Holy cow! I was very pleased to catch this unpatched Espee unit serving as a DPU on this coal load. At the time of this picture, there were only 12 unpatched Espee AC4400CW's remaining on UP's roster. That is out of the 273 that were originally rostered.
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Whew! Got sticky brakes!? A bit of smoke is being produced by a stuck brake on the Rocky Local as it moves down the mainline just west of Leyden. The local will take the siding at Leyden to wait on two westbounds that have yet to come out of Denver.
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After pulling a string of covered hoppers from TXI Aggregates, the West Local backs across Colorado Highway 93 on its way back down to the mainline at Rocky. The last unit in the consist in a former Rio Grande GP40-2!
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Looks somebody has spent some time to try to "unpatch" this former Espee GP40M-2! You can clearly see the outline of a UP shield that has been painted over on the nose!!
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The Rocky Local (now referred to as the West Local) makes a rare Saturday appearance on the Rocky Flats Industrial Lead. The local is switching out hoppers at the TXI Aggregate plant, about four miles north of the Moffat mainline.
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After nearly three years, the Espee Heritage Unit finally made its way to Denver. It came in the night before on the Moffat. Didn't hang out long! It headed north on the MNYNP the following day. Here, the MNYNP sits in the siding at Platteville, CO.
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A last bit of light shines through here at Platteville before afternoon storm clouds totally take over. UP 1996 came through Denver for the first time. Here, the train sits on the siding at Platteville to wait for a southbound.
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A pretty descent action shot of UP 1996. The unit was second in the consist on the MNYNP. The train is on the Greeley Sub and the shot was taken from US-85, moving along at close to 40 MPH.
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A long lens look at the Espee Heritage Unit, UP 1996, as it runs north on UP's MNYNP. Lighting was a bit harsh here as the sun and the clouds were both in the western sky.
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I consider myself extremely lucky to have come across this consist! These days, finding a patched Espee unit is still fairly common. Two patched units in a consist is increasing rare. Finding three - particularly three without an other units - is just awesome. These units were on a coal empty heading for Energy, tied down in the siding at Sable.
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I'm not certain if I'll ever seen another unpatched Espee AC4400CW or not. UP 6417, seen here as the end DPU on an eastbound coal load in front of the Denver skyline, has worn a yellow patch now for nearly seven years! It switched from SP 371 to its new number on January 14, 2002.
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The Rocky Local throttles up as it moves west through Barbara's Gulch. The grade increases through here and a bit more power is needed to get the (rather long) local up to Rocky.
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Don't attempt to adjust your monitor! At the time of this shot, only 37 unpatched Espee units remained, and I was lucky enough to come across this SD40M-2, the fourth unit on the MNYRO-27. The rebuilt SD45 along with the SD40T-2 behind it are on their way to Ogden, UT where they will be placed in "long term storage".
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The power for the Rocky Local has run around the wye and is now backing to attach to the hopper returning to town. The train will shove down the spur back to the mainline and will then be in position to return to town.
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Two things are being done by the Rocky Local in this shot. First off, the power is preparing to spot some covered hoppers on the tail leg of the wye. Once those have been spotted, the power will come back around the wye in the foreground, attach to the hoppers in the foreground and shove back down to the mainline.
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