Photo ID: 113013 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, September 2, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rocky (7,330ft) Arvada, CO 272 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific, Herzog Some maintenance of way cars are stored in the house track at Rocky, waiting for their next assignment. As part of ballast and tie replacement project UP is undertaking, there are some new ties along the house track. The gondolas are filled with tie plates. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113012 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, September 2, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rocky (7,330ft) Arvada, CO 282 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific, Herzog A pair of GEs brings up the tail end of a westbound ballast train, currently in the siding at Rocky. These ballast cars, incidentally, are pretty amazing. They each have onboard computers and satellite link-ups. Each car knows where it is on the rails and how fast the train is moving (when it is moving). This allows the ballast cars to automatically dump ballast at the exact correct rate. As a result of being GPS enabled, the cars stop dumping ballast when crossing grade crossing and over switches. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113011 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, September 2, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rocky (7,330ft) Arvada, CO 281 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific, Herzog This westbound ballast train was setup in a 3x2 configuration. However, when it started pulling out of the siding at Rocky, the drawbar on the front of the lead ballast car broke, and the train went into emergency. Fortunately, the train was not further west when it broken, as there is a chance the train would've blocked the mainline. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113010 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, September 2, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rocky (7,330ft) Arvada, CO 263 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific, Herzog A westbound ballast train has suffered a broken drawbar. When the drawbar broke, the engines (obviously) pulled away from the cars, putting the train into emergency. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113009 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, September 2, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed CP DS019 (West Rocky) Arvada, CO 292 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific, Herzog Union Pacific is starting a significant maintenance project on the Moffat. It appears they are going to re-ballast much of the line (if not the entire thing). They are also going to re-tie the Moffat Tunnel itself. Here, a ballast train was preparing to head west and drop ballast. Unfortunately, the train broke the drawbar on the lead ballast car, so it is not going anywhere anytime soon! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 113008 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, September 2, 2025 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Rocky (7,330ft) Arvada, CO 315 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Union Pacific, Herzog This westbound ballast train stopped in the siding at Rocky to meet the westbound Rocky Mountaineer. After the Mountaineer passed, the ballast train started pulling west and broke the drawbar on the west end of the lead ballast car! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106253 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, October 13, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Chemical (MP 14.5) Arvada, CO 1194 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Herzog A look at one of the (rather colorful) red and silver Herzog ballast cars. As you can see, there is still ballast in this car. Not all of the ballast on the train was needed for the maintenance that was done in Moffat Tunnel. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106251 Date Shot Photo By Thursday, October 13, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Chemical (MP 14.5) Arvada, CO 1227 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Herzog, Union Pacific "One of these things is not like the others!" This ballast train consisted entirely of red and silver Herzog cars, with the exception of one single rusty-brown car (also Herzog). Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106082 Date Shot Photo By Friday, June 10, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1373 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Herzog, Union Pacific A pair of units bring up the tail end of a colorful Herzog ballast train through Arvada. The train unloaded on portions of the former Rio Grande and is currently headed toward Cheyenne. From there, it will likely head west to the quarry and reload. When loaded, ballast trains are (not surprisingly) very heavy and, as a result, frequently run with DPUs. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106081 Date Shot Photo By Friday, June 10, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1372 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Herzog Ballast cars, naturally, have large doors on the bottom for dumping the ballast along the right-of-way. Rather than having to operate the doors manually, the doors on each car have a motor, which is powered by a battery. Those batteries are charged by these solar panels. The panels can rotate in order to collect the maximum amount of sunlight possible. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 106080 Date Shot Photo By Friday, June 10, 2016 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Simms Street Arvada, CO 1396 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Herzog Some very new (and colorful) Herzog ballast cars rolls eastbound on the Moffat near Simms Street. Herzog is a leading company in track construction and maintenance. The company owns these cars and leases them to railroads who, in turn, use them to dump ballast. It's really nice having such a colorful scheme on these new cars. They definitely stand out! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 102253 Date Shot Photo By Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Troublesome (DS097) Kremmling, CO 2949 (3 Comments Posted) Subdivision Railroad Moffat Tunnel (UP) Herzog At the east switch of Troublesome, a Herzog work train has just picked up some track and time to head east to Flat. The train has been working to tidy up the railroad by picking up discarded ties along the right of way. Once reaching Flat, the train will tie down in the house track for the day. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.