Nostalgia & History > Craig Branch Ute-Axial Shuttle

Hello-

In the late 1990's, a "shuttle" train ran daily between the load out at Axial mine (on Union Pacific's Craig Branch in Colorado) and the Ute generating plant. The shuttle would be called on duty at Ute at 11pm each night. The train would typically be done loading at Axial sometime between 3am and 4am, and it would make it back to Ute by 8am.

The generating plant has since shut down, but at the end of its life when the shuttle was running daily, the typical power was three Rio Grande tunnel motors. While I was never able to see the shuttle in action, I did happen to catch the power coming east on a coal train for 92-day inspections. On my way home from work, I saw the three tunnel motors (behind two UP AC's) on the front of an eastbound coal load at Leyden. The train was waiting for a westbound, so I was able to stop and grab a few shots.

Here are the three Tunnel Motors on the point of the coal load, sitting in the hole at Leyden.

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The second T-2 in the consist was DRGW 5355. This was my personal favorite Tunnel Motor in the post-UP merger world, as it still had its complete light package, both MARS lights and Class lights.

Kevin Morgan
The Front Range
http://www.drgw.ws/

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Nice Pics Kevin, great additions to the website.

PZ

I was out of rail fanning for several years between high school and having kids, working, etc.

Why did the railroads go to all the trouble of removing the class lights and mars lights?

Cheers
Bill

billnict Wrote:
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> I was out of rail fanning for several years
> between high school and having kids, working, etc.
>
>
> Why did the railroads go to all the trouble of
> removing the class lights and mars lights?
>
> Cheers
> Bill


It was the cost of maintaining the moving parts of the Mars & Gyralights and replacing vurnt-out bulbs in the class light housings, not to mention most railroads have used class lights less and less, with the exception of Conrail, and several commuter and Amtrak operations.

SantaFeCF7 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> billnict Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I was out of rail fanning for several years
> > between high school and having kids, working,
> etc.
> >
> >
> > Why did the railroads go to all the trouble
> of
> > removing the class lights and mars lights?
> >
> > Cheers
> > Bill
>
>
> It was the cost of maintaining the moving parts of
> the Mars & Gyralights and replacing vurnt-out
> bulbs in the class light housings, not to mention
> most railroads have used class lights less and
> less, with the exception of Conrail, and several
> commuter and Amtrak operations.
>

And Conrail is gone now too....still some of the former employees would switch them on.....the UP crew had the Mars light going on DRGW 3105 last year too....

Conrail didn't use class lights, either. The lights were actually red rear end marker lights for light engine movements. They could not display white and green, only red.