The second westbound Amtrak train for the day heads west on the main at Leyden. The Zephyr is a little over an hour behind the Winter Park Express, which will be arriving at Winter Park and unloading its skiers soon.
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A light dusting of snow lay all over the ground across Denver-Metro area. Passengers on the Winter Park Express are probably very happy to be inside the warm Superliners rather than outside in the 15°F weather!
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AMTK 156 leads the westbound Winter Park Express on a frigid February morning. Some light snow fell overnight, laying down a nice dusting of white.
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One of the best parts of riding the California Zephyr west out of Denver (in my humble opinion) is the ascent from Rocky up and along the Front Range. Alas, Mother Nature had some other plans for passengers on this morning. The Zephyr quickly disappears into the fog as it heads west.
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This morning found a lot of fog and a bit of permafrost on some of the vegetation at Plain. As the headend rolls by, the fog is thick enough that you cannot see the last Superliner on the train! These conditions but be tough on crews, particularly when approaching grade crossings.
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It's an extremely foggy morning as the westbound Zephyr approaches the grade crossing at Plain. You might be able to tell that the ditch lights are oscillating at this point. Considering the limited visibility, the engineer starting blowing the horn well in advance to make sure no cars were on the crossing.
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The westbound Zephyr knocks down a clear signal at the intermediate at MP 14.6 just west of Leyden. It was a foggy morning and I was hoping to pick up some streaks in the fog from the headlight and signal. You can see the headlights a bit, but it wasn't quite foggy enough to capture more.
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The westbound Zephyr approaches the intermediate at MP 14.6 as it emerges from some think morning fog.
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Lately a lot of coal empties headed west have had six or seven engines...enough for their mid-train swing helpers on the trip back east. This train, however, only had two on the point and one on the rear. So it will pick up three units either in Grand Junction or in Glenwood Springs after it is loaded.
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A single SD70ACe brings up the tail end of this West Elk coal empty as the train passes by the old coaling tower near Chem Spur.
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An SD70ACe and ES44AC lead a coal empty westbound. The train is approaching the switch to the Chem Spur. The train is headed for the West Elk mine on the North Fork Branch in Western Colorado.
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The second coal empty in as many days heads west toward the east end of Barbara's Gulch. I've lucked out lately with SD70ACes on the Moffat! UP 8768 leads an ES44AC on the train westbound.
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Six units leads a coal empty comprised of rag tag hoppers west on the Moffat. I've lucked out quite a bit lately and I have seen quite a few SD70s on the Moffat lately. As a fan of EMD power, it's been pretty nice to see (and hear).
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This westbound coal empty came up the Joint Line earlier this morning. A somewhat unusual move as the Joint Line does not see too many UP trains. And the trains they do run are typically manifests. Most coal traffic runs via the KP (Limon Sub) east on the plains.
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As we get further in to February, and days are staying lighter, longer, there is now just enough light to get a shot of the eastbound Zephyr in the evening (when it is on time). On this evening, the eastbound Zephyr is indeed on time as it rolls down the main at Leyden.
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