Photo ID: 104742 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, May 6, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed 47th Avenue Denver, CO 2781 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots Norfolk Southern, BNSF BNSF has a problem. I suppose it is a good problem when compared to the types of problems the Rock Island or the Pennsy once had. BNSF is under powered, under manned, and over capacity. This McCook-bound manifest was supposed to pass this spot close to 36 hours earlier. But it got tied down in western Colorado due to a shortage of available crews. Then, when it finally reached Denver, it was again supposed to depart around 0900. A crew wasn't called for it until 1230 and then it had several problems getting going. It is nearly 1700 in this shot as the train holds at the east end of yard for westbound traffic. It would remain here until after 1830. That means that in the six hours the crew was on duty (half their time), the train moved just a hair over three miles! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104739 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, May 6, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed 31st Street Yard Denver, CO 1620 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF It is currently a very good time to try to get shots of BNSF trains if you are a fan of pool/lease/colorful power. Due to a shortage of power, a lot of foreign and older power has appeared on BNSF lately. Such is the case here as a C44-9W in the Heritage 1 scheme sits as leased Central of Georgia (Norfolk Southern) passed by which is alongside a pair of CitiRail leasers. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104736 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, May 6, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed 31st Street Yard Denver, CO 1716 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF BNSF has been receiving a lot of new power lately. In order to keep like-power in (reasonably) sequential number ranges on the roster, a lot of older power has been renumbered. Case-in-point is this SD75M. It was recently reactivated and the "8" of its previous number was hastily patched over, making the units new number simply 240. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104735 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, May 6, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed 31st Street Yard Denver, CO 3128 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots CREX, BNSF Due to a huge boom in the demand to haul oil by rail, BNSF has found itself with a bit of a power shortage. As such, a lot of CitiRail leasers have appeared on the property to help cover the gaps. Here is one such unit with its overly-colorful nose and underly-colorful body. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104734 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, May 6, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed 31st Street Yard Denver, CO 1682 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF I always enjoy getting a shot of power hanging around the yard from time-to-time. 20 years ago, this should would have been completely dominated by cascade green. Today, orange rules. Wonder what it will look like in another 20 years... Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104733 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, May 6, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed 31st Street Yard Denver, CO 1715 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF A fair amount of power is hanging out near the "house", ready for assignment. BNSF's picture-window observation car sits nearby as well. You can see Coors Fields in the background, home of the red-hot (at the time of this photo) Colorado Rockies. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104711 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 23, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS012 (East Leyden) Arvada, CO 1758 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Norfolk Southern, BNSF Oil shipments by rail have seen a dramatic uptick in the last two years. Two years ago, railroads hauled less than 1% of the oil transported in the country. That number has jumped to over 10%! It isn't higher because there is a two year backlog of new tank cars. Because of the increase in traffic, BNSF has found itself short on power. This has resulted in a lot of leased power appearing on BNSF trains. Case-in-point is this eastbound Provo, UT to Lincoln, NE manifest. A leased C40-9W and SD70, from Norfolk Southern, lead the train along with a BNSF C44-9W. Rumor has it BNSF could be ordering as many as 500 units in 2014, so this leasing bonanza is unlikely to last. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104710 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 23, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS012 (East Leyden) Arvada, CO 1828 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Norfolk Southern, BNSF A "Catfish" leads an eastbound BNSF manifest out the east end of Leyden on a beautiful March afternoon. These C40-9Ws are referred to as "Catfish" because they are predominantly black and have white "whiskers" across their noses. An interesting feature of these Norfolk Southern units is that the ditch lights are only illuminated when the horn is activated (and then for a period of time thereafter). That happened to be the case here, as the train is approaching the 80th Avenue grade crossing. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104709 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 23, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rocky (7,330ft) Arvada, CO 1760 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Norfolk Southern, BNSF Only 120 standard cab SD70s were produced, most of which went to (and are still with) Norfolk Southern. They look very similar to SD60s. They do use HTCR trucks instead of HTC/HTC-R trucks and the frame is an inch or two higher. Under the hood, they offer 4000 HP instead of the 3800 HP from an SD60. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104708 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 23, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS016 (East Rocky) Arvada, CO 1752 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Norfolk Southern, BNSF Here is a unit that might look a little out of place for the venue! This BNSF manifest is being led by a [leased] Norfolk Southern C40-9W as the train passes the east switch at Rocky. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104704 Date Shot Photo By Friday, March 21, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Tennyson Street Denver, CO 2262 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Golden (BNSF) BNSF It is something of a gloomy day out as a cold front moves in to the Denver area. The front would produce a light dusting of snow overnight. In the meantime, an ES44DC and a C44-9W wait at a red signal at Tennyson Street. The train, with 14 boxcars loaded with Coors beer on the point, is waiting for maintenance at C&S Junction to clear up in order to continue east in to the yard. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104699 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, March 19, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 1477 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF Spring is less than 24 hours away, which means this scene will hopefully "green up" a bit in the next month of two. In the meantime, a few Yucca plants make up just about all the green - save for the pine trees - in the scene as an eastbound BNSF manifest loops around past the Blue Mountain Road grade crossing. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104698 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, March 19, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 1608 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF This eastbound BNSF manifest got stuck holding the main for about 45 minutes at Plain. Maintenance was working on some ballast regulation around the curves here at Blue Mountain and Coal Creek. With maintenance finally in the clear, the train got the signal to head east. Here, the front of the train is approaching the grade crossing at Blue Mountain and the tail end of the train is just emerging from Tunnel 1. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104697 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, March 19, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 1996 (1 Comment Posted) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF When I heard the dispatcher talking to "BNSF 700" at Plain, I got excited because I thought I was going to be shooting a Warbonnet leading on the Moffat. Alas, it turned out that BNSF 700 has been repainted in the New Image scheme. However, there is still a tiny bit of Warbonnet in the shot...see it? Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104696 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, March 19, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Coal Creek (MP 23) Arvada, CO 1525 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF A few minutes earlier, this BNSF manifest was descending the grade in the distance where the tank cars are now. The train is looping around at the base of Coal Creek Canyon, now headed for the detector at MP 22.6. You can see BNSF 700 descending in the background in another picture by clicking here. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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