Photo ID: 111631 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Cliff (6,900 ft) Glipin County, CO 316 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF Crossing over South Boulder Creek, two DPUs bring up the tail end of the Provo-Denver at Cliff. A pair of units DPU'd on the back of a manifest is pretty standard for BNSF manifests running on the Moffat. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111630 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Cliff (6,900 ft) Gilpin County, CO 371 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF It can sometimes be a bit of a challenge, capturing trains on the Moffat in direct sunlight in the height of winter. The low sun in the sky mixed with high mountain peaks keeps a lot of the line in shadows for much of the day. Here, the lead SD70ACe comes into directly sunlight on the main at Cliff as it crosses over South Boulder Creek. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111629 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Cliff (6,900 ft) Gilpin County, CO 280 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF The western 40% or so of Cliff hugs the north side of a mountain. Throughout winter, this part of the tracks never see any directly sunlight. As a result, it is pretty common for the rails to be buried in snow for months at time. Indeed, it is quite possible the tracks will be in snow until the spring melt. Meanwhile, an eastbound BNSF manifest rolls through the darkened scene. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111628 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Cliff (6,900 ft) Gilpin County, CO 308 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF After a stop in the siding at Rollins that lasted around 90 minutes, a relief crew for this Provo-Denver finally showed up. The crews swapped, and UP's DS-380 gave them a light to continue east. Indeed, there is nothing coming west out of Denver, and the train will have a clear shot to town. Here, the train is on the main track at Cliff. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111627 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Gilpin County, CO 280 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF BNSF 8396, an ES44C4, brings up the tail end of BNSF's Provo-Denver manifest. The train is currently sitting in the siding at Rollins. The crew will shortly reach their hours of service, and they are waiting for a relief crew that is presently on the way out of Denver. The train is close to 6,000 feet in length. Perhaps some holiday backlog traffic is on the train. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111626 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Gilpin County, CO 343 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF The engineer on BNSF 9037 is bringing the train to a full stop in the siding at Rollins. He has to stop the train a bit east of the ideal spot for a crew change. This is because of the length of the train. They had to come a bit further east in order to clear the west switch of Rollins and keep the main clear. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111625 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Gilpin County, CO 308 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF This GP39-3 is catching a ride on BNSF's Provo-Denver manifest. The unit is likely being used as a switcher in either Provo or Grand Junction. The unit apparently has a mechanical issue and is being transported to Denver so it can be repaired. After being repaired, it will likely head back west for further switching duties. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111624 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins (8,320 ft) Gilpin County, CO 312 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF This Provo-Denver has taken the siding at Rollins to await a dog catch crew that is coming out of Denver. The relief crew will take the train the remainder of the way into the yard in Denver. The track to the left is the house track at Rollins, which does not quite follow the same alignment as the siding and main. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111623 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins to Tolland (MP 41.2 to MP 45.8) Gilpin County, CO 298 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF In the canyon between Rollins and Tolland, along South Boulder Creek, six units lead up BNSF's Provo-Denver manifest. After sitting for nearly three hours at Winter Park for the Winter Park Express and the Zephyr, the crew is running short on time. They will be going into the siding at Rollins to wait for a relief crew that is already on the way out of Denver. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111622 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rollins to Tolland (MP 41.2 to MP 45.8) Gilpin County, CO 460 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF This eastbound BNSF manifest had to wait in the siding of Winter Park for both the Winter Park Express Ski Train and the California Zephyr before getting its turn to head east. Now, about an hour after the Zephyr was at Tolland, the manifest is rolling along quickly just east of Tolland, the Continental Divide standing tall and snow-covered in the distance. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111610 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, December 31, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Arvada to Leyden (MP 7.5 to MP 11.9) Arvada, CO 329 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF The final shot of 2024 for me! Six BNSF units - all GE except for a single SD70ACe - lead a westbound oil empty through Arvada on the way west to Wellington, UT. From there, the power will be changed and the train will return east in a 3x3 configuration. That, of course, will happen in 2025. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111609 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, December 31, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Arvada to Leyden (MP 7.5 to MP 11.9) Arvada, CO 327 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) BNSF After waiting for about 15 minutes at Arvada (CP DS007), this BNSF oil empty gets its turn on the single track main of the Moffat to head west. As is pretty common on BNSF oil trains, six units are on the head end of the train, though only three of the units are actually online and loading. The trailing three are currently just catching a ride. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111599 Date Shot Photo By Monday, December 30, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Sterling Sterling, CO 268 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Julesburg (UP) BNSF The sun is shining hard off the side of BNSF 4727. The main reason I included this shot is to take note of the fact that the nose of this C44-9W is blank. Or, more specifically, it is simply orange. No cigar band or herald is on the nose. It is also interesting that a C44-9W, with DC-traction motors, is leading a coal empty. The unit will be taken off the train in Alliance, NE. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111598 Date Shot Photo By Monday, December 30, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Sterling Sterling, CO 259 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Julesburg (UP) BNSF The sun is rapidly approaching the western horizon as a BNSF coal empty slowly pulls east toward a restricting signal at the west end of Sterling. Three units happen to lead this particular coal train this evening. The lead unit will be taken off the train in Alliance, NE. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111597 Date Shot Photo By Monday, December 30, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Sterling Sterling, CO 248 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Yard Shots BNSF The setup in Sterling is something of an interesting one. This is the south (west) end of BNSF's Angora Subdivision, which started to the north in Alliance, NE. BNSF does not own any trackage west out of Sterling. For 23 miles between Sterling and Union, BNSF trains run on UP's Julesburg Subdivision. Interestingly, UP does not own any track west of Union, and in fact does not operate any trains west of Sterling. BNSF now dispatches the UP-owned 23-mile stretch of track. UP's Julesburg Sub continues east from Sterling and meets with the UP Overland Route in Julesburg, CO, 60 miles to the northeast. In this shot, a BNSF coal load just had a crew change, and the outbound train is ready to depart west. The track(s) the coal train are on are still owned by BNSF. The track to the right is UP. The BNSF coal load will pull to the west end of Sterling to meet an eastbound coal empty before departing on the 23-mile of UP Julesburg track. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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