Western Railroad Discussion > Golden Hour(s) in Green River

Had a work trip in Wyoming the past 2 days and decided to spend a couple hours at the public foot bridge at the west end of UP's yard in Green River. With the late summer sun and plenty of action it was a wonderful experience - highly recommended!

1 - With a westbound military train already holding on one of the mains, a hot ZG2PD is coming up alongside to get let their Cheyenne "long pool" crew off.

2 - An eastbound BNSF detour stacker is changing out crews on the third main as the remote-controlled yard engine gets to pulling on a cut of cars set out previously for classification.

3 - As much as these old horses still seem like they should be pulling road trains, they make quick work out of accelerating to speed. The first two cars out on this cut were antiquated 50 foot company flatcars that no doubt have been riding these rails longer than anything else in this shot!

Much more to come....

Kyle Rasmussen
Centerville, UT

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4 - The Z train blasts west with it's new crew on board for the trip to Pocatello, ID.

5 - An eastbound parishables train starts the long journey down the ladder track into the south end of the yard, as the switch crew climbs back up to get another cut of cars, and above the military train's power you can see another westbound coming down main 2 for a crew change.

6 - As an eastbound soda ash train pulls into main 4 (I think this track is another main anyways), the switch crew is back hard at work kicking out cars into several tracks in the yard. I was extremely impressed at how quickly but safely this crew worked at getting cars switched out. 

More to follow...

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7 - The whole railroad was tied up for a while waiting for this FRA/DOT inspection car move to get into the yard. I don't know if there was a grungier looking unit available, but they sure found one!!

8 - With the FRA car making its way into the yard, the KG3LB begins to make its way west out of Main 2.

9 - As Long Beach bound stacks continue to roll west, stacks from Long Beach for Chicago roll into Main 3 for a crew change.

One more to come....

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10 - With all other traffic clear from the main, the military move finally rolls west on Main 1 for the charge up Peru Hill to the west. With the hard rock surfaces surrounding the city, it was audible for several minutes past the rear end's passing that you could still hear the 3 EMDs up front roaring away. To the right of the frame, the leader from the perishables train is backing into the pit for a drink of diesel fuel.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/18 19:21 by kyrasmus.

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Thank you for sharing!

A nice series of images ... that spot at the Green River yard is a nice one ...
it is amazing what can often be seen there ... also a great vantage point for viewing
west bound UP Steam which often stops in Green River after an overnight in
Rock Springs ...

Odyssey
Evergreen, CO

 

Wow, a great series! Thanks for sharing...

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

Great documentation of a nice hour or so watching trains. Looks like a great place to watch for a while. 

Always busy through Green River.  Great place to watch trains!

Perfecto images !  Thanks for posting. 

I was  a pilot once on that FRA Car from El Paso to Tuscon. I could not convince the Government Driver (engineer) that the speed limit by a "double yellow" was not 30mph.  We had gone past a flashing yellow and diverge onto another main track.

great location and even better images.  thanks for posting.........

66

Very nice series and a great way to spend some extra time.  Elapsed time series shots like this are very interesting.  Thanks for showing.
Brian Stevens

Really great series of photos.

Ronda Thomas

HardYellow Wrote:
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> I was  a pilot once on that FRA Car from El Paso to Tuscon. I could not convince the Government
> Driver (engineer) that the speed limit by a "double yellow" was not 30mph.  We had gone past
> a flashing yellow and diverge onto another main track.

Time to bust out the SSI and show the FRA engineer that there is absolutely no speed limit associated with an approach diverging signal. Right from the UP System Special Instructions: "Proceed prepared to advance on diverging route at next signal at prescribed speed through turnout."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/18 10:18 by ble692.

Awesome series and shots!

Great location. Unfortunately it was bitterly cold when I was there in April, so did not hang around for long

Posted from Android

SD70M Wrote:
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> Great location. Unfortunately it was bitterly cold
> when I was there in April, so did not hang around
> for long
>
> Posted from Android

You definitely don't want to be anywhere across Wyoming in a normal winter.  Last winter was pretty mild though. 

Quite a difference in the types of rail cars in that yard now days.  I've just read two excellent articles in UP Historical Society's Streamliner magazine about the history of the soda ash industry around Green River WY.  Most of those photos show a yard full of covered hopper cars used in that traffic.  In these photos here, now it looks like its used a lot for block swapping/switching of regular carload freight trains.

Also excellent to see the numerous amounts of EMD units!!!

I think with their new yard at Blacks Fork almost all of the soda ash traffic has moved out there. You're correct that Green River is mostly a re-sort yard for traffic out of Cheyenne for either Pocatello or Salt Lake, and visa-versa. It appears to be a very well engineered yard, as the switch crew would often have to give the cars very little momentum and they would carry easily down into the yard tracks.

Great shots!

Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX