Western Railroad Discussion > KCS 4116 Reaches Denver!

Hello-

Sunday evening, Sir James (GrandeGold) bagged a few excellent shots of KCS 4116 on the point of the eastbound Stockton to Denver (QSTDVJ) manifest in Salt Lake ( http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1739968 ).

This was possibly the first "Retro-Belle" to run in Utah and it was certainly the first time that one has led a train over the former Rio Grande from Roper, UT to Denver, CO! The progress of the train was watched by those that could and it reached Grand Junction in the wee hours of Monday morning. But once there, the train stopped! In fact, it waited in Grand Junction for over 12 hours.

It departed yesterday evening around 6:30pm for Denver. It seemed that the train would more than likely arrive in Denver shortly before or at sunrise. This morning, however, I was surprised to learn that the train was still close to 100 miles west of Denver! It looked like it would be a late morning / early afternoon descent down the Front Range of the Moffat. Indeed, the train came out of the Moffat Tunnel around 9:45am. It met Amtrak 5 at Cliff and a BNSF manifest at Plain.

I took my "lunch" from work at 11:45am and made it to Rocky ahead of the train. It had to meet the Rocky Local at Rocky and then met two (and had one pass it) at Leyden before it finally made it into town (around 3:30pm). It was the best lunch break I've had in a few weeks. :)

Oh, somewhere between Salt Lake and Denver (either in Provo or Grand Junction), the train picked up two additional units! When Sir James shot it in Salt Lake, it only had three units.

1. The eastbound makes its way through the siding at Rocky, approaching the east end. In the distance, you can see the tail end of the train wrapping through Little Ten Loop.

2. Back on the move just west of Leyden, the train has an approaching diverging signal here in preparation to go into the hold at Leyden.

3. One last shot from Leyden. Note that all five units are in fact wearing a unique paint scheme!!


For a few more shots:
http://www.coloradorailfan.com/gallery/gallery.asp?on=20080819&by=KM

Kevin Morgan
Arvada, CO
ColoradoRailfan.com

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Did that train start the fire, in the area behind you in shot 2, along 72 maybe? (ch 7 & 9 choppers are filming it) Nice shots

Hickory creek is inbound on 6 i think you going back up?

Hi Dan! I don't believe that it did. Or, put another way, if it did, I don't think the crew realized it. There wasn't any chatter on the scanner regarding the fire.

dan Wrote:
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> Did that train start the fire, in the area behind
> you in shot 2, along 72 maybe? (ch 7 & 9 choppers
> are filming it) Nice shots

Kevin Morgan
Arvada, CO
ColoradoRailfan.com

I listen to Grand Junction radio station KNZZ a lot while I'm traveling and today they reported an eastbound UP coal train derailed 5 cars and one locomotive in Grand Junction at around 3:30AM. Maybe this is what caused the delay.

Dick

Nice shots Kevin. I like the shot at Rocky the best.

John Crisanti
Longmont, CO

2ebright Wrote:
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> I listen to Grand Junction radio station KNZZ a
> lot while I'm traveling and today they reported an
> eastbound UP coal train derailed 5 cars and one
> locomotive in Grand Junction at around 3:30AM.
> Maybe this is what caused the delay.
>
> Dick

They left yesterday, the derailment sounds like today. No connection. The extra power likely came from Parachute, where extra power and/or cars can be added to Eastbound trains.

KK