Photo ID: 111618 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Tolland (9,356 ft) Gilpin County, CO 296 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak A Phase 7 P42DC led the Winter Park Express this morning, and another Phase 7 leads the westbound Zephyr now, on the main at Tolland. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111617 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Portal (5,750 ft) Gilpin County, CO 252 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak As you would probably expect at 9,200 feet above sea level at the start of January, East Portal is something of a frozen tundra. It is quite windy and very cold, with snow blowing around all over the valley. The Winter Park Express Ski Train has a clear (green) signal, ready to dive into the 6.2-mile-long tunnel. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111616 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Portal (5,750 ft) Gilpin County, CO 362 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak For the past several years, Amtrak has been running its Winter Park Express Ski Train. This season, the Colorado Department of Transportation is helping to subsidize the cost of tickets, and passengers can make a one way trip for as low as $19! There are only five Superliners are the train right now, but two additional cars are supposed to be added sometime soon. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111615 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Portal (5,750 ft) Gilpin County, CO 282 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak At the grade crossing of East Portal, the westbound Winter Park Express is on a clear (green) signal, making great time on its way to Winter Park. The train is about 20 minutes early, and now only a mile or so away from the Moffat Tunnel. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111614 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Eisele to Plain (MP 21.8 to MP 24.0) Arvada, CO 308 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Just west of the west switch of Eisele (Clay), we get a nice look at the Winter Park Express as it continues west, right on time. Note the orange bag covering the coupler of AMTK 75. This is used to prevent snow from building up in the knuckle of the coupler. In Fraser, the power will be run around the train, and AMTK 75 will be coupled up to the train for the trip back east. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111613 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Eisele (Clay) (5,780 ft) Arvada, CO 335 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak AMTK 75 and AMTK 146 are power for the Winter Park Express Ski Train this morning. If you look close, you might notice a Rio Grande herald sticker has been applied to the side of the nose of AMTK 75! A nice little homage to the history of the train. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111612 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden to Rocky (MP 13.4 to MP 17.4) Arvada, CO 358 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Mostly overcast skies are reducing light, resulting in a slight blur of the lead units on the morning Winter Park Express Ski Train here. At some point in the next few weeks, two more coaches are slated to show up to extend the length of the train. For now, five Superliners (four coaches and a lounge car) house the skiers. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111611 Date Shot Photo By Friday, January 3, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden to Rocky (MP 13.4 to MP 17.4) Arvada, CO 299 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak There is a temperature inversion east of Denver, creating a low layer of clouds over the ground. As the sun is rising, it is creating a bright blast of light to the east as the westbound Winter Park Express heads west out of Leyden. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111606 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, December 31, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS013 (West Leyden) Arvada, CO 296 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak On the final day of 2024, I decided to try to replicate the first shot I took on New Year's Day to start the year. You can see the photo that I am referring to, taken at the west switch of Leyden. Getting the westbound Zephyr at this same spot today felt like a nice way to book end the year. It was a record-setting year for ColoradoRailfan. I added 1,627 photos to my site, obliterating the previous record of 1,060 that I set in 2023. I look forward to bringing more pictures to everyone in 2025! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111507 Date Shot Photo By Friday, December 20, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Eisele (Clay) (5,780 ft) Arvada, CO 344 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak As the morning Zephyr makes its way west on the main at Eisele (Clay), a herd of elk wander around in Jefferson County Open Space north of Rocky. Passengers often enjoy views of wild life on the Zephyr, particularly in the area around Big Ten. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111506 Date Shot Photo By Friday, December 20, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Chemical (MP 14.5) Arvada, CO 284 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The Zephyr is running on time, roughly two hours behind the Winter Park Express that came through earlier. The Zephyr has a very standard consist with a pair of P42DCs, a baggage car, and seven Superliners as it heads west between Leyden and Rocky. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111505 Date Shot Photo By Friday, December 20, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Chemical (MP 14.5) Arvada, CO 296 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Decided to go for a bit of an artsy shot here, shooting from the "dark side of the tracks". I bumped the contrast and decreased the exposure of the train, creating a bit of a silhouette shot with the Denver skyline in the distance. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111504 Date Shot Photo By Friday, December 20, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden to Rocky (MP 13.4 to MP 17.4) Arvada, CO 354 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak The first P40DC that I've seen on the Zephyr in awhile, AMTK 824, showed up on the westbound Zephyr this morning. Now, in reality, AMTK 824 is now a P42DC after having been rebuilt. But it still retains its P40DC number on the roster. The two units are leading the train at track speed as it hustles west. The body of water in the distance is Standley Lake, a source of drinking water for the Denver suburb of Westminster. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111503 Date Shot Photo By Friday, December 20, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Leyden to Rocky (MP 13.4 to MP 17.4) Arvada, CO 329 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Just west of the west switch of Leyden, the Zephyr is headed west at track speed. Note the cars in the siding at Leyden in the background. This is not actually a train (per se), which is to say it does not have power. These open gondolas have been sitting, tied down in long term storage for a little over two months now, removing Leyden as a siding the dispatcher can use for meets. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 111502 Date Shot Photo By Friday, December 20, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Tunnel 1 (MP 23.4, 366 ft) Arvada, CO 454 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Amtrak Just west of Tunnel 1, the five-car Winter Park Express is making track speed as it tries to make up some time after departing Union Station 20 minutes late. It was ready to depart just as the Zephyr was arriving and backing into Track 4. Fortunately, there are no further delays to be had ahead, and it'll arrive at Winter Park three minutes early! I had planned to chase the train further west, but when I stopped for this shot, I discovered I picked up a screw in my tire and the tire was totally flat. So, changing the tire took catching up to the Ski Train out of reach. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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