Western Railroad Discussion > A Four Train Tuesday on the Moffat!

Unfortunately, the exclamation point on the subject of this post is warranted. The Moffat has slowed to a crawl a lot of days lately...case in point was this past Sunday. In the 24 hour period (midnight-to-midnight), five trains when through the Moffat Tunnel. Two were Zephyr's, two were Ski Train's (the Winter Park Express), and one was a BNSF Provo-Denver. That was it!

Fortunately, today was a better day. Also fortunately, I recent became a permanent "work from home" employee with my job. And with a house that is located 5-8 minutes away from both Leyden and Rocky on the UP Moffat Tunnel Sub, life is good. I cannot always escape when there is a train abound, but frequently I can take 30 minutes and get a few shots.

Anyway, other than Amtrak, today saw a westbound BNSF sand train, two UP coal trains (a load and an empty), and a BNSF Provo-Denver manifest. Two coal trains...that's when you know it was a good day on the Moffat. So far in February, the Moffat has seen roughly one coal train per day on average (loads and empties)! Compare that to 2005 when it saw an average of 17 coal trains per day.

Anyway, enough chit chat...on with the pictures!

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1. BNSF has picked up some new business in the Salt Lake City area, quite possibly business that UP lost in favor of BNSF. Here, a unit sand train (the third such train in as many weeks) heads west on the main at Leyden with a trio of elephant-style SD70s (two SD70ACes and an SD70MAC) on the point.

2. The westbound sand trains that BNSF has been running on the Moffat are quite heavy. And that is fortunate for me as it gives me plenty of time to reposition ahead of the train! After shooting the train near east Leyden, I was able to get ahead of it and set up in Barbara's Gulch for this shot. The train is making less than 15 MPH.

3. This westbound sand train, moving away from the camera, likely has all units on the train in Run 8 right now in order to maintain the 13 MPH they are currently mustering. However, they will likely throttle back to Run 7 as they come around Big Ten Curve, which happens to be visible near the top of the frame. High winds are necessitating a 10 MPH slow around for all trains around the curve. 

Six more to come...

Kevin Morgan
Arvada, CO
ColoradoRailfan.com

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4. Coal is not quite dead on the Moffat just yet! A brand new ET44AC leads this eastbound "Public Service" coal train out of Leyden. 3 new gas generators have been built and are online at the Cherokee Power Plant in northeast Denver. One "old" coal burning unit is being converted to burn gas. Until that conversion is completed (sometime in 2017), this coal train will still run a few times a month.

5. The last two DPUs, bringing up the rear of the Public Service coal load, are about to cross Simms Street. Parallel to the tracks in 76th Avenue which, about 100 feet behind the photographer, turns into a private drive for the houses located along it. Their mailboxes can be seen standing here...how I'd enjoy one of those houses! 

6. A westbound coal empty heads west on the main at Leyden. To give you an idea of how much coal has declined recently, this was the first coal empty to come across the KP in eastern Colorado in 19 days! The last empty on the KP was on February 2nd. Other empties have run west on the Moffat since then, but regardless, coal has thinned out a lot. This empty is running west as the CVVSV-21. Apparently, the train will load at the Savage loadout near Price, UT and then continue west to Victorville, CA.

Three more to come...

Kevin Morgan
Arvada, CO
ColoradoRailfan.com

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7. After meeting the Victorville coal empty at Rocky, this Provo-Denver manifest is now rolling east through Barbara's Gulch with a clear shot the rest of the way into town. The original crew that took the train out of Grand Junction could only make it as far as Cliff. There, a Denver-based relief crew took over for the rest of the journey into Denver. 

8. A Canadian National ES44DC - one of only 125 on the roster - visits Colorado on a BNSF manifest.

9. The Provo-Denver glides past the old Mesa Oil plant located off CO-72. Mesa Oil moved to a new location in Denver over a year ago, removing a customer for UP's West Local to service. The plant has stood abandoned since Mesa Oil left.

That's All Folks!

Kevin Morgan
Arvada, CO
ColoradoRailfan.com

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Very nice photos, and good to see some coal trains out moveing as well.
Brian Stevens

Cool Kevin... What time was the sand train?

Posted from iPhone

anybody know what the symbol of that w/b bnsf sand train is?  thanks for any info........

66

Nice shots!

The sand train shots were around 10:30am. The notes I have for the sand train show it as the UEOLWGN1-17A.

Kevin Morgan
Arvada, CO
ColoradoRailfan.com

Great day Kevin, thanks for getting them. I like your office better than mine. Mine is 100 yards from the Tennessee Pass mainline which doesn't help much these days :)

T

Nice series Kevin! Some good looking UP power and two coal trains!?! No way:}

Wow that is a better day for freight traffic.  Thanks for sharing Kevin.  Congrats on the work at home deal that is awesome.  Look forward to more Moffat action.

Kevin - Super that you can work from home. Terrific set of photos on a great day for February in Colorado.

Paul Brennecke
Golden, CO