Photo ID: 108684 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS016 (East Rocky) Arvada, CO 607 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak At the east end of Rocky, UP's eastbound Grand Junction to North Yard manifest holds in the siding to meet the daily westbound Zephyr. Note the Rocky spur off to the left toward the top of the image. The spur breaks away from the main a few thousand feet to the west, and climbs an 8% grade to rapidly gain elevation up the hill. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108685 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rocky (7,330ft) Arvada, CO 576 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak After meeting UP's MGJNY at Rocky, the Zephyr passes by the end DPUs and is climbing west out of Little Ten Loop. There are a lot of speed restrictions in place on the Moffat right now due to heat, so the Zephyr is actually slowing down to 10 MPH at this point. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108686 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS019 (West Rocky) Arvada, CO 683 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Crawling along at a mere 10 MPH due to a speed restriction, the westbound Zephyr leaves Rocky behind and starts to really dig in to the grade that will take it up and around Big Ten Loop to Eisele (Clay). Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108687 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed West of Tolland Gilpin County, CO 561 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The landscape opens up a bit at (and just west of) Tolland. The westbound Zephyr passes underneath the "shifted load" detector - also sometimes referred to as a "high/wide" detector - just west of Tolland at MP 48. The Zephyr is currently under one of many slow orders, keeping its speed down to about 15 MPH. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108688 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East of East Portal Gilpin County, CO 623 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The westbound Zephyr crosses over East Portal Road just east of the siding of East Portal, about 1 1/2 miles east of the Moffat Tunnel. The Zephyr has a clear signal at the east end of East Portal, and will pick up a little speed as it will head in to the tunnel. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108689 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East of East Portal Gilpin County, CO 621 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Just east of East Portal, the westbound Zephyr follows along South Boulder Creek and East Portal Road as it continues west toward the Moffat Tunnel. From the days before the Moffat Tunnel, the grade for Rollins Pass is visible on the left side of the frame. The old grade is now a dirt road that people enjoy driving, cycling, ATV-ing, and dirt biking on these days. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108690 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Portal (5,750 ft) Gilpin County, CO 554 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The westbound Zephyr comes around the final curve before the Moffat Tunnel alongside the siding and wye at East Portal. The Moffat Tunnel, as you can see, is dead ahead! The 6.2-long tunnel will take the train under the Continental Divide at the highest elevation of any remaining mainline in the United States, roughly 9,200 feet above sea level. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108691 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Moffat Tunnel Gilpin County, CO 611 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific The east end of the Moffat Tunnel is a rather fascinating complex. The tracks enter a man-made structure about 500 feet before they actually enter the mountain. This structure at East Portal is where the equipment to ventilate the tunnel is located. Gigantic fans are turned on and suck fresh air in from the west portal and blow out exhaust here at the east portal. At one point in the past, the fans blew fresh air in from the east portal, blowing the exhaust out the west portal. However, the town of Winter Park was not thrilled with the exhaust being blow out and around the ski resort and town, so the fans were reversed. If you are ever near East Portal when the fans activate, you will definitely hear them. Also visible in this shot is the Moffat Water Tunnel. A tunnel built parallel to the tracks, which brings water from the west slope to the front range, ultimately winding up in Gross Reservoir. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108692 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 570 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific An eastbound coal load sits in the siding at Rollins, across a field from South Boulder Creek. The train is in the process of being tied down, as maintenance will not allow any trains to run on the east slope of the Moffat right now due to heat affecting the rails. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108693 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Gilpin County, CO 561 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A look right in to the face of UP 8976, an SD70AH. The SD70AH is nearly identical to an SD70ACe. The only difference is that the "AH" model has an additional 8,000 pounds of weight, allowing it to have slightly better traction. Useful on heavy trains, such as coal trains! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108694 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 557 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Folks working in the white building will have to put up with the sounds of idling engines for the next 18 hours or so! This coal train has been told that they cannot continue east on the Moffat due to maintenance. The train is currently being tied down and will not be moving until tomorrow morning. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108695 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 564 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Sitting in the siding at Rollins alongside South Boulder Creek, UP 7485 is facing a red signal at the east end of Rollins. The crew has been instructed by the dispatcher to tie the train down, so the conductor is out of view around the corner applying hand brakes to the train. A van is on the way up from Denver to pick up the crew. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108696 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 664 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Several years ago, UP installed a permanent derail on the siding at Rollins as it was not uncommon for train to be tied down here to wait for a recrew. As it happens, that is what is going on here with this coal train. The conductor is in the process of applying hand brakes on the train and, once done, he will come back here to the derail and align it for the derail position. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108697 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 555 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific The siding of Rollins is the longest siding on the east slope of the Moffat at right around 8,300 feet. Ironically, for a long time, it was the shortest siding at only 4,300 feet. In the early 1980s, Rio Grande extended the siding a few hundred feet to the west and a few thousand feet to the east. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108698 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, June 10, 2021 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 568 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific This is the latest engine that is offered by General Electric. It is the ET44AH and it was first put in to production about six years ago. It is compliant with Tier-4 emissions standards. The Tier-4 units are more complex and, in general, have required more maintenance than Tier-3 (and older) units. Consequently, Tier-4 units from both GE and EMD have not been particularly big sellers. UP has 170 of these ET44AHs on the roster. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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