Western Railroad Discussion > Gas Turbine moved from Great Western Rly

1 - Mammoet, a leading global Dutch company specializing in engineered heavy lifting, transport, and installation of large, complex structures for industries like energy, offshore, and construction, moved the million-pound gas turbine oversize load from Loveland, Colorado, on Saturday morning, March 21, 2026. 

This load, the second of four, was transported from the OmniTrax Great Western Railway Loveland transload to the Xcel Energy Fort St. Vrain Generating Station in Platteville, Colorado.  Xcel is expanding the plant with new 200 MW natural gas combustion turbines as part of its Clean Energy Plan to bolster grid reliability.

2 - Mammoet ready to roll with Colorado State Patrol escort 21 March 2026 at Loveland, CO.

3 - Close up view Mammoet heavy duty trailer after crossing Great Western Railway track.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/26 13:39 by cozephyr.

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Wow, cool!

Posted from iPhone

4 - Time lapse of Mammoet heavy duty move with GE Vernova built gas turbine at Loveland, CO, 21 March 2026.  Highway move to Fort St. Vrain Xcel generating station major upgrade to the power grid.

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That is a LOT of tires to kick!
JB

I'll bet changing a flat tire on that thing is pure hell. 

wish there were still tracks to fort st vrain, they just ripped out tracks that were at the plant

It is interesting that this turbine ended its rail journey on a shortline railroad. If the turbine was manufactured at the GE-Verona plant in Greenville, SC, it started its rail journey on a shortline; G&W's Carolina Piedmont and interchanged to CSX at Laurens, SC.

less disruptions to regular operations, nice place for the riggers with fewest power lines?

Even rated a pusher.

It amazes me how heavy those things are given their size is smaller than a locomotive and they are more than twice as heavy as a large modern 6 motor road locomotive.   What makes them so dense in their weight?

Thanks for sharing the post.   

Chip, terrific! Thanks for sharing.

Paul Brennecke
Golden, CO

dan Wrote:
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> wish there were still tracks to fort st vrain,
> they just ripped out tracks that were at the plant

Well, I bet they regret it now!  So short sighted.

the tracks were train less for decades pretty decrepit on the UP  Dent Branch remnant from the  still active La salle milliken fort Collins line, in the 2013 flood ? a big bridge over the platte washed out

you can barely see the tracks on the right, pic of the Power plant
and the abandoned ROW south of the plant, tracks were just left their if coal ever came to the plant.  It was the US's only nuclear steam reactor plant, and it only worked at best less than 50% of the time i think it was, so it was decommissioned, and the nuclear remnants are still on site, with armed security from dept of energy or their contractors, so with the power grid centered around the site a natural gas plant was built there, and the tracks were left in case coal generation ever made a comeback there.  These pics from 2020



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/26 23:17 by dan.

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marty shared this photo that Roger Puta took in july 81 just north east of the plant, thousands of fans went Fort St Vrain  there on UP excursions, the line saw a lot of freight traffic and was operated as paired track La Salle -commerce city  for freight trains during ww2 and had some scheduled passenger service.

8444 hauled some amtrak cars on the branch in  a1974 Will Hiata photo

really close to the Dent Wye just north of of Front saint vrain this was a 2010 trip to Milliken, the crew drained a lot of water out of the tender to lighten up for the move down the line.   more pics from the wye   and trip https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,2223377,2223427#msg-2223427

They built a new yard  south west of La Salle  for traffic in the area,  frac sand, looks  like another expansion may occur?   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Saint_Vrain_Nuclear_Power_Plant

google earth  40°14'32.04"N 104°52'01.34"W

https://earth.google.com/web/search/La+Salle,+Colorado/@40.24476803,-104.88324689,1449.95793514a,2455.91085135d,35y,37.09616778h,60.01536733t,0r/data=Cj4iJgokCeiLBYlsO0RAEVm-lC9rUkNAGUr3CkWYt1nAIb816Cri41rAKhAIARIKMjAyNS0wMi0wNRgBQgIIAToDCgEwQgIIAEoNCP___________wEQAA



 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/26 23:16 by dan.

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Milwaukee Wrote:
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> It amazes me how heavy those things are given
> their size is smaller than a locomotive and they
> are more than twice as heavy as a large modern 6
> motor road locomotive.   What makes them so
> dense in their weight?
>

Maybe that 'million pounds on the trailer' also includes the big steel spans as well. The actual turbine is just a big engine, so unless it's made from a lot more steel than a locomotive engine i.e. much thicker walls etc ()which is possible) it won't be denser than a locomotive engine. It's steel at the end of the day. 

dan Wrote:
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> It was the US's only nuclear steam
> reactor plant

Not sure what that term means.... According to Wiki it was the 2nd of 2 high temp gas cooled reactors in the US.

The main rule is don't drop it.  

Chuck 

exhaustED Wrote:
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> dan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It was the US's only nuclear steam
> > reactor plant
>
> Not sure what that term means.... According to
> Wiki it was the 2nd of 2 high temp gas cooled
> reactors in the US.

yes that is right,  other was a small demonstration feasability pilot project, test run for others, but the only one that was built was FSV cited;  As intended, the plant provided valuable R&D information for the follow-up, full-scale Fort Saint Vrain high-temperature gas-cooled reactor plant, built in Colorado.[6] The testing of BISO fuel at Peach Bottom led to the development of tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) fuel, which added an additional layer of silicon carbide. This fuel, developed contemporaneously at the Dragon reactor, was used commercially at Fort Saint Vrain



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/26 08:01 by dan.

I wondered: since Platteville is on the UP main,
why is Great Western involved? Come to find out
the plant isn't in Platteville -- its spur comes off
the Dent Branch.

UP has a little train yard very close to plant too, maybe 3 miles away?  if you look at the maps, but the roads are just dirt and small, sure they looked at all the angles