Western Railroad Discussion > 5004 Highball Summit

Monday I was fortunate to meet up with a couple of  railroad engineers with whom I spent the entire day foaming in the vicinity of Soldier Summit, Utah. One was from Kansas City and the other from Portland. I met up with them on the west side of Summit. Sadly, it was raining, and the rain continued on and off most of the day. It was worse on the higher elevations around Summit and let up considerably further down on the east side of the pass. We even got some sun later in the day. My post today is solely about an empty Utah Ry. coal train we first encountered climbing towards Summit down around the Tie Fork Rest Area. We followed it over the pass and down to the Savage Coal Terminal near Wellington . Once it was loaded we followed it back over the pass to Tie Fork.

1. UTAH 5004 seen here on the 2% grade at Gilluly, in the rain. The train is about to cross under US 6 and continue up the middle of the Gilluly loops.
2. Topping out at a soggy Soldier Summit.
3. Dropping down the 2.4% grade below Kyune.

 
Thanx for looking
Dick,
Roosevelt, Utah
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/15 13:00 by 2ebright.

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1. Further down Price River Canyon passing the iconic Castle Gate.
2. Killer shot of the day. This wonderful power totaling 5 units, all painted in the traditional Utah Ry grey and red are curving off of the UP Green River Sub onto the Castle Valley Industrial Spur. The Savage Coal Terminal is just ahead. After it finished loading we followed it back up the hill, over Soldier Summit to the Tie Fork Rest Area west of Gilluly. The storm that is hanging over the Wasatch Plateau and Soldier Summit makes for a dramatic background from down here in the Castle Valley.
3. Headed west, back up the 2.4% grade towards Soldier Summit at the S curves at Kyune. Unseen are the 6 unit mid train, manned, helpers.

More to come



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/15 13:06 by 2ebright.

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1. Over the top at a now somewhat dried out Soldier Summit. The engineer made an aggressive brake application here which resulted in him having to drag the train down the 2% grade on the west side of the pass. Lots of blue brake shoe smoke as you will see.
2. Coming down the middle level of Gilluly with abundant smoke and very loud brake screeching. This shot was taken from a pullout on US6 with a 280 mm lens.
3. Nearly at the bottom of the 2% grade , the train is seen here on the high fill behind the Tie Fork Rest Area.

Thats all for today. Thanks again for looking.

Dick Ebright
Roosevelt, Utah

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Nice work, Dick. Pretty good looking power for units without pantographs.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Dick, you did great despite the weather.  And no orange units!

Really great photos.

Ronda Thomas

 No GWRR orange to be found!   Great stuff.

Amazing pictures. Utah Railway sure has been spoiling us with this non orange line up lately. I've caught it seveal times in and around Provo. I also caught this very train as it pulled into Provo to hand the cars off to UP.

Posted from Android

Spencer Peterson
Payson, UT

very very enjoyable series and photos ... i've had a soft spot for the Utah since i saw Alco RS-3s, in a late 60s Trains mag, coming out of the tunnels at Price and off their railroad onto the D&RG double track main ...

thankX for posting

Posted from Android

Outstanding chase photos! Thanks for sharing:}

GREAT stuff...!! Thanks for posting.

Nice set of shots. Really like the UTAH. Always try and catch it when passing thru the area. Lately, with good results.   Thanks for sharing.  Ben

sp8192 Wrote:
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>  No GWRR orange to be found!   Great stuff.

yes!