Western Railroad Discussion > Day 5: Wyoming/Utah Awesomeness: Deseret - Craig - Moffat

From July 22-26 TO member "wko" Kirk, our friend Max, and I took a trip across Wyoming and into Utah along Union Pacific's Overland Route along the Laramie, Rawlins, and Evanston Subdivisions. From there, we proceeded onto Provo where we followed the former D&RGW to Helper over Soldier Summit. And to close out the trip, we stopped at the Deseret Power Railway near Dinosaur and Rangely. Then the remaining part of the trip was along the former Rio Grande from Craig, Colorado to the eastern slope on the Moffat Route.

Posts from this trip will follow in this order:

Day 1: Hermosa-Green River
Day 2: Green River-Evanston
Day 3: Evanston-Echo/Weber Canyons & Heber Valley
Day 4: Soldier Summit
Day 5: Deseret Power, Craig Branch, and Moffat

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On our final day of our trip, we departed Vernal, Utah in the early morning hours and headed for the Deseret Power Railway that operates from near Dinosaur and Rangely, Colorado to Bonanza, Utah. When we arrived, we did not take the risk of checking the overlook of the mine first to see if they were loading so we decided to camp out at the crossing west of the mine for about a couple of hours. Patiently waiting, they still did not show up. So we decided to drive up to the overlook to find the train parked at the mine, but not loading. So we grabbed some shots from the overlook and took off for Craig. After making a pit stop in Craig, we followed UP's Craig Branch through Steamboat and onto Phippsburg where we ran into a coal empty waiting for a new crew to take it to Energy Mine. After grabbing photos, we headed down to Bond where we ran into Amtrak's westbound California Zephyr. We also heard an eastbound depart Yarmony after getting a new crew and meeting Amtrak. The eastbound ended up being the same Roper-Denver manifest we chase on Soldier Summit the previous day, but with an added SD40N third out in the consist. We eventually caught up to the train at Troublesome east of Kremmling and were able to get shots of the train at Byers Canyon and onto Winter Park. While at Winter Park, we also noticed a couple of westbounds departing Denver, so we took a chance and raced to the other side of the mountain. We arrived into Rollinsville just in time to catch an empty coal train and ended up chasing it up to East Portal where we closed our five day trip across Wyoming, Utah, and back to Colorado.

1) The Deseret Power Railway coal train is seen parked at the Deserado Mine load out waiting to be loaded with coal for the power plant at Bonanza.

2) A trio of UP GE's in charge of this coal empty from Long Beach, California waits for a new crew at Phippsburg to take the train to Energy Mine.

3) Amtrak's westbound California Zephyr shoots across the Colorado River just outside of Bond on the Dotsero Cutoff.

There is more...

John Crisanti
Longmont, CO

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4) The Roper-Denver manifest snakes along the Colorado River in Byers Canyon.

5) The eastbound Roper manifest races east out of Hot Sulphur Springs and will duck under US-40.

6) The manifest is seen rounding the curve up the grade towards Winter Park in the town of Fraser.

A couple more...

John Crisanti
Longmont, CO

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7) A thunderstorm moves up toward the Continental Divide as the eastbound Roper manifest climbs the 2-percent grade at the Vasquez Road crossing in Winter Park.

8) A westbound coal empty pokes into a pocket of sunshine at Rollinsville on the eastern side of the mountain. The train in the background on the right is the eastbound Roper manifest.

9) The westbound coal empty approaches the Moffat Tunnel at East Portal.

That is everything from this trip. I hope everyone has enjoyed this trip as I certainly have. And I cannot wait to return to these areas again in the future.

Thanks for looking!

John Crisanti
Longmont, CO

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Thanks for the beautiful series, very enjoyable!

Larry

Outstanding work and effort. I enjoyed all 5 days : )
John

Excellent photos John. Thanks for posting.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Thanks for a great presentation of trains and scenery from your trip.

Don't give up on the Desseret electrics, they do run trains. If you can hang out in the area for about 3 days it will work out.

The lighting in #8 is fantastic. Great job!!

Sad to see the Phippsburg yard empty.

John - Great series! Looks like you had a super trip.

Paul Brennecke
Golden, CO

Really great shots!  Thanks for posting...

John Parker
Longmont, CO
BNSF Fall River Division

Beautiful work all around. This brings back memories for trips like this that I did in the early 2000's, and a few in the late 1990's, and it's great to see someone have an awesome day on Solider Summit too, despite the reduction in coal traffic.

Thanks for sharing!
~RGDave

Terrific series of photos! Thanks for sharing.

Todd Skaggs
Dodge City, KS

Another outstanding series of photos.

Ronda Thomas

GREAT pics!!

I REALLY enjoyed looking at the results of your trip.

Very nice John. I especially liked the Green River shots and the one posted today with the thunderstorm over Rollins Pass.

BB