes its way west on Main 2 at the Antelope Road grade crossing. It seems that SD70ACes have been more common on both BNSF and UP lately, at least on coal trains. The seem to have accounted for about 50% of the power during the two days spent in the Powder River Basin. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108104 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed MP 60 Campbell County, CO 614 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) Union Pacific A somewhat faded ES44AC and an SD70ACe lead an eastbound coal load around a curve at MP 60 on Main 1. The signal bridge is the background is the western end of Main 4. From this point heading east (geographically south), the Orin Sub has four main tracks for the roughly 20 mile journey to Bill. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108105 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed MP 60 Campbell County, CO 618 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF This eastbound (geographically southbound) BNSF coal train on Main 3 is just five minutes behind a loaded UP coal train on Main 1. The trains are "racing" east over Logan Hill on their respective ways south out of the Powder River Basin. The dispatcher has informed both trains that they are the only trains heading up Logan Hill on their respective tracks, so they should not have to worry about slowing or coming to a stop on the grade. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108106 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Logan Hill Converse County, WY 609 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF, Union Pacific The race is on! Well, not literally. These load coal trains are both heading eastbound (geographically south) up Logan Hill. The BNSF train has four engines (2x2) whereas the UP train only has three engines (2x1), allowing the BNSF train to go a bit faster up the hill. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108107 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Logan Hill Converse County, WY 605 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF Approaching the top of Logan Hill on Main 3, this BNSF coal load is passing by empty cars that are being stored on Main 4. In the distance, a UP coal load is also taking on the hill on Main 1, working hard to reach the summit. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108108 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Logan Hill Converse County, WY 638 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) Union Pacific About five miles to the west (geographic north), this BNSF coal load on Main 3 started to overtake the UP coal load on Main 1. Now that about half of the BNSF train has crested the top of Logan Hill, it is starting to pick up even more speed, really leaving the UP train behind. You can see the DPUs on the BNSF load pass the head end of the UP load in the associated video! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108109 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Logan Hill Converse County, WY 623 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) Union Pacific, BNSF A UP coal load in the foreground is just coming over the top of Logan Hill as a BNSF coal load, with one more DPU, picks up a little speed heading down the other side of the hill. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108110 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Gillette Energy Park Gillette, WY 755 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots Burlington Northern If only this engine could talk! A throw back to older times, and a tribute to Burlington Northern. This GE U30C was built in January 1972 and spent many years as a work horse for BN. Unlike most old units that end up scrapped and turned in to tomorrows razor blades, this unit was spared the torch and is now on display for all to see in Gillette Energy Park. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108111 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Donkey Creek Yard Gillette, WY 845 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF Got Power? With the decline in coal and downturn in the economy thanks to COVID-19, a lot of power is now in storage on Class 1 railroads. Case-in-point is Donkey Creek Yard. BNSF has roughly 500 units stored here. Mostly SD70MACs and C44-9Ws, but some others thrown in to the mix as well. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108112 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Donkey Creek Yard Gillette, WY 746 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF There were quite a few C44-9Ws in storage in Donkey Creek Yard in Gillette, WY at the time of this photo. Those included a smattering of Warbonnets, or "Pink-bonnets", as some refer to the now-faded classic ATSF scheme. BNSF 649 is one such example, sitting at the head of a string of 100+ units stored on one of the yard tracks. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108113 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Donkey Creek Yard Gillette, WY 789 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF This telephoto shot helps bring in to perspective just how many units BNSF currently has stored in Donkey Creek Yard. There are about 100 units on each of five different yard tracks. You can clearly see the vast numbers of Grinstein SD70MACs in storage here. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108114 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Donkey Creek Yard Gillette, WY 841 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF While SD70MACs and C44-9Ws dominate the stored power in Donkey Creek yard, there are a few other units that can be found here. Such is the case for BNSF 2324, a GP38-2, buried in the middle of a string of units. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108115 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 30, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Donkey Creek Yard Gillette, WY 718 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF To help illustrate how (relatively) slow things are for the railroads right now, only of these yard tracks has something on it that is actually being used at the moment! The cars to the left are all in storage. The engines to the right are also all in storage. The hoppers to the left of the power are actually part of a current train that is waiting for a recrew to depart the yard for the Powder River Basin to load. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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