Photo ID: 106404 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, February 8, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 1619 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific As Colorado is right smack in the middle of winter, "Blue Mountain" looks to be more like "Brown/Yellow" mountain as an eastbound Roper, UT to North Yard, CO manifest makes its way on by east. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106403 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, February 8, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 1603 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific In your face! UP 5833 heads toward the Blue Mountain Road grade crossing. This shot of the train apparently headed straight for the camera is made possible with the magic of a telephoto lens! The photographer is actually well off to the side of the tracks for this 400mm shot. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106402 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, February 8, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Blue Mountain Drive (MP 22.43) Arvada, CO 1661 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific The engineer on the MRONY takes the train through the S-Curves at Coal Creek Canyon and Blue Mountain. The train consists of 22 loads and 89 empties for a total length (with the five units added in) of just over 7,000 feet! Ever since UP went to running the MNYRO and MRONY thrice weekly, their lengths have grown considerably. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106401 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, February 8, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Coal Creek (MP 23) Arvada, CO 1544 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A quartet of units - that are actually wearing matching paint schemes - descends toward the base of Coal Creek Canyon, coming down the 2% grade from Tunnel 1. In a minute or so, the train will be headed straight for the photographer! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106400 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, February 5, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden (7,020ft) Arvada, CO 1444 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF The battery box, located behind the cab here, was taken from a Warbonnet C44-9W. Since the model is the same, the paint scheme (obviously) is irrelevant. I note it, however, because it seems like nearly every Warbonnet left has an orange battery box...so isn't it ironic that we have a Heritage 1 C44-9W here with a Warbonnet battery box! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106399 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, February 5, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden (7,020ft) Arvada, CO 1390 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF BNSF has been hauling a LOT of steel coils west out of Denver over the Moffat lately. The Denver-Provo seems to typically have anywhere from 10-20 of these cars on the train. Giant rolls of steel...that'll add some weight to the train! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106398 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, February 5, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden (7,020ft) Arvada, CO 1394 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF On Super Bowl Sunday, a Grand Junction based crew takes BNSF's Denver-Provo west on the main at Leyden in wonderful late afternoon light. The lead unit is an ES44C4, but in an odd number range. Nearly every unit in the 4000s currently on BNSF's roster is a C44-9W. There are 100 units (BNSF 4200-4299) that are ES44C4s. They are Tier 4 "credit" units. BNSF saved up some emissions credits to be able to order these Tier 3 units after the Tier 4 deadline. Some of note is the quality of the camera in the iPhone 7 Plus. I just happened to notice this train as I was driving and stopped for a few shots. I didn't have my Canon with me, so I use the old iPhone instead. Not bad quality at all! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106396 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 27, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden (7,020ft) Arvada, CO 1357 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF A single ES44C4 brings up the tail end of an eastbound Provo-Lincoln manifest on the main at Leyden. Many of the businesses BNSF (and Utah Railway) handle in the Salt Lake area use tank cars, so it is quite common to find large number of tank cars on BNSF manifests on the Moffat. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106395 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 27, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden (7,020ft) Arvada, CO 1514 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF A quartet of BNSF GEs lead the Provo-Denver trackage rights train east down the main at Leyden. The lighting was absolutely perfect for this train, although it was a chilly morning. Only 9°F on the thermometer at this point! I believe BNSF tends to call its eastbound trains out of Grand Junction at a fairly consistent time as it is not uncommon to find an eastbound BNSF east of the Moffat Tunnel at or shortly after sunrise. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106394 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 27, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden (7,020ft) Arvada, CO 1285 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF After an overnight run from Grand Junction, BNSF's Provo-Lincoln manifest glides east down the main at Leyden. As you can see from the plow of BNSF 6759, there is still plenty of snow in the Colorado high country! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106390 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 25, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Chemical (MP 14.5) Arvada, CO 1471 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific The West Local has an Advanced Approach (flashing yellow) signal at the intermediate west of Leyden. The train will head down the main at Rocky so it can get to the Rocky Spur, but DS-80 has not yet set up a signal at the east end of Rocky. If anything happens with the sole-remaining customer at the north end of the Rocky Spur, the West Local will fade into the history books. So I figure it is worth shooting now, as much as possible. On a side note, UP 1359 is ex-DRGW 3118! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106389 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 25, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Chemical (MP 14.5) Arvada, CO 1617 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific As luck would have it, the engineer on the West Local needed to throttle up a notch just as the West Local approached the camera! 10-15 years ago, the West Local would sometimes draw four geeps for power because the train could be 30-50 cars long. This was when Rocky Flats was still in its cleanup phase and Mesa Oil was still located west of Leyden. Now, however, the Rocky Flats cleanup project has long since been completed and Mesa Oil has moved, leaving only the aggregate plant at the north end of the Rocky Spur as the sole customer for the West Local. So why send three units to handle a single car? This same power is used on the South Local, which runs down to Sedalia on the Joint Line on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is easier to just leave the power MU'd together for the trip west on Wednesday's. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106388 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 25, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Chemical (MP 14.5) Arvada, CO 1521 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific As time continue to march ever forward, the number of patched (but not yet repainted) units from the DRGW and Espee days continues to decrease. Whereas it was common to find at least one or two patched DRGW or Espee units on the West Local, all three of these units are now wearing Armour Yellow. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106387 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 25, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Chemical (MP 14.5) Arvada, CO 1491 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific Sadly, this is what the West Local has typically become...just a handful of cars (or, in this case, only one) for the one day per week trip west to the Rocky Spur. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106386 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, January 25, 2017 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden (7,020ft) Arvada, CO 1453 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak I was hoping that this 14-hour-late Zephyr might actually be late enough to be held at Rocky or Leyden in order to meet the morning Zephyr. Turns out that wasn't the case...dispatch got the train as close to Denver as possible. #6 had to hold at the Pecos Crossover to wait for #5, causing it to lose even more time. The station in Denver can now only support two non-commuter trains. Most of the year, that would allow both #5 and #6 to be in the station at the same time if necessary. But right now, in January, the Winter Park Express Ski Train is taking up one of the tracks, requiring the very late #6 to wait at Pecos. Here, the train is headed toward a clear signal at east Leyden. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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