Monday, January 9, 2006 - Happy New Year to everyone! Hopefully your holidays were good to you. A few news items that I wanted to mention today. The 2006 Winter Ski Train started its season the week between Christmas and New Years with Holiday Trips up to Winter Park. I was able to shoot the train three of the four days it ran that week, and you can view the shots here.
At the end of 2005, the world was officially down to three Rio Grande units left unpatched on Union Pacific's roster. They are SD40T-2 5371 (currently in Helper), GP40-2 3100 (currently in Denver), and GP40-2 3110 (currently at the shops in Roseville). 3110 is in for a semi-annual inspection, and it is very possible it will receive a patch. Likewise, 3100 has some defects that prevent it from leading a train. As such, it will almost certainly be patched when it returns to Burnham for repairs, probably sometime this month. I caught DRGW 3100 on the Rocky Local a few days ago, stuck in between an SP GP40-2 and a UP (ex-DRGW) GP40-2. The UP GP40-2 is UP 5245, a complete repaint of DRGW 3122. This was, in fact, the first ever Rio Grande unit repainted in Union Pacific colors, back in 1997!
Finally, just this past weekend, UP 2001 (one of two specially painted Olympic Units) came to Denver on the IOADVX-04. I was fortunate enough to have it come to town on a Saturday, so I was able to get out and get some pictures of it and the train it was on. I devoted a Train Log and the events of the day that you can read about as well as view pictures. It was a wonderful opportunity and I'm not sure when I'll have the chance to see it again!
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