Western Railroad Discussion > "West is Best" Road Trip: Day 9: Ballast on Raton

Good Evening,

The term, "Third times the charm" cannot be any truer than in this instance on Day 8 of my trip. The UCHELGS9-16B, a ballast train from Granite, WY from the UP (interchanged at Cheyenne) to Las Vegas, NM, has been a very elusive train for several railfans trying to catch it on rare mileage. FrontRangeTrains and I, as well as some friends from Illinois attempted over a period of 2 days to try and catch this train, but got skunked each time. Today on 5/24 however, my luck hit its zenith as crews got the train ready to head south over Raton Pass! I made the drive from my overnight hotel in Denver to La Junta to finally get this bagged. I started out at La Junta to hook up with the ballast train, and followed it West along US 350 into Trinidad, and on several spots on the Pass itself. The train ended up tieing down at Raton until tomorrow, where it will dump ballast en route to Las Vegas. The Railfan Gods were smiling on me as this was perfect chasing weather. Clear to partly cloudy, 80 degrees, little wind. Also, it seemed to me I was the only railfan out chasing the train. No one at Delhi, Gallinas, Raton, it was strange. Regardless, here are some of the shots from my chase of the elusive ballast train.

#1 and 2, BNSF 6292 does the honors as point power for the CHELGS. The train is climbing out of La Junta with all units working on overtime to keep it going. A BNSF SD70MAC makes a welcome appearance, adding even more variety to this otherwise special train,

#3. I went ahead of him a ways for a shot at the top of this hill near Timpas, CO. The scenery and solitude of the area from up here just spectacular.

Many more....

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#4. Money Shot. The Wig-Wag signal at Delhi, CO was an absolute must for this chase.

#5. The high deserts of Southern Colorado is strikingly beautiful in its own way. Wild flowers grow in this dry climate, a sharp (literally) contrast from the cacti that dot the landscape. This was land the Santa Fe was known for traversing in, and sold it well. Decades later, not much has changed, other than new power, and a new railroad.

#6. The deserts of Colorado are anything but flat. BNSF 6292 and all 4 of its DPU's are online as it gets this short train up the "sag" outside Pinon, CO.

More...

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Thanks for the nice series of pictures. Looked like a fun chase!

Larry

#7. Last shot from the Colorado desert side of the Raton Sub was just off the highway near Hoehne, CO. The DPUs, facing the correct way push the ballast train West, with the Twin Peaks and Sangre De Cristo Mountains providing a beautiful, snow capped backdrop.

#8. At Trinidad, there was an accident at a railroad crossing involving 2 drivers. From what I could gather, one ran a stop sign into the back of a car at the crossing. The crash was bad enough to where both cars were stalled on the tracks and couldnt move. The ballast train was coming into town doing about 10mph, so it was able to stop in time before hitting the cars. After a quick cleanup by Trinidad emergency responders, the train starts up out of the Trinidad Amtrak stop towards Raton Pass.

#9. No shot in Raton Pass is complete without a shot at the road bridge near Gallinas, CO.

Last few...

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#10. The next shot I needed was at Wootten Ranch, specifically the curve with the mountains in the background. At this point the train was making some beautiful noise on the curve as it struggled up the 3.5% grade at no more than 5mph. As this was a morning shot, the backlighting was pretty heavy here, but at least I'm happy to get sunlight in this shot. Had the train showed up 5 seconds earlier, The entire area would be shrouded in cloudiness.

#11. BNSF 6292 enters Raton on the siding near the station to tie down for the day. For the locals at Raton, this was a very surprising sight to see.

#12. With the ballast train tied down, I figured it best to stick around and wait for Amtrak and follow it into Raton Pass. AMTK 140 leads the train East towards Chicago as it departs Raton.

Tomorrow they will begin again, and the real reason why I'm driving down there, Semaphores.

Thanks for looking!

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Great shots, Carlos! You are a lucky man to get those, thanks for the post.

Tom

GOOD stuff...!!

I REALLY like Pic 3!!

#6 is near Model.

Great chase with some really super results.  I think #6 is a very impressive one.
Brian Stevens

Oh yeah - you did well!
 

Fantastic effort, Carlos - well mirrored in all of your images above!

Can't wait to see your chase from Raton to Las Vegas.....

Good Luck!

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

You are on a roll. Good luck tomorrow.
John

Thanks for posting these; it's great to finally see some photos of this elusive move!

Andy

Fantastic pictures - sure is great to see something different on the Raton Pass line.

Outstanding series, many thanks!

A great series chasing the train! Thanks so much for sharing on TO!

-Brian

Carlos, great shots ! 
The wig-wag and the broadside with the cactis shrubs were my favorites. Thanks for posting your work.