Western Railroad Discussion > An impressive but depressing sight

The San Luis and Rio Grande Antonito branch is roughly 30 miles of fairly straight track that runs between Alamosa, Colorado to Antonito.  For all but in downtown La Jara, it runs within several yards of Highway 285.  Yesterday I drove along there and there was stored cars all the way from Estrella to Antoniito, save approximately 2 miles south of La Jara. Most of the cars are aluminum coal gons, but there are a couple strings of tank cars, (and a some refrigerator cars).  By my calculations its about 18 miles worth.  All crossings are cut.  Somebody might want to count them for an exact number, but you get the idea, thats a lot of cars not in service.

I was told these were previously stored on the line out to South Fork, and their move to the Antonito branch is termporary. But between South Fork and Monte Vista the track isn't as close to the highway; your don't get the same feeling as you do when they are right next to the road. Looks like the shippers in Antonito are still active, so I will report back if they are moved by the end of the week.  I thought about posting a photo, but how do how do you show the magnitude of this?  Maybe a 20 minute video?,

Bill Kepner

ps.  Please don't start a political discussion around this.  it is what it is and your BS won't change anything!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/16 19:32 by drgw0579.

Motorcars are going to ride the line out of south fork in early June so it won't be before that.
Steve

Well, if a 120 car unit coal train is roughly 6700 feet long and 18 miles would be 95040 feet, that's about 14 unit coal trains.  

Missed the first move of mostly anything. This was the second move with 165 tank cars. Shoving it south towards Antonito.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/16 22:05 by SD45X.

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Is perlite still loaded at Antonito, and are there any other shippers on this line?

IIRC, there were three loading areas south of Antonito.  Two were perlite and one was scoria rock, I think.

Is that still the case?

Z

I have a friend on Facebook who was just working there. Pulled a bunch of cars out from there. He says there was about 1200 cars stored there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/16 21:54 by andrewamtrak.

Near the end, And the depot at LaJara. They went to beans and we left.
Saturday at Walsenburg the UP local was sitting in daylight. I didn't make the connection. We left Alamosa as the SLRG was coming into town. And they hung out in the yard east of town so we left.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/16 22:16 by SD45X.

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Can some one explain what kind of unit is 4120? It looks like a cross between a GP20-30 and F40

jst3751 Wrote:
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> Can some one explain what kind of unit is 4120? It
> looks like a cross between a GP20-30 and F40

I don't see any 4120, but if you meant 4142 (or 4136), you're pretty close:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_GP40-based_passenger_locomotives#GP40FH-2

Of the seven that Iowa Pacific acquired, four are on the SLRG. According to a post a while back by Ed Ellis (of Iowa Pacific), these four have been re-geared for freight service, but have retained their HEP equipment so they can pull passenger trains in the tourist season.

Peter Varlien
Heimdal,

zephyrus Wrote:
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> IIRC, there were three loading areas south of
> Antonito.  Two were perlite and one was scoria
> rock, I think.
>
> Is that still the case?
>
> Z

Several carloads of what looked like scoria rolled past the Alamosa depot web cam a couple of weeks ago while I happened to be looking.
The same train also had covered hoppers, which is what perlite is shipped in.

(Alamosa web cam: http://riogranderr.player.camzonecdn.com/v1.0/CamzoneStreamPlayer?channel=riogranderr&iframe=yes&czlogourl=&clientlogourl=&clientlogoalpha=50&clientlogopos=topleft&toolbar=yes&backgroundcolor=000000&backgroundalpha=100&toolbarbgcolor=000000&toolbaralpha=100&toolbartextcolor=000000&)

Peter Varlien
Heimdal,

jst3751 Wrote:
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> Can some one explain what kind of unit is 4120? It
> looks like a cross between a GP20-30 and F40

They are actually a cross of a Gp40 and F45 Cowl.

Posted from Android

Super cool power for a small railroad!   They even still have their strobe lights..

>IIRC, there were three loading areas south of Antonito.  Two were perlite and one was scoria rock, I think. 

One perlite mill has been closed the last couple years. From where I sit, the other also looks dormant.  There are 3 cars of scoria rock loaded and a forth partially.  Maybe it will be easier to truck the cars up to Alamosa.
 

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Thanks

No, it doesn't transload well, more than likely just a business lull. The dormant plant was sold about 10 years ago
with the intent to reopen, didn't happen. In pure numbers there's more money in that level of storage than whatever
comes out of Antonito. Curious as to why they pulled those off the South Fork line.

Out

jst3751 Wrote:
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> Can some one explain what kind of unit is 4120? It
> looks like a cross between a GP20-30 and F40

As noted above and in wiki they are gp40 with f45 long hood grafted on.  NJT had 17 F40ph-2 that went well with the then current comet passenger cars so they contracted with MK to build a simialar look using F45 long hoods but also loosing the back porch and gaining a rad fan for the HEP motor.  Almost all were build this way until MK ran out of F45 hoods so they fabricated several of the last builds which likely went to Metro North and are still in service there.  The linage of these gp40 were CR,RI and if memory serves I think CNW.  Their acquisiton was the beginning of the end for the U34CH, and frankly having to commute behind good riddens on the U-boats.  While pretty ugly the ran really well and fit nicely into the NJT stable of growing 40 type locomotives.  Wierd to see them in freight service. 
Edit on linage, CR RI UP MLW and Iowa Northern. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/16 09:21 by pal77.

callum_out Wrote:
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> No, it doesn't transload well, more than likely
> just a business lull. The dormant plant was sold
> about 10 years ago
> with the intent to reopen, didn't happen. In pure
> numbers there's more money in that level of
> storage than whatever
> comes out of Antonito. Curious as to why they
> pulled those off the South Fork line.
>
> Out

I have a friend who is also an IPH employe. He has been on the Grenada Ry. but has been "borrowed out" to the SLRG for this project. Here's what he told me:

They (SLRG) got a list of specific cars from the lessor to dig out and send somewhere. Of course, they are not at the head of the line or even remotely adjacent to each other, so much shuffling of the deck is taking place. The Antonito branch is just a "for now" place to hold cars not needed, storage cars will go back out to the west of Monte Vista when work is completed. He expects this project to take 2-3 weeks.

NZ

Makes sense, thanks for the heads up. It's pretty depressing that no business has developed between Alamosa
abd Antonito, even the neat runaround at Coors is no longer used.

Out

I guess this squelches talk about re-laying the third rail between Antonito and Alamosa. ;>))