Photo ID: 108311 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, July 7, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 919 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Notice anything unusual about this shot? Such as the fact that you can see right through the gondola to the rail head and ties below!? The bottom of the gondola ripped apart and away from the car somehow, dumping a significant portion of the cars coal in the process. Much of the coal still remains, teetering in the car. The car is in the house track at Rollins where it will wait until UP figures out what to do with it. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108310 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, July 7, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 914 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific That is really not good! Note how a significant portion of the bottom of this bathtub gondola is missing? I have no clue how this happened, but it obviously caused a lot of problems on the Moffat. The westbound Zephyr was delayed over eight hours in Denver. The car is now in the house track at Rollins. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108309 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, July 7, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 921 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific After multiple hours of work, this UP crew finally has this broken bathtub gondola in the house track at Rollins. Due to a defect, the crew had to move at about 5 MPH, frequently stopping and inspecting, from the west end of Rollins all the way to the house track. The third crew for this track has just arrived and will be getting on to finishing getting the train back together. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108308 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, July 7, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Rollinsville, CO 956 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A UP crew member inspects a massive tear in the bottom of a bathtub gondola as the engineer very slowly creeps toward the house track at Rollins. You can see a small pile of coal near the second (broken) gondola. The crew is working to get the car in to the house track. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108307 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, July 7, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS043 (West Rollins) Rollinsville, CO 943 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific UP 8403, an SD70ACe, is bringing up the rear of this (temporarily broken) coal load at Rollins. When the crew is ready to put the train back together, the engineer will get in this DPU and bring the 20 cars of the train up to the front 3/4 of the train, already between switches on the main. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108306 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, July 7, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS043 (West Rollins) Rollinsville, CO 910 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific 20 cars and a DPU hang west of the west switch of Rollins. The bottom of one of these bathtub gondolas broken open and spilled a bunch of coal. In fact, you can see some of the coal along the ballast near the right of the shot. That happened at 5:30am! About 11 hours later, a crew is still working to get the train back together. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108305 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, July 7, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS043 (West Rollins) Rollinsville, CO 911 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific This coal load in broken in two at the west end of Rollins. A car developed a problem and needed to be set out in the house track. The defective car was located at this spot in the train. The train was broken in two so the head end power could retrieve the bad car. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108304 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, July 4, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS013 (West Leyden) Arvada, CO 989 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Clouds are building and a storm is starting to form on the evening of the 4th of July. The eastbound Zephyr is about to knock down a clear signal at the west end of Leyden, crossing over Indiana Street. The skyline of downtown Denver is visible above the train, now about 13 miles away to the east. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108303 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, July 4, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed West of Leyden Arvada, CO 1070 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The eastbound Zephyr is approaching a 40 MPH slow order near Leyden underneath some stormy skies and clouds with Rocky Mountains basking in the light of a still-clear sky. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108302 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, July 4, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Coal Creek (MP 23) Arvada, CO 1508 (2 Comments Posted) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak A major afternoon storm is developing over the eastern plains on the 4th of July as the eastbound Zephyr wraps around the base of Coal Creek Canyon, crossing over CO-72 between Tunnel 1 and the Blue Mountain Road grade crossing. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108301 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, July 4, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Portal (5,750 ft) Gilpin County, CO 1146 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The eastbound California Zephyr passes by the seldom-used wye that still exists at East Portal just east of the Moffat Tunnel. The east leg of the wye (right side of the wye) used to be part of the mainline that ran up and over Rollins Pass. Once the Moffat Tunnel was completed and opened, the old mainline was torn out and just this leg of the wye remains from the portion that ran over Rollins Pass. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108300 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, July 4, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS050 (West East Portal) Gilpin County, CO 1293 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The Zephyr emerges from the east portal of the Moffat Tunnel and heads down the main track at East Portal, which is the name of the block (and siding). We are close to 9,200 feet above sea level here, the highest mainline on any Class 1 railroad, the highest elevation Amtrak reaches anywhere in the United States. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108299 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, July 4, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS024 (East Plain) Arvada, CO 943 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak From above the tracks, we look at the Zephyr rounding the bend toward Plain. The first half of Plain is straight as an arrow, stretching from the east switch to Rainbow Cut. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108298 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, July 4, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Tunnel 1 (MP 23.4, 366 ft) Arvada, CO 933 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The Zephyr climbs west out of Tunnel 1 and toward the east switch of Plain. The Zephyr has seven Superliners on it today, which has become the normal since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. At least, for now, Amtrak is still running. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108297 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, July 4, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Tunnel 1 (MP 23.4, 366 ft) Arvada, CO 1145 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The Zephyr passes through the first of many tunnels both in the Tunnel District, and overall in Colorado and points west. Tunnel 1 is about 366 feet long, so the head end easily emerges out of the west portal while the tail end Superliners have yet to enter the east portal. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

Previous Page     Next Page