Western Railroad Discussion > Utah Ry. sightings

Spent Saturday Aug18 along Soldier Summit and the Utah Ry...

Westbound loaded IPPX coal train came off the Savage Coal Castle Valley mine south of Price with a MK5000/SD40/SD50/MK5000 set. Picked up mid train helpers 6061,6062,6063,5003,5005 in front of the Helper station, departed there at 1:20pm. Dropped the helpers off at Colton.

BNSF's Denver-Provo train showed up at Helper around 3 that afternoon, picked up two of the Utah helpers (an SD50 and a MK5000) on the rear, departed there at 3:20pm with BNSF 738 and ATSF 899 on the point. Dropped those helpers at Soldier Summit.

Both of the UP Denver-Salt Lake UPS Z-trains showed up within a few hours of each other that afternoon pulled by two SD70M's each.

A loaded UP coal train was pulled by UP 7155, SP 273 and CNW 8826 on the point with SP 362, SP 319 and UP 6494 midtrain.

The UP manifest MDVRO was also seen departing Helper at 2:50pm with 2 SD70Ms and 2 Dash 8-40CWs on the point.

There was no BNSF power sitting in Martin on the Utah Ry.

In Provo, Utah's new GP40s 3000/3001 were there (they do NOT have NREX lettering). BNSF was switching the yard with BNSF 4887, 1024 and newly repainted 518. They were putting together the Provo-Denver train.

So all told, 7 trains seen on the hill between 1-5pm that afternoon... not too shabby!

Chris,

Where exactly in Helper were you when the Utah IPPX train (5002 West) came into town?

The crew had a heck of a time getting into Helper as 5004, the second MK5000C on the train, would go up to 600 amps then drop off line again. The conductor restarted it several times without success. Some one from the locomotive shop came out and fixed it (it was at full power passing the coal mine west of town) while the helpers were cut in.

I was all over the place! I was at the station when they cut the helpers in, then chased it up the hill. I was driving the black Toyota Tacoma truck.

All I have to say is, those MK5000's are the COOLEST sounding things around.

We were in the red S-10 Blazer just west of the yard and underpass when they arrived. Then out west of town by the water treatment plant as they went up the hill. We had to leave just after the train passed us, so we didn't get a chance to chase it. We did see the Utah GP40's at Provo earlier that morning and 4 of the GP38's and 2 SD40's at Midvale.

There was also a group of three railfans in a "pewter" S-10 Blazer with us when the train arrived and they went further west when the train left. They had been over by the shops earlier.

Did you get any shots of the three Rio Grande Tunnel Motors that were on the dirt train, they cut off just before the Utah helpers entered the yard area?

No, we missed the dirt train, actually I didn't know they ran it on Saturdays and we didn't hear anything on the scanner. Oh well.

Are there usually a lot of people on Soldier on the weekends?!

We didn't get it either as they cut off the train and disappearred behind the hoppers in the yard. We heard them call the Utah helpers at that point to tell the helpers that the Rio Grande power was in the clear and headed for the pit.

As for the number of people, I don't have any idea. We, like you, are from Southern California and we can compare shots of the Utah train at the next slide show at Robert's.

The only place the GP40s and SD50s say NREX is on the side window in yellow paint. Also if you try to trace them on UPs trace you have to put in NREX instead of Utah like the others.

That was a Utah crew switching in Provo using BNaSiF power.
Nice fire!