Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - Several railroads including Union Pacific, BNSF and Norfolk Southern will have some type of cars and/or power at Union Station for the Democratic National Convention next week. UP 844, two new ES44ACs, and 34 cars came down the Greeley Sub from Cheyenne today.
I wasn't sure if I could make it or not, but when I left work at 4:50pm to pick up my daughters from daycare, I decided to give it a try! According to the GPS, UP 844 was right around Brighton.
I picked up the girls at 5:15pm and heard UP 844 at Hazeltine on the scanner. I didn't think we had a chance to catch them before Union Station. Fortunately, at Hazeltine, they had to meet a high/wide train. Consequently, UP 844 had to run at restricted speed through the siding. That helped.
The next big help was due to DS-86. He was originally planning (much to my surprise) to run 844 west across the Belt Line until the tail end cleared UP Junction and then back all the way down to Union Station from there. The crew on 844 let DS-86 know the last time they tried that, they spent the rest of the day re-railing 844! The curve is too tight around that leg of the wye!
So, DS-86 had to knock down the signals and let them time out. That gave us sufficient time to make it to York Street. We had less than five minutes to spare though!
The train stopped at York Street because it was long enough it was going to need a track warrant past MP 637.6 on the Limon Sub in order to clear the switch and back into the yard. And, as luck would have it, another train already had a warrant at MP 637.6 heading east. So they waited. Once the train cleared their warrant, it was 844's turn.
Me and the girls got a few shots at York Street, along the Limon Sub, at 36th Street, and just outside Union Station! Oh, I also got a shot of the Pasco-Saginaw train tied down in Rennicks (with its rather nice/unique looking power consist).
Here are all the shots from the evening.
Enjoy. Be safe out there!!!
Kevin Morgan
Webmaster, ColoradoRailfan.com
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