Western Railroad Discussion > Toto Tuesday: The Tale of a Coal Train . . .

When I left Denver on the 14th to go west, I learned that UP 5588 was right behind me with an empty coal train and would most likely be in the mix of shots during the day as I was in no particuler scheduled hurry but merely out railfanning and shooting anything that showed up.
During the course of the the I was all up and down C1 Trough Road between Kremmling and Bond shooting several trains, but this one never showed up.
No problem, I thought I would just run up the Craig Branch to see the activity there and catch it the following day in Rifle or Grand Junction on its way to West Elk.
Apparantly it did most of its traveling during the night and I managed to miss it in every location mentioned even though I was catching several other trains along the way, so it was forgotten.
By the morning of the 16th I had information it was loaded at West Elk during the night and might be parked somewhere but did not have any of the latest OS points.  By now I was in the Montrose and Delta CO area and was sure to stumble across it somewhere in my travels.
Spending the 16th and 17th on the Dotsero cutoff produced several nice location shots and trains but not the UP train I thought was going to be easy to find 3 days ago.
On the morning of the 18th I decided to gradually work my way back to Tulsa as the trip was about to end anyway, But following the KP out of Denver would be a must as much as possible.  There wasn't anything running on the KP in Eastern CO/Western KS except 1 coal load--CWEHD UP 5588-8820----after a week I had finally caught up with it at Sharon Springs KS just after a crew change on its trek east
1.     UP 5588-8820 CWEDH dropping down into McAllaser KS
2.     UP 5588-8820 through Winona KS with a new track warrant as far as Riga to hold the main for the SIDV
3.     The beauty of central/western Kansas rolling hills----you can get the whole train in one shot as it leaves Winona KS.
Photos May 18 2016  Thanks for looking
Brian Stevens

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Nice series Brian. After four days of searching, I'm glad you finally found your coal train.

Larry

Great trio, just goes to show anything goes while railfanning.
JB

"Rosco P Coooooal train!". I remember those. Glad you caught yours.

Posted from Android

Once upon a time you could see several coal trains a day on the ol' KP. Times sure have changed. Nice story and shots!
mg8711

Posted from Android