Western Railroad Discussion > Soldier Summit action?

Anyone out there with a heads up on the current action on Soldier Summit? I'll be in the area in a couple of weeks, and might try a day or two of shooting.

TIA

Probably lots of Coal! Mostly UP coal trains with the Utah Rwy. coal train thrown in for good measure. Amtraks come at night, especially this time of year. BNSF traffic pops up every so often, generally at least one in daylight. Definetely not high train numbers but with a scanner there will always be something close enough to keep you busy. Also might as well catch the last of the drgw T-2's working together, the 5390 and 5371 are currently working the dirt train. They're not alone and will be with 1 or 2 other UP engines. Definetely not a place to be missed!

-Tyler

DRGW483 Wrote:
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> Anyone out there with a heads up on the current
> action on Soldier Summit? I'll be in the area in
> a couple of weeks, and might try a day or two of
> shooting.
>
> TIA

There are a number of UP and Utah Railway coal trains along with at least one BNSF train each way and Amtrak's California Zepher.
There is also a trash or dirty dirt train that operates out of Helper. Some of the coal trains have manned helpers pushing up the east side. The BNSF trains seem to always have a DPU locomotive on the rear. Anyway, the action is not what it was 10 years ago but it is not dead. Including Amtrak, there are 4 different railroads running over Soldier Summit and there are probably still some Rio Grande lettered SD40-T2s based in Helper. Also, Utah Railway runs some distintive looking locomotive that were kit based by Boise Locomotive. At one point they had Caterpillar engines but they have been rebuilt with EMD engines

The picture was take Dec 26, 2004 at the lower loop at Gilluly (a few miles west of the summit).

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Was over there last Saturday and sunday.

Saturday, we followed the BNSF M-DENSTO with 5 Dash 9s, all H2 paint and two on the rear. At Helper, the dirt train was already back from sunnyside and was switching in the yard. D&RGW 5390 on the West end and 5371 on the east with UP ???? in the middle. They had to wait while a UP coal empty entered the yard and the Utah Ry IPPX train rolled through on Main one. Utah had 5005 (the orange one), and three more 5001 class SD50-3s. Train was a mix of old and new IPPX cars. Loaded at Savage. UR met the BNSF at Price and we followed up to Soldier Summit. We met nothing else until a lite engine move at American Fork. ie: traffic is a tad light this time of year. We met another coal empty norht of Provo in the inversion gloom.

Sunday,

We followed and never caught up the the UR IPPX train with same engines and cars. They changed out for the helper set for loading at Wildcat. We shot that and as nothing else was happening, we headed east. We got an unusual Westbound UP coal empty at Floy, which we followed back to Green River where they met a BNSF with 8 Dash 9s, all up front. This BNSF train met another BNSF freight at Thompson Springs. This train had four Dash 9s in 3 schemes up front with one unit on the rear.

Of note, any and all of the area's dirt roads right now are MUDDY! I wouldn't venture too far on them without the right equipment. It can be a very long walk for help.

Need more info, e mail me!

KK