The BNSF train to the left and the UP train to the right are both currently facing south (geographically). However, the BNSF train at Eisele (Clay) is eastbound and the UP train at Rocky is westbound. The UP train will climb up and around Big Ten, taking the siding at Eisele to meet the oil load.
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Posted By Terry Ten Eyck On Tuesday, March 11, 2025 At 5:47:36 PM (PT)
Kevin Morgan had a busy and productive day! His photographs brilliantly display a lot of rail activity and his creativity. These two locomotives are about 725 feet apart with about 8,600 feet of rail and 160 vertical feet between them. The descending train in the foreground is on the main track of the steep 2% Fireclay/Clay/Eisele passing track, which is the only siding not built on a slack grade between Coal Mines Junction/Leyden and the West Slope. In 1902, Moffat's Chief Engineer, H. A. Sumner, located passing tracks with grades reduced to about 1.0% - 1.2% at five mile intervals and since this was only about 2.5 miles from Plateau/Arena/Rocky, Sumner located the next passing track at Goodenough/Plainview. Between February and May 1937, Wm. H. C. Jones, Chief Engineer for the Denver & Salt Lake Railway, built the Fireclay passing track on the original 2% grade.
