Western Railroad Discussion > New Perspectives From Big Ten Loops

Greetings!

I know it has been awhile since posting, but I was able to get trackside to get some new perspectives of Little Ten and Big Ten Loops (UP Moffat Tunnel Sub) with an early Christmas present. :)

The westbound California Zephyr was running around 2 hours late, which was advantageous to the photography as morning clouds cleared out of the way.

1. The Zephyr climbs out of Little Ten Loop near the west switch of Rocky.
2. A few minutes later, the Zephyr is approaching the east switch of Eisele. Or, as the crew on Amtrak referred to it, Fireclay! (For those not familiar, the siding was named Fireclay many, many moons ago when the Moffat was still owned by the Rio Grande).
3. The Zephyr continues west (geographically north) on clear signals. The Zephyr will meet an eastbound MGJNY at Tolland.

To be continued...

Kevin Morgan
Arvada, CO
ColoradoRailfan.com

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4. A few hours later and the MGJNY had made its way down to Eisele. The sun had swung around to the other side of the rails as the train leaves the east switch.
5. The manifest works its way around Big Ten Loop. Under PSR, some of the cars on this train are actually headed for Salt Lake, but UP does not run any manifests across the Utah desert anymore. So they take the long way around!
6. The manifest is now coming through Little Ten Loop near the west end of Rocky siding.

One more coming!

Kevin Morgan
Arvada, CO
ColoradoRailfan.com

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And finally, a video of the train coming down from Big Ten Loop and approaching the west switch of Rocky.

Thanks for looking!

Kevin Morgan
Arvada, CO
ColoradoRailfan.com

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Great pix!  

What is that "black thingie" in the track on pic #1.  A detector of some kind, I assume.

Joe in Castle Rock, CO  on the Joint Line

Very nice!  Especially the wide angle of the freight on the loop.

Andy

Nice stuff Kevin! I'm guessing your early Christmas present is some sort of an aerial device... Good to see you posting again!

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

jsnoy Wrote:
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> What is that "black thingie" in the track on pic
> #1.  A detector of some kind, I assume.
> Joe in Castle Rock, CO  on the Joint Line

Thats a type of fabric to keep the grease from the flange lubricator from spreading onto & into the balast & soil.

GREAT pictures and GREAT use of the drone!!!!

Kevin, missed your terrific photos and now you have a drone. Super. Great shots of the big and little 10 curves.

Paul Brennecke
Golden, CO

Geez, Kevin, your pictures dredged up an ancient memory from June 1984 when I hiked up the side of the hill over-looking the Big 10.  Knew nothing at all about any train movements.  But sheer luck was with me.  A DRGW westbound freight.  Long enough to stretch from the siding above the loop down around the end of the loop to where its two helper units were pushing.  Third engine on the front was a blue colored unit.  A comment from you advised me it was one of several purchased from Conrail to take care of power shortages.  Wish drones had been available that long ago.  Gave you some excellent views not otherwise possible!  

Your Big Ten shot is one of the most iconic images I've seen on TO . . well done!

Craig
mcmrailvideos.com

So the UP doesn't run any manifest trains across the UTAH desert anymore?  Cars for SLC have to go to Denver, then north, then to Ogden, then SLC?

Might as well as give the traffic to BNSF--they go to SLC.  UP just becomes more and more customer un-friendly.

Bring the old UP that hustled and once planned for 80-mph freight operations.  Bring back the UP management that wanted more carloads.

Whoever in PSR that made up that routing should be fired.  But, doubt it will happen as the boss who hired that guy thinks everything is honky dory.

Spectacular return Kevin.  Congrats on the IOTD! Are you training for flying on one of those downslope Chinook days?

BB

Yws .... Great pictures & video.  Do you have to get permission to hike across the cattle range?