Western Railroad Discussion > Utah/Salt Lake Area

Hello all,

The wifey and I are on vacation in Utah. This week we will mostly be in the area of Ogden/Salt Lake City/Provo. Any suggestions for good railfanning locations or other train related activities would be great. I got down to Heber City yesterday and shot some of the equipment at the tourist railroad there. We are planning on visiting Promontory and the museum in Ogden as well.

I was able to do a little exploring yesterday and found the wye where I believe, based on what I've read, Grant tower used to be. The yard just north of there (North Yard?) seemed to have lots of stored locomotives, most of which appeared to be SD70M's.

Next week we will be on the move and exploring some national parks like Arches and Zion, so anything around that area will be in play as well. Thanks in advance for any information or advice offered.

Nick

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The area off Riverdale Road in Ogden (north of viaduct) is always busy with trains.  If heading north, turn left at the street between Cafe Zupas and Goodwood BBQ, and you can follow it all the way down to 31st Street viaduct paralling Riverdale yard and mainline.  Always trains!  It's roughly 2-3 miles.  The new homeless shelter is right before 31st, so at least use a little caution if parking to watch the action. 

Take a ride on the Front Runner. They don't have the Railfan Seat per se, but you can sit right behind it and see the sights all the way from Ogden to Provo (2 hours). Quite an interesting journey (I did it in July, although I broke it up over two days), and you see all of UP's yards between the two end points as well as some other interesting places.

Nice scenery and Union Pacific main along I-84 and I-80 east through Echo Canyon.  If you're going down towards Arches you'll go across Soldier Summit (xDRGW). Lots of possibilities on either line. There are lots of possibilities around the whole area no matter which way you go.
To the west there is the Great Salt Lake that the xSP crosses west of Ogden, and then the xWP crosses down across the south end of the Lake.  Also the line towards Las Vegas splits with the xWP around the south side of the Lake also.
Really no matter which way you go you'll see something,  Some lines do have more traffic than others though. 
Good luck.
MIke 

Any idea how much goes over Soldier Summit these days? I seem to recall a lot of the traffic was coal, which as we all know is way down. Is there any way to photograph the ex-SP that crosses the Salt Lake on the fill?

Thanks everyone for your responses.

Nick

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FECgp40 Wrote:
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> Is there any way to photograph the ex-SP that crosses the
> Salt Lake on the fill?
>

From a boat.

West of Thompson UT on the DRGW at Brendel is the Potash Branch. Sunday’s the local handles it. Rest of the week the afternoon uranium tailings train runs south to Brendel.

SD45X Wrote:
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> West of Thompson UT on the DRGW at Brendel is the
> Potash Branch. Sunday’s the local handles it.
> Rest of the week the afternoon uranium tailings
> train runs south to Brendel.

Thanks for the info. I saw that train headed north this evening as I was driving from Arches to Green River. It was running 2x1 and looked to be all trash containers. Any idea how much traffic is on the ex-DRGW through Green River? I know it isn't much.

Nick

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