Western Railroad Discussion > A good day on the Moffat line! (photos)

Today a friend from South Dakota and I (with another friend of ours) went west of Denver! We started at Blue Mountain and caught the BNSF H-PVODEN right as we arrived. (ill upload a video later) Then we went and waited at Plainview and waited for Amtrak 5. (late of course) when a UP worker rolled by and was telling us to be safe. Not long after the Jefferson County Sheriff pulled up asking if we had seen any campers. We had not. Then we decided to leave Plain and go to Tolland (to avoid trouble). We caught the Zephyr we were speculating that a power move with 1982 would be next. We went up to East Portal since my friend never saw it before. We heard a horn and saw the BNSF H-DENPVO(?) working its way to the tunnel. After that we went to Tolland (hoping the power move was gonna show up after that) We got info that a Eastbound was in the tunnel and meeting someone at Tolland. Wasn't the power move, but a ballast train with almost all EMDs. We decided to go get food at the Stage Stop in Rollins and I saw something at Tolland on ATCS. We heard a horn and sure enough, the power move! After we ate, we went back down to Cliff, and I checked ATCS to see a westbound in Arvada. We went to a spot near Chemical and saw a west bound empty for Energy. (CDREY)? Then we beat it to Plain for Amtrak 6. It stopped on the siding for Amtrak and after it passed it stayed for about 30 minutes and we were kind of trapped for the time being. After that we called it quits!
1) BNSF 5030 drops into Blue Mountain after descending the 2% grade from Tunnel 1.
2) 2 hour late Amtrak 5 rushes past Tolland on its way west.
3) BNSF 4617 works its way to East Portal.
More to come!

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4) UP 8705 crawls into Tolland siding as it prepares for a meet.
5) Eastbound UP Power move rushing east to Rocky past Rollins. (You can see the top of 1982)
6) UP 8133 struggles past Leyden on its way to Plainview for Amtrak 6.
two more!

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7) UP 8133 pulls into Plainview siding.
8) Amtrak 6 flies past the empty coal at Plain.
Thanks for looking!

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Nice full day. Bunch of nice images in here---those Herzog candystripe cars look neat.
Brian Stevens

That's a dang nice collection of images!!!

UP 1982, SD70ACe Missouri Pacific heritage unit, moved east after meeting Amtrak train 5 at Kremmling, CO. UP 5574 East handled train E PBNYM-09, Phippsburg, CO, to North Yard, Denver, CO. The light power move was moving into stormy weather west of Granby, CO, August 10, 2017.

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Great series of photos.

Ronda Thomas

Glad to see you had a good day on the Moffat East side. Favorite of mine. Thanks for sharing excellent series of the trains and the line. Always makes my day

That MP Heritage unit looks so much nicer than any UP unit.  I wonder if UP will ever choose a new paint scheme.  I know, highly unlikely...even though airlines do it all the time.