Helper is not quite as much a hub of activity as it was 20 years ago. With manned helpers replaced by DPUs, and the disappearance of coal, it is a bit more quiet. But not totally inactive. An eastbound Herzog ballast train removes some mid-train swing helpers, leaving them in the yard. Meanwhile, power from a westbound oil empty that arrived the day before sits waiting for its next assignment in the yard.
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Despite being in the arid climate of the Utah desert, the month of May has brought quite a bit of rain and turned the desert into a pretty nice shade of green. A westbound oil train moves away from the camera, crossing underneath I-70, headed toward a clear (green) signal at east Whitehouse.
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UP has a little power sharing going on with a Kansas City Southern de Mexico ES44AC. The KCS unit is bringing up the tail end of an empty unit oil train. The power will be removed at Wash, where the train will be loaded. The power will be taken to Helper to await the return trip east.
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Two days earlier, I saw these exactly same units as DPUs on the Denver-Provo. I shot them at Glenwood and then again at Grand Valley in Parachute. The got to Provo overnight and then departed back east on the Provo-Denver a little later in the day.
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As the head end power makes its way through Little Ten Curve near the west end of Rocky, a pair of DPUs (including a KCS ES44AC) makes its way around Big Ten Curve.
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Before starting the 200 mile journey back home, I stuck around at Grand Valley for one last look as KCS 4742 and BNSF 8597 as they bring up the rear of the Denver-Provo. Within 90 minutes or so, the train will reach Grand Junction for a crew change and some switching of cars before continuing on toward Provo.
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Today's Denver-Provo has a bit of a surprise visitor as the first of two DPUs. A Kansas City Southern ES44AC is currently being power shared with BNSF, joined with a BNSF SD70ACe.
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In Alliance, NE, the Butte Sub comes to an end at BNSF's yard in Alliance. Three subdivisions actually meet in Alliance. This manifest is heading around the wye from the Butte Sub to the Sand Hills Sub to continue its journey east toward Kansas City.
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A BNSF "H" train, the "H" indicating this is a High Priority Manifest. Finding a pair of Kansas City Southern units on the head end was a pretty great bonus to the train itself. The train is just a few miles away from the start of two main tracks at Berea.
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The area around Santa Fe Drive (US-85) and C-470 has become quite the busy, urban scene in recent years. CDOT is working on adding a toll lane to C-470. The Joint Line - both Mains 1 and 2 - cross over C-470. An on-ramp from southbound Santa Fe to eastbound C-470 now crosses over the mains. A coal empty glides by on Main 2, approaching the CTC limits of the triple main track at Littleton.
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Much to my delight, a Kansas City Southern ES44AC was bringing up the rear of this coal empty at Sedalia under cloudy skies. The unit was also facing the "right way" for a nice shot. Main 1 currently sits empty in the foreground, waiting for the next southbound to come grinding through south.
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I must admit that the Kansas City Southern "Retro-Belle" paint scheme is one of my favorite paint schemes among railroads today. With the nearest KCS tracks being in Kansas City, it is not too often that one shows up in Denver. It is even less common when one leads a train west on the Moffat, such as on this day.
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If UP ever decided to sell the Moffat at some point in the future, imagine the interesting scenario in which Kansas City Southern is somehow the railroad to buy it! If that were to somehow happen, then sights like this one would actually be common place. That has not happened, of course, and in this shot we see a KCS SD70ACe being power shared on the point of a westbound UP coal empty.
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A Kansas City Southern SD70ACe add a little color to the Moffat as it leads a westbound coal empty west from Leyden. While the high temperature the previous day was 78°F, today the high barely reached 40°F as a wintery cold front moved in to the area.
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A KCS SD70ACe leads a pair of UP AC4400CWs on a westbound coal empty just west of Leyden. The train will actually shoot past both the Craig Branch and the North Fork Branch and continue on it to Utah to near Price. There, it will load at the Savage load out on CV Spur.
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