Western Railroad Discussion > UP North Fork Sub/Grand Junction Operations

HI Y'all -

It been a while since I checked out UP's North Fork Sub (South of Grand Junction, CO). The last couple threads about Moffat traffic seem to indicate it's running about 2 loads/empties a day that go east. Are they still running any loads west over Soldier Summit as well?

Is the Montrose local still running and if so is it still s/b out of Grand Junction on Friday and n/b on Saturday or Sunday?  

How about the Potash Local to Moab? is this still a Sunday job? Any idea of the departure time out of GJ?

Appreciate any info that can be had. Thanks..

Bump for a better answer..

When I was in Montrose, CO in July I observed the wood chip (and scraping platform) was idle. Saw centerbeams North of Montrose, but I got the feeling traffic to Montrose was off. Didn't see a train tied up, hopefully somebody will answer that question.

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Here are the GJ area operations as I understand them.

Cane Creek Sub:
The Potash Local runs on Sundays. It usually departs Grand Junction after the arrival of Amtrak 6 (10:11am arrival in GJT). I have seen it sit at the west end of the east yard at its make up point, at the west end of the west yard (behind Wal-mart/Lowes), or Durham(near the mall). Recently, the Local will go to Fruita and wait (if #6 is on time, it is thru Fruita about 09:45+), then head west after the meet.

From the meet it is usually a straight shot to Brendel. They do their switching there, which can be non-existent, or up to two hours, and then head south. IIRC, it is about a 90 minute run from Brendel to Potash. They do their switching at the mine and depart.

As a side note: 2/3 of the North Fork coal trains are heading west, so there is some increased train activity in the Utah desert so the Local may have a meet.

The one Moab dirt train per day is running Sun-Thurs and the call time is 16:30ish. The train is left at the dump near Brendel on Thursday. On Sun, the crew is transported north to get the train. Mon-Thur the train departs the load-out at EmKay sometime after 17:00, travels north, arrives at Brendel 18:15ish, switches out the empty train with the loads and returns to Emkay(saw it this evening about 19:15 2 miles south of the interstate heading south). Thursday's run is just to the dump, then crew returns to Moab to start their weekend.


GJ Locals:
The Landmark Local runs from GJ to west of Fruita on Mon and Thursday. Does some switching at two locations in Fruita and then spends the rest of the day switching at the Fruita Industrial Park west of Fruita. It heads to Fruita and waits for #6 to pass before switching.

The Minturn Local runs east Sunday-Thursday. It usually follows #6 out of GJ. Switching can happen at Cameo, Parachute, and Lacey (West Rifle). On Mondays it goes to Gypsum to the wallboard plant, plus does some work at Glenwood Springs. Sometimes it will run to GS on Wed or Thur too.

The Montrose Local departs GJ Tuesday morning and heads to Delta. From Delta it works south to Montrose doing switching work as it heads south and ties up in Montrose. Wednesday returns to GJ. It will do any remaining work on its way to Delta and then head to GJ.

BNSF's local will run to Parachute in the morning, do their switching there and then return with gas tankers for the gas transfer station near I-70 exit 26. They usually are switching the transfer station late morning/early afternoon depending on how their earlier work goes. It is a five day a week job, but I am not sure what days are their off days. I think the off days are Sunday and Monday, but don't count on that.


North Fork Sub:
The NF sub is seeing one to three loads per day. Three is very rare. Bowie and West Elk are the two operational loadouts. There is a through truss bridge west of Austin that is slated for replacement this summer with a concrete pan structure. Last I heard, it was suppose to happen in August, but had been delayed until September.

Todd Busse

Todd -

Great stuff. Thanks for the detailed reply back!

If you hear through the grapevine when that bridge is going to rebuilt, can you PM me? If I'm going to dedicate any time to that line I want to make sure trains are rolling during daylight hours.