Western Railroad Discussion > UP work train going to open line West of Phoenix:}

Wishful thinking, would be nice, hopefully so, probably not!

This afternoon, Union Pacific ran a very large work train South out of Denver down the Joint Line heading for Phoenix. I'm not exactly sure where the track work is going to take place but I don't think that it will be on the line West out of Phoenix:}

It was a neat train to see and watch roll by but it sure was a challenge to photograph. The train symbol was the WLXPXG-22 (Work train-Lexington, NE-Phoenix, AZ-Gang) with 86 loads, 7 empties and 7125' long.

1)I hiked over to Chatfield Reservoir hoping to get some of the train stretched out but when I noticed that Union Pacific GP40P-2 #1373 was sitting on the end of a cut of cars, I decided that I would try and fit that in the frame as well.
UP 1373 is the ex-SP 7601, exx 3198 and was at one time equipped with a Steam Generator for service on the commuter trains out of San Francisco. Notice the squared off back of the engine. There were only 3 of these engines built and only two remain on the UP system.
Unfortunately a big wave cloud decided to block the Sun but the downtown skyscrapers of Denver in the background were in bright Sun:{

2)As the front of the train heads down the hill towards Acequia, some of the different types of work equipment that are on the train can be seen in this view.

3)With the train hauling butt and a massive traffic jam near the Factory Outlet stores in Castle Rock, I barely beat the train to Tomah and tried this location hopefully to get a good portion of the train in the shot but it didn't work out that Great.

Hopefully someone will have better luck with this thing as it continues its trek toward Phoenix!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/14 17:49 by SP8595.

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nice shots ... 93 cars for a work train is VERY VERY IMPRESSIVE ... very unusual for work to be of that size consist

Posted from Android

Great catch! Any photos on the Phoenix Line are somwaht scarce; especially west of Phoenix. Like you say it's doubtful that part of the line will reopen for through traffic to Phoenix.

Nice shots, John.

Randy Lundgren

Great shots John.

Ronda Thomas

Wow, what a colossal work train, nice pictures! Would to see them open up the Phoenix line from Wellton, AZ to Phoenix someday on the old SP.

Larry

I guess the route of the train is BNSF to the crossing in Tx with the old Cotton Rock, then El Paso and west?

That's a neat train, great catch!

John,
Good pics. upkpfan

Nice catch, John!

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

SP8595, would you happen to have any more shots of this train you could post?

Have seen long work trains before when double tie gangs in town.

Now lets get to whats interesting....that ex-SP GP-40P . Only 16 built. 13 for CNJ and 3 for SP

Looks like a lot of MofW employees will have an all-expense paid trip to sunny climates.

On the SP the "System Steel Gang" moved from north to south according to the seasons, laying rail in Northern Nevada in July and in New Mexico in February.

Nice job, what a monster.
JB

Great catch with that GP40P in the first shot, those are rare. And it's clean even!!

Man, I just can't get over how awesome that last shot is.

You know you're getting old when you see a Golden West Service boxcar in work train service. =/

TonyJ Wrote:
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> . . . it's doubtful that part of the line will
> reopen for through traffic to Phoenix.

You never know. It looks like they've rail-banked the line as opposed to ripping it up.

If they could ever crunch the numbers correctly, there might be some money to be made with some overnight intermodal trains on the Los Angeles-Phoenix market and the Los Angeles-Las Vegas market.

Maybe something along the lines of the CP "Iron Highway" experiment:

http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/displayrailway.pl?o=ihxx

VERY NICE...!!!! Thanks for sharing. I REALLY like the last pic!!

Neat looking train John. We don't get to see these very often on the move. UP 1373 was working in Salina KS on the Abilene local in 2008 & 2009 then went to Denver.
Brian Stevens