A typical pair of Amtrak P42DCs leads the morning Zephyr across the grade crossing at 66th Avenue in Arvada.
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In the 1990s, Amtrak developed a variation on its Phase 3 paint scheme that it applied to the its fleet of GE B32-8BWH. The design and colors led railfans to adopt the nickname "Pepsi Can" for the scheme. Amtrak has applied a heritage version of the scheme on P42DC #160, leading the train toward Tunnel 1 this morning.
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The morning Zephyr passes by a little red tractor as it also passes by the hotbox detector at MP 22.6, just west of Blue Mountain Drive. Amtrak's "Pepsi Can" heritage unit is leading the train this morning.
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The Zephyr is just starting is journey up and into the Rocky Mountains as it wraps around the curve toward Blue Mountain Drive. The Denver skyline stands tall off in the distance, 23 rail-miles to the east.
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Daylight Savings Time ended this past Sunday, offering a little more light for the morning Zephyr. Here in early November, the shadows have grown quite long as AMTK 160, the "Pepsi Can", leads the train westbound.
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The westbound Zephyr is rolling west on the main at Leyden right on time by the few-remaining fall colors here in early November.
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The conductor from UP's MGJNY has climbed down and is waiting on the ground to offer up a roll by for the westbound Zephyr, kicking up a little exhaust as it throttle up on the trip west at Eisele (Clay).
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While you will no doubt immediately see the Zephyr here at the west switch of Leyden, you might not immediately see that there are in fact two trains in this shot. The manifest visible up the hillside is an eastbound UP manifest that is waiting in the siding at Eisele (Clay) for the Zephyr.
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At the west end of Rocky, the westbound Zephyr charges west on the climb on the north side of Big Ten. The Zephyr this morning is running with the standard winter consist of seven Superliners.
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The morning Zephyr is running about 20 minutes late today, after a bit of a delay getting out of Union Station. The train is approaching the narrowest part of Barbara's Gulch on the journey west.
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The westbound Zephyr, which is being led by AMTK 199 and (Phase 4 heritage) AMTK 164 this morning, is on the move out of Union Station. Scheduled departure is 8:46am, and indeed the train started pulling right when the clock hit 8:46am.
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At the west switch of Crescent, the westbound Zephyr rolls through the OS on a green signal. In the distance, construction continues on increasing the height of the dam at Gross Reservoir. The height of the dam was originally 340 feet. It has been increased roughly 60 feet so far, with another 71 feet to go. The dam will be 471 feet tall once complete, tripling the capacity of the reservoir.
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Since I am certainly no botanist, I don't know much about foliage, so I have no clue what the plants are that have changed to this fantastic bright red color just east of the east portal of Tunnel 1. Passengers on the morning Zephyr get to enjoy the color as they enjoy the journey westbound.
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AMTK 25 and (Phase 7) AMTK 204 lead the westbound Zephyr out the west end of Eisele (Clay). The fall foliage here at the west end still has some good fall colors, despite the yellows not being quite as bright this year as one might have liked.
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As the Zephyr heads west on the main at Eisele (Clay), note the multiple piles of ties laying along the right-of-way. UP is in the midst of a major maintenance project on the Moffat, which includes replacing a lot of ties. These are all new ties, waiting for their turn to to be installed beneath the rails in the coming weeks and months.
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