Saturday, September 22, 2007 - Today I went up to the east portal of the Moffat Tunnel to see what action was happening for the last official day of the summer. To start of the morning, an eastbound coal load went into emergency and came to a stop on the west switch of Cliff. The crew worked with the maintenance help desk to take care of the problem as soon as possible.
The problem turned out to be the independent air brake on the first (of the three) DPU swing units. From what I could gather on the scanner, the trucks (brakes) had to be cut out of that units and the DPU had to be linked to a different unit. The problem was fixed after about three hours...not bad considered the crew had to move back and forth between the head end on the swing helpers at least three times!
After the train got its air back, things started moving again...good for me as there were westbounds at Cliff, Crescent, Plain and Leyden. Oh, and eastbounds at Rollins, Tolland and Tabernash! Amtrak got stuck at Crescent for the duration, and made good time when a clear signal finally came.
Up above 9,000 feet (such as at the east portal of the Moffat Tunnel), the fall colors are just about at their peak. Somewhat ironic considering the first official day of fall isn't until tomorrow...So, here are 12 pictures (three from yesterday evening in town) of trains making their way through the soon-to-be-fall air of the Colorado high country! Enjoy.
|
|
