Western Railroad Discussion > Grand Junction, CO

My wife and I are considering moving to Grand Junction, CO because of my health issues with asthma.

I was wondering what kind of traffic goes through the area? I know that Amtrak does east and west. What about other traffic?

Thanks for any info.

Pat
Austin, TX

Grand Junction is a great area to photograph.

The BNSF travels through as well as Amtrak on the home rails of the Union Pacific.

From the south is the Montrose branch that connects in G.J. with the mainline as well.

Traffic is mixed, but a lot of coal runs from the Montrose branch.

Daniel Quiat

BNSF also has a switcher and caboose based out of Grand Junction and is also a crew change for BNSF crews from either Kremmling or points west on the Green River Route. UP also runs a manifest from Denver to Grand Junction and vis-versa, symboled the MNYGJ and MGJNY.

- John

John Crisanti
Longmont, CO

Screw the trains, it's a great place to live, the winters aren't too bad and there's lots of
sunshine. Only negative as far as your asthma might be that there is quite a bit of dust
in the air. Kind of always wanted to live there myself.

Traffic varies is the best way to put it.

There are several locals that run out of GJ:
Minturn Local runs east Sun-Thurs
Landmark Local runs west Mon-Thurs
Montrose Local runs south on Fri and returns on Sun
Postash Local runs to Potash, UT (near Moab) in Sun.

The North Fork Sub has three coal load outs. This branch can go from zero trains a day up to twelve trains a day depending on coal demand and mine production. Admittedly, it has been several years since the NF has been loading six trains a day. Lately four loads a day is a busy day. There is a fourth load out that loads several cars a week but does not load unit trains. These loads are usually handled by an extra local off the branch and the cars are then added to an EB manifest.

Most of this coal heads east from GJ but there is the occasional westbound. Once in a great while the WB coal is taking the long way around to an eastern market, but most recently, it is headed to Long Beach or Stockton for export. I think if there is a new coal export facility opened up, there would be more coal heading west out of GJ.

Besides the NYGJ trains mentioned, there is UP's near daily Denver to Salt Lake City manifest(MNYRO and MRONY).

BNSF has a near daily Denver-Provo/Provo-Denver manifest. I am not sure if the Stockton-Denver manifests are still running. BNSF also runs other trains occasionally; right now there is a Lincoln-Provo manifest running, there have been empty ethanol trains, empty grain trains, and some coal trains that load on the Utah Railway. As mentioned, BNSF has a local here too. It is a five day a week local; it runs east in the morning to Parachute (usually light engines) where BNSF has a yard. There the crew switches some frack sand cars for unloading, does any switching that has to be done to the cars set out by the thru-manifests, and returns to GJ with a string of loaded tank cars. The local then heads a couple miles west of GJ to switch a fuel depot. The train switches around 20 tank cars a day when they work the plant. The empties are set out on the siding for an EB BNSF manifest to pick up in the middle of the night.

Weather wise, there is a lot of sun. In the spring there is a lot of wind that brings in Utah dirt. We have already had our first wind storm here about a week ago. In the winter, there are usually a couple weeks when there are temperature inversions and the air gets fairly dirty. The summer is hot and dry most of the time. There is a monsoon season where the humidity levels go up, but the biggest problem that causes is your evaporative cooler does not work so well for cooling the house.

I have lived in the GJ area for almost two years now and have enjoyed it quite a bit.

Hope this helps in your decision making.

Todd Busse



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/12 14:51 by trb.

This past summer we had 90 days that the temperature exceeded 100+. On top of that the humidity was quite high also. We have already hit 95 degrees this year and they say it's going to be more record heat this year. We can live with a few days, around 30 or so around 100+, put 90 days was over the top. I would have almost instant asthma attacks when I went outside with that kind of heat.

I talked to a realtor in GJ and stated that if we locate there, it is imperative that we have central A/C and heat. I also told her we want gas heat.

Even living here in Austin, we get occasional dust/dirt storms from west Texas.

The main asthma trigger for me is the mold spores.

We have looked at Colorado Springs, but the city is getting too large for us. I also understand that the front range has major issues with air pollution and temperature inversions that trap stuff in the air.

We are still looking and trying to weight our options.

Thanks for the inputs.

Pat
South Austin, TX

What are temperature inversions?

Grand Junction is a great small city. My wife and I love to visit in the summer.

The downtown area is restored. Very good for walking with plenty of restaurants and shops.

Plenty of orchards in the area. Nothing beats the variety of fresh fruit during the season.

New this year the Colorado Rockies baseball team is moving their Short season/Rookie team to town. Will play from mid June through August.

Bruce Perry
Tehachapi, CA

Just so you know there probably aren't two towns more at the opposite end of the political poles as Austin and Grand Junction. And you also need to know that if the cultural, educational, and epicurean attractions of a city like Austin are important to you, you'd best keep looking, you won't find them in GJ.

I am not trying be pretentious here -- after all, I live in the sticks outside of the pinnacle of all three of those factors, Silt, CO, 75 miles northeast of GJ!<GBG> We do have Aspen 65 miles east-southeast......

Bruce

There are no real things in Austin that are important to us these days.

Traffic is horrible. We live within 10 miles of the grocery store, Home Depot, Lowe's and Sam's Club and it takes me a better part of 2 hours to go grocery shopping. Most of time is spent in traffic.

If I have to go up to our corporate office in North Austin, an 12 mile one way trip it takes me right at 1 hour during rush hour, 45 minutes or so off peak.

The taxes are going sky high, almost $3700 for an 1100 sq ft house. Estimates for next year is over $4100.

I am not going to go on as it makes me starting to get depressed. We have lived here since 1981 and it was great for around 10 years.

Pat
South Austin, TX

sptno Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There are no real things in Austin that are
> important to us these days.
>
> Traffic is horrible. We live within 10 miles of
> the grocery store, Home Depot, Lowe's and Sam's
> Club and it takes me a better part of 2 hours to
> go grocery shopping. Most of time is spent in
> traffic.
>
> If I have to go up to our corporate office in
> North Austin, an 12 mile one way trip it takes me
> right at 1 hour during rush hour, 45 minutes or so
> off peak.
>
> The taxes are going sky high, almost $3700 for an
> 1100 sq ft house. Estimates for next year is over
> $4100.
>
> I am not going to go on as it makes me starting to
> get depressed. We have lived here since 1981 and
> it was great for around 10 years.
>
> Pat
> South Austin, TX

LOL...well, at least in these regards GJ would hit the spot. They do have a rush-"hour" -- it lasts from about 4:30 to 5:15 and only in selected spots.<G> Todd's probably a better source for specifics.

I once thought Grand Junction would be the place for us, but that was back when it was a quaint Western town of about 12,000, framed by Palisade 10 miles east and Fruita about the same to the west. Now it's a metroplex of almost 150,000, which is way too big for a small-town boy like me!

Bruce

P Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What are temperature inversions?

The simplest explanation is when a layer of warm air traps colder air below it. When that happens and depending on how long it lasts, the trapped air becomes dirtier. Over time, it becomes hazy and horizontal vision diminishes. Yet, if you were to look straight up, it is clear.

When there are indications of an inversion developing, health notices are released and in some areas burning bans go into effect.

Todd

Bruce,

You forgot the morning rush hour. Ha!!

There is a morning and evening rush hour but nothing outrageous. The drive between Fruita and GJ on old hwy 6 can be a hairpuller at times but nothing like sitting in big city traffic. The hair pulling is caused more from technique than traffic, for example; someone will want to make a left turn but before turning thing swing right to block the ability to get around them on the right. Traffic on the west side of the I-70 business loop, through the shopping can be a test of patience too.

The one advantage of traveling on the old hwy is you parallel UP's Green River sub so if there is a train, you can easily see it.

Todd Busse

And there's a real nice park in Delta.

trb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bruce,
>
> You forgot the morning rush hour. Ha!!
>
> There is a morning and evening rush hour but
> nothing outrageous. The drive between Fruita and
> GJ on old hwy 6 can be a hairpuller at times but
> nothing like sitting in big city traffic. The
> hair pulling is caused more from technique than
> traffic, for example; someone will want to make a
> left turn but before turning thing swing right to
> block the ability to get around them on the right.
> Traffic on the west side of the I-70 business
> loop, through the shopping can be a test of
> patience too.
>
> The one advantage of traveling on the old hwy is
> you parallel UP's Green River sub so if there is a
> train, you can easily see it.
>
> Todd Busse

Yeah, I suppose there is, it's been a long time since I've been there early enough to get wrapped up in the morning rush. As far as old 6 is concerned, my main complaint there is the school traffic between Clifton and Palisade, but that can be pretty much avoided by paying attention to the clock. First place, though, at least used to go to North Ave. and 12th at class change, especially at noon!

GJ's biggest attraction is long gone, though.... Watching the D&RGW hump cars in East Yard, of course. There was always at least something going on, even if it wasn't exactly (or at least didn't seem to be) a high-pressure operation!

Bruce