Running nearly three hours late, Amtrak 5 leaves the Dotsero cutoff behind and curves west to follow the Rio Grande mainline west toward Glenwood Canyon. The track visible to the right of Amtrak is the south leg of wye connecting the Dotsero cutoff with Tennessee Pass.
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The east switch of Rifle is located under a bridge and next to a flurry of trees that were just reaching their fall peaks on this Sunday afternoon. Amtrak is doing its best to make up some time as it works its way east to its next station stop in Glenwood Springs.
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The Dining Car is the fourth car back in the California Zephyr train set these days. The car is seen here as the eastbound Zephyr departs the depot in Grand Junction.
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With its station stop complete, Amtrak prepares to depart east out of Grand Junction. The Grand Junction station is in very good condition, as far as Amtrak stations tend to go. This station is far more luxorious than the Salt Lake City depot!
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The MRONY-08 with a Phase-III SD70M, a Phase-II SD70M, and a Phase-I SD70M (in that order) heads east, pulling past the depot at Glenwood Springs.
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With its station stop completed, Amtrak starts to slowly pull west away from the depot at Glenwood Springs. From here, Amtrak will continue to Grand Junction, Salt Lake City, Reno, Sacramento, and Emeryville.
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Slowing down on the east siding, the California Zephyr prepares to make one of its most popular station stops, the stop at Glenwood Springs. The Colorado River is running nice and full on the left side of the picture.
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BNSF 4795 leads the daily Denver-Stockton trackage rights train westbound at Clifton, just a few miles east of Grand Junction.
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A very interesting patched Espee AC4400CW (now UP 6193) is the lead unit for the Potash Local.
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Amtrak 5 arrives at the Grand Junction, leaving the main track and entering the Depot Siding.
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After having received a track warrant from DS-80, SP 173 is leaving the west yard of Grand Junction for the North Fork Branch. The train has a warrant all the way to Roubideau, 44 miles away.
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UP 4371 sits on the siding at Palisade on the MRONY-08, awaiting the arrival of Amtrak and the clearing of maintenance of way.
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Patched Southern Pacific AC4400's are becoming more and more common. Here, two AC4400CW's, one UP and one primarily SP lead an eastbound coal load from a mine on the Northfork Subdivision in western Colorado.
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Two SD70M's sit on the east leg of the wye at Dotsero. The SD70M's are on the point of a work train that has been tied down on the wye for the night.
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EMDs new SD70ACe test units (GM 70 and GM 71) are seen crossing over the Colorado river on a bridge near Burns on the Dotsero Cutoff. The locomotives were undergoing road testing on the eastbound MGJNY.
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