Photo ID: 111994 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, March 26, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Big Ten Curve (MP 19.5 to MP 20.2) Arvada, CO 34 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The Zephyr is kicking up a bit of exhaust as it rounds the bend and approaches the east switch of Eisele (Clay). Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111993 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, March 26, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Big Ten Curve (MP 19.5 to MP 20.2) Arvada, CO 31 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Several reports have indicated that Amtrak is planning to add another sleeper and another coach to the Zephyr for Spring and Summer of 2025. While the westbound Zephyr has had a handful of runs with eight Superliners in the past few weeks, at the moment, it is still typically only running with seven. It is seen here, climbing the north edge of Big Ten Curve. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111992 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, March 26, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Big Ten Curve (MP 19.5 to MP 20.2) Arvada, CO 32 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The westbound Zephyr is at the base of the north leg of Big Ten Curve, just west of Rocky. While brown is still the dominating color in the landscape, there is perhaps a hit of green mixed in. The 2024-2025 winter season has seen an above-average snowfall, so hopefully we will be setting up for a nice green May and June. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111991 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Arvada to Leyden (MP 7.5 to MP 11.9) Arvada, CO 49 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak In the midst of golden hour, about 30 minutes before the sun dips behind the Rocky Mountains, the Winter Park Express cruises along at track speed in the Denver suburb of Arvada. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111990 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed 66th Avenue (MP 9.25) Arvada, CO 49 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The eastbound Winter Park Express crosses 66th Avenue in the middle of Arvada, about nine miles away from its destination at Union Station. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111989 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden to Rocky (MP 13.4 to MP 17.4) Arvada, CO 59 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF At the start of Golden Hour, you couldn't ask for better light as a westbound BNSF oil empty charges west out of Leyden. BNSF pretty consistently runs their eastbound oil loads in a 3x(0)x3 configuration. Consequently, it makes sense that this westbound empty has six units on the head end. Three of the unit move to the east end of the train for journey back east. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111987 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS016 (East Rocky) Arvada, CO 49 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The eastbound Zephyr is about to knock down a clear (green) signal at the east end of Rocky, hustling to make it in to Denver on time. In fact, it will end up arriving in Denver 11 minutes early. To the left, not the back end of a UP oil empty, which is starting to pull west out of Rocky. The oil train will go up to Plain to meet the Winter Park Express. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111986 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rocky (7,330ft) Arvada, CO 47 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak One of my favorite times of year is the start of Daylight Savings Time. Once that starts up, it is easy to get shots of the eastbound Zephyr in daylight, providing it is not excessively late. Fortunately, it is on time this evening as it meets with a westbound UP oil train at Rocky. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111985 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS019 (West Rocky) Arvada, CO 42 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The eastbound California Zephyr is out of its 10 MPH speed restriction around Big Ten, and is accelerating to track speed as it meets a westbound UP oil train at Rocky. The conductor from the UP train is out of view behind the lead unit, giving a roll by to the Zephyr. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111984 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Big Ten Curve (MP 19.5 to MP 20.2) Arvada, CO 49 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak We are almost to the spring equinox, but the sun still hasn't moved quite far enough north for direct sunlight on the side of the eastbound Zephyr as it rounds the northeast edge of Big Ten Curve. The train is restricted to 10 MPH right here due to forecasted high winds. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111983 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Little Ten Curve (MP 18.7 to MP 18.9) Arvada, CO 46 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A westbound UP oil empty sits on the siding near the west end of Rocky, wrapping around Little Ten Curve. The train is awaiting the eastbound California Zephyr, current approaching the east end of Eisele (Clay). Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111982 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS041 (East Rollins) Gilpin County, CO 59 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The evening California Zephyr passes through the OS at the east switch of Rollins along South Boulder Creek. The train departed Fraser 37 minutes late, but would have a straight shot from there into Denver and make up some time, arriving in Denver 11 minutes early! AMTK 167, sporting Phase 7 paint, is in the second position this evening. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111981 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Troublesome (5,570 ft) Grand County, CO 41 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific A single ES44AC brings up the tail end of UP's MNYGJ at Troublesome. Those that have seen a lot of pictures from the Moffat can probably recognize the pretty significant difference in makeup of UP's North Yard / Grand Junction manifests compared to BNSF's Denver / Provo manifests. The UP manifests are primarily composed of covered hoppers, whereas BNSF manifest are primarily composed of tank cars. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111980 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Troublesome (5,570 ft) Grand County, CO 40 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific As this westbound manifest continues west, the elevation also continues to decrease. Here at Troublesome, most of the snow on the ground has now melted as the overall snowfall has been less and the temperatures are slightly higher. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111979 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, March 16, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS097 (East Troublesome) Grand County, CO 43 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific UP's MNYGJ knocks down a clear (green) signal at the east end of Troublesome. This exact location was the scene for a terrible tragedy in the 1950s. The crew on an eastbound Rio Grande manifest missed an Approach (yellow) signal at the west end of Troublesome. The first signal that wasn't green since departing Bond. A westbound Rio Grande manifest was entering the siding here at the east switch for a meet. Because the eastbound did not see the yellow signal, the engineer was not slowing to come to a stop at the red signal here at the east end. By the time the crew realized it and put the train in emergency, it was too late. The eastbound impacted with the westbound, causing a significant derailment. This led to Rio Grande producing its own 22-minute training/safety video about the incident. The video was titled "The Trouble at Troublesome". The invention and implementation of PTC should, in theory, prevent that type of accident from ever happening again. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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