Western Railroad Discussion > Zephyr in the Snow

A friend and I decided to drive up to Winter Park and Fraser, Colorado, on January 11 to photograph trains in the snow. The forecast called for snow all day, and while that meant bad driving conditions, it was conducive to excellent photo opportunities. Here is Amtrak #5, the westbound California Zephyr, stopped at Fraser to load and detrain passengers. The engineer is climbing up to the cab after stepping off to get a breath of fresh air. (There was no shortage of fresh air.) In a few mintues the Zephyr will continue its journey west. Photo by Joe McMillan, January 11, 2019, at 13:05.

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Great shot - thanks for sharing.

BB

Great shot; reminds me not to travel in winter!

Brrrr!!! Great shot!

This is a classic photo...probably the best winter shot I have ever seen....great work!

For the unfamiliar, Fraser is a somewhat legendary spot in weather circles.  For years, it was an official cooperative NWS weather station.  During those years, it was often the coldest place, winter and summer, in the Lower 48 states,  Later on, NWS determined that Fraser's locale was too high in elevation (over 8,500 ft.) to be counted as an "official" weather station.  I believe the NWS now considers stations over 8,000 ft. to be "too high in elevation" for that status.  Since then, Alamosa and Gunnison, Colorado usually vie for the coldest spot in the Lower 48 with places like International Falls, Minnesota, as both Alamosa and Gunnison are under 8,000 ft. elevation (7,546 ft. and 7,703 feet,   respectively).  

Gunnison, Alamosa, and Fraser all have the distinction of being locales on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, though the D&RGW "inherited" Fraser from the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific/Denver & Salt Lake Railroads.  In any case, railroading at any of the three, especially in the steam days (and that is all Gunnison ever saw) would have been a real bear.

Fraser, like Gunnison, gets a fair amount of snow in the winter, but not as much as the mountains nearby to both.  Alamosa can be bitter cold, but gets relatively little snow in the winter, being on the valley floor of the San Luis Valley.    The only "good" news is that, when snow is falling heavily, it is usually accompanied by warmer temperatures.  Once the storm ends and the skies clear, that is when the temperature can drop like a rock.  Temperatures below -30° F. can occur at any of the three places at night under such conditions, and unofficial but likely accurate temperature recordings have been made in the -45° to -50° F. range at all three places.  And, those are ambient temperatures, not wind chill temperatures.  I have personally been in all three places when temperatures were below -30° F. ambient.  Cold?  You bet.  Having spent a lot of time in such places during my life, that is why I consider anybody complaining about "cold" temperatures above about 10 below to be a "weather wuss."  People who complain about those kind of winter temperatures probably have never lived anywhere with "real" winter.

Now that is COLD! Makes me happy I'm retired!

Larry

Boarding/unboarding a train in that kind of weather does not make me want to travel by train.  I'll fly when I can, thank you.  I wonder in other countries (ie: Europe? Japan? China?) do they have at least covered platforms or train sheds where inclement weather is common? 

Bruce

Thanks for the pic..!?!

StStephen Wrote:
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> Boarding/unboarding a train in that kind of
> weather does not make me want to travel by
> train.  I'll fly when I can, thank you.  I
> wonder in other countries (ie: Europe? Japan?
> China?) do they have at least covered platforms or
> train sheds where inclement weather is common? 
>
> Bruce

The main traffic getting on or off the train at Fraser are skiers.  Most of them expect that kind of weather, though I'm always amazed at the "Sun Belt" ski tourists who seem to think that the snow that they're going to ski upon comes magically without them having to contend with it getting to or from the slopes.  "I wanted to be able to ski, but I didn't expect it to snow on the roads,."  or "Geez, I didn't expect it to be freezing up here."  Yes, those are real quotes that I've heard.  Oh, by the way, most ski country airports don't have enclosed jetways--you have to get out in the weather to walk from the plane to the terminal.  Buck up, little campers.

Awesome winter photo, that looks like what we had today in Utah. 

Nathan

I read a story recently (about Hudson Bay)  that those kind of temps. (up to -50) can and do crack steel rail & train Co's. will not send work crews out into that kind of weather.  But read that the temps crack rail was surprising to me.

Danny McLean
Center, TX

DMac Wrote:
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> I read a story recently (about Hudson Bay)  that
> those kind of temps. (up to -50) can and do crack
> steel rail & train Co's. will not send work crews
> out into that kind of weather.  But read that the
> temps crack rail was surprising to me.

At colder than around -35° to -40° F., steel gets very brittle.  A common issue in places like Fraser is that the lower part of the rail buried in snow will be somewhat insulated and may not get as cold, while the exposed head of the rail gets down to that ambient temperature.  When a train rolls over that, the head of the rail can simply break off due, in part, to the temperature differential within the rail itself.  

MOW crews (and many other railroad or non-railroad workers) may only work for short periods of time in those kinds of temperatures without getting into heated vehicles, etc. to warm up, but to make a flat out statement that they aren't sent out is inaccurate.  I knew RR MOW workers that did go out (regularly) into those kinds of winter conditions.  Part of the job.

Wow I just came on this shot. Thats a winner and the engineer in it makes it even better.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

Beautiful! shot. Thanks for braving the elements for this.

PQM