An eastbound manifest approaches the grade crossing at Simms Street under partly cloudy skies. Personally, partly cloudy skies like this are my least favorite conditions to shoot in. Clouds move in and out of the scene and can wreak havoc on settings.
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The eastbound MRONY passes by piles of ties along the right of way. Those ties will be installed over the course of the next week as the Moffat is entirely closed for maintenance.
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Partly cloudy skies cover the front range on the first day of October. This is the third-to-last eastbound that will run over the Moffat prior to a week of maintenance.
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An eastbound Roper, UT to North Yard, CO manifest rolls through Barbara's Gulch. This would be the last such manifest between the two yards over the Moffat for the next week.
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This eastbound coal load has a colorful consist of mid-train swing helpers. A fair number of CSX units have been showing up as power sharing on UP trains in Denver lately. I enjoy the added blue in the scene!
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UP's Dynamometer test car, UPP 210, is grabbing a ride on the tail end of the westbound Zephyr. It is about to disappear into Tunnel 2.
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The westbound Zephyr is leaving the siding at Plain and is about to head into the east portal of Tunnel 2. The train is running close to ontime, considering its delayed departure from Denver of 12:35pm this week.
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The westbound Zephyr is on the siding at Plain meeting an eastbound coal load. It is also passing some maintenance equipment tied down on the house track. An old switch frog sits alongside the house track.
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This AC4400CW has no doubt traversed the Moffat many, many times...but for many of those, it wore a gray and scarlet paint scheme. This is a former Espee unit, which has now received a full repaint.
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An eastbound coal load slows as it approaches a red signal at the east end of Plain. The train will be meeting the westbound Zephyr, which will run through the siding. Both of these units on the head end are ex-Espee AC4400CWs!
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Union Pacific's Dynamometer "Mobile Laboratory" car is picking up a ride on the tail end of the westbound Zephyr. The car is used in testing locomotives. Specifically, things like tractive effort, performance, and efficiency.
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The westbound Zephyr, with a standard "fall" consist (mainly meaning eight Superliners) heads west on tracks that have fresh ties and fresh ballast. There is definitely something yellow hitching a ride on the end of the train!
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The westbound Zephyr is slowly heading west just east of Barbara's Gulch. There is a 25 MPH speed restriction between East Leyden and East Rocky. There's almost sun in this shot, too! The Denver area has been overcast for nearly a week.
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Most eastbound coal trains include three mid-train swing helpers. It was rather interesting that this particular train only had a pair of mid-train swing helpers. The train did appear to be a bit shorter than the average coal load, so perhaps the extra horsepower just wasn't needed. The train is crossing the road at the Blue Mountain road crossing.
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On a chilly, soggy morning, an eastbound coal load makes its way through the S-Curve at Coal Creek Canyon and the Blue Mountain road crossing. This train loaded at the Energy Mine on the Craig Branch. If you look closely, you can see the tail end of the train just beneath the low-hanging clouds in the top-right portion of the picture.
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