Brighton Model Railway Club
Goes Way Out West........
By Andy Gibbs
Page last modified 17 January 2006.
Long time friend and fellow club member Neil Bennett travels thousands of miles each month for work by air.
As Air miles were doing a 2 for 1 offer and as his incurred mileage was burning a hole in his pocket. Back in January 2002 he suggested that we go to Denver and see what's left of the Rio Grande before the Uncle Pete paints it all yellow. An offer you can't refuse? Well yes you can, I don't like flying! and 9 hours on a plane would be 3 times the longest flight I'd ever made and my first time over the water wider than the English Channel. However after some persuading by my wife ( after she had checked the insurance policies!) and Neil, I agreed to go.
In Denver we would be meeting up with Russ Sharp who works for GM / EMD and is a good friend of Neil's. He had offered to drive us around once we got there, being a railfan himself it was the supreme sacrifice!
Check in day the 16th of March 2002 arrived and Debbie, my wife, drove us to Gatwick. Neil was able to check us in at the first class desk because of his frequent flier status which was to prove very useful as we were promptly upgraded to Club class. A bit of pampering does improve the flying experience and 9 hrs later we touched down in Denver.
Whilst waiting to board the plane Neil had told me that Russ had a surprise arranged with Union Pacific who now own the Rio Grande, a cab ride through the Moffat tunnel!!! As it turned out this didn't happen but more of that later.
Before we left the UK we had booked a room at the Best Western Central in Denver. Once our cabbie found the place we were to discover that the word central obviously has a different meaning in the USA as it was miles from the city centre but only 400 yards from the former Rio Grande North Yard.....BINGO. For that alone we recommend the Best Western on West 48th Ave in Denver.
After checking in, we went to see what was moving in the yard. In the failing light we got there just in time to see the return Ski train be dragged in by a UP loco as one of the ex Amtrak F40PH's was a failure.
Click on any of the photos for a larger image, photos maybe copied for personnel use provided credit is given.
Prior to us leaving the UK I had been in contact via the DRGW Yahoo group with Paul Ziemba who had kindly agreed to meet us Sunday morning at 0700 to take us to the best rail sites in town. 0700 was bit early for us so we agreed to meet at 0900. Needless to say we were both awake at 0600!
Paul met us on the dot of 0900 and off we went firstly to the former Rio Grande 36th Street yard, then on to the BNSF 23rd Street yard. Sunday in the UK is a quiet day on the railways, apart from engineering work, but there was plenty moving around Denver.
It was amazing how many other railfans were out and about. Everyone we met was very friendly and answered all our daft questions. By the time we got to the 23rd Street yard Neil and I were frozen, it may have been sunny but it was very cold. A quick rummage by Mike McGowen a fellow railfan produced a couple of Denver Locomotive shops baseball caps to keep the heat in...excellent
KCS 2007 + 2011 lead a BNSF SD70MAC on a coal train through the 23rd Street Yard.
This photo has been published as photo of the day on DRGW.net
The next port of call was the former Rio Grande Burnham loco shops then out to a yard out near the old airport where DRGW GP40-2 3118 and a yellow friend were backing a long string of boxcars across the road.
Later we returned to North Yard meeting up with Matt Hannes before returning to our Hotel. A brilliant start to the trip, thanks Paul.
They do have some extreme weather in the Rockies and some extreme ways of clearing the debris. How about this for clearing snow! A jet engine mounted on a small 4 wheel truck. This was at the back of North yard in Denver along with a Jordan spreader (nothing to do with the page 3 model!) and other items of pway equipment.
18th March 2002: Monday morning saw Neil and I back at North Yard waiting for Russ to arrive then off in to the Rockies.
A BNSF manifest train heads for the Joint line
CNW C44-9W 8831 backs up to the fuelling point at North Yard
Denver North Yard Tower
The weather started off bright and sunny as we drove up to the Big Ten and Little Ten curves just in time to pick up Amtrak #5 The California Zephyr. After some long range photos from the top of the ridge we jumped in the van and headed down to the crossing at Coal Creek Canyon.
Here #5 is climbing up towards tunnel #1
We then drove up Highway 72 through Crescent and Cliff to Rollins where a coal train was tied down waiting crew. From Rollins we continued up the dirt road towards the East Portal of the Moffat tunnel. The road had plenty of snow covering the ice and we only got as far as Tolland before the snow came down very heavily. As our Chevy Venture wasn't a 4 x 4 and there was nothing moving on the scanner we decided to head back down the mountain and have another go on Tuesday. As a slight detour we went through Golden past the Coors chemical works, sorry Brewery where there were several BNSF locos and Coors own loco's switching boxcars and coal hoppers.
BNSF SD40-2's 7806 and 6775, both still in Burlington Northern livery, back a train across the road at Golden near the Coors brewery.
After two nights eating at the Village Inn next to our hotel ( food but not as we know it!) we now had transport to get into town. Russ takes us to the Wynkoop micro-brewery opposite the Union Station. After popping in to see how late the Zephyr is (only 1hr late) we have a great meal...Elk steaks....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm and some decent beer to wash it down.
19th March: The hotel may not have been very central for Denver but one of the advantages was a daily BNSF local freight that ran past the hotel entrance here we see 3 GP38's and a few box cars rolling past the hotel
After the obligatory trip to North Yard after breakfast we set off again into the Front Range for our second attempt at getting to the East portal.
We detoured into Golden again to check out the Coors brewery for trains and went to the Colorado Railroad Museum while Russ got a "slight puncture" repaired. The Museum is excellent, well worth a visit and has a pretty good bookshop after purchasing the Rio Grande Diesels Vol 3 and a Mike Danneman print of a DRGW PA in the snow it was back in the van and up the mountain.
This time the going was much easier and we arrived at the Moffat Tunnel in sunshine, however it was showing just 18F on the vans thermometer and the wind chill..............BRRRRRRRRRR. The tunnel is over 6 miles long and situated in superb scenery, absolutely breathtaking.
Not long after arriving, chatter on the scanner gave us a train on the way through the tunnel. Several minutes later the doors to the tunnel were raised and a headlight could be spotted in the distance.
AC4400 UP6792 leads a loaded coal train out of the tunnel at 9239 feet above sea level.
After the train passed with 2 midtrain and 2 rear units on DPU (remote control) we legged it back to the van to chase the train to the crossing at Tolland. Then on the Cliff.
This is one of my favourite photos from the trip with UP6438 bringing up the rear on an Eastbound coal train as a vapour trail disperses high above.
As we approached Cliff we could hear the dispatcher talking to another train, a BNSF manifest. We pulled off the road at the top of a gorge that overlooked the line. About 10 mins later the train came into view lead by BNSF 769 in warbonnet colours. The train was a good length with boxcars, tanks and flat cars and the bonus of 2 SD40-2's as a rear helper set. We were back in the van and off down the road to Rollins for more photos.
Here C44-9W 769 leads sisters 4800, 4388,4560 and 701 past the siding at Rollins.
As we approached the East Portal it became clear that the manifest was being put into the siding to meet an Eastbound train. We couldn't get in front of the manifest as it was blocking the last level crossing before the tunnel so we jumped out of the van just in time to see a pair of AC4400 lead a coal train around the corner.
UP6629 and SP178 on the point of the Eastbound coal train,
UP6578 and UP7056 were mid train with UP7291 and UP7222 on the rear.
This photo has been published as photo of the day on Altamont Railroad News
We chased the coal train back down the "hill" to Rollins then on to Highway 72 and a mad dash to pick the train up at Clliff then onwards back down to Coal Creek. As there was still a reasonable amount of light left we drove up to the siding at Plainview where we caught up with the Eastbound coal loads heading towards Denver.
From there we could see the Rocky local so hit the road again back down to Highway 93 and Rocky siding. After watching the Eastbound coal train pass us again the next train was the pair of SD40-2 helper set from the BNSF manifest, this was closely followed in the failing light by the Rocky flats local.
With the setting sun reflecting on them at Rocky
BNSF SD40-2's 6935 and 6721 run light back to Denver.
DRGW GP40-2's 3121 and 3128 head out of the siding at Rocky back to North Yard Denver.
Whilst we were in Denver there was one place I was going to come what may, Caboose Hobbies. The shop advertises itself as the largest model railway shop in the world and I'm not going to argue with them! It's huge. We arrived at 1600 and they shut in 2 hours, not nearly enough time. After strolling around the aisles of HO and O gauge plus cabinets full of brass models and the book section I finally get to the N scale.
I had already done a bit of surfing on their website prior to coming, so knew what I was likely to find.....far too much and not enough money. The visa card was going to take a big hit! Several Trainworx coal hoppers MP and undecorated went into the basket along with undecorated 5 bay Ortner hoppers, Atlas tank cars at under $8 they are double that in the UK. several sheets of decals and other detail parts An undecorated Atlas GP40-2 was the prize find. This is now DRGW 3128 which we saw during our stay. My final purchase was an HO Athearn SD45 in DRGW livery for under $29, just as a memento of our trip. If you are ever in Denver do not miss Caboose Hobbies, if they had a coffee shop there would be no need to leave...ever!
20th March: After checking out of the Hotel on another bright morning we headed over to North Yard DRGW GP60's 1900 and 1901 were in the yard but not in a suitable place to get any pictures.
Former DRGW SD50 patched to UP5096 trails a three unit consist out of North Yard Denver.
Today we were heading south to Colorado Springs, after a few photo stops on the Joint line ( Denver to Pueblo ). In the Denver suburbs we passed several Southbound coal loads all stationary so we were hopeful of getting some action during the day.
The highway between Denver and Colorado Springs is very busy and there was a lot of construction work going on to widen it as a result we were able to crawl past the former BNSF intermodal terminal at Big Lift, an unidentified SD40-2 was all that we could see.
Between Castle Rock and Tomah we left the Interstate for a parallel minor road, stopping at a grade crossing to a ranch on track 1 to get some photos. We were nearly caught out by the first train which was heading northbound on track 1, rather than track 2.
BNSF SD60M 9227 on that northbound Manifest near Castle Rock
The reason for the wrong line running soon became clear as chatter on the scanner between the dispatcher and a work train near Sedalia had track 2 blocked.
The picture below taken just north of Palmer Lake is Neil on the left and myself on the right with "the van". It got a lot dirtier than that at the end of the week!
After a while and no trains we headed south to Palmer Lake the highest point on the Joint line at around 7300 feet above sea level.
We parked on the road between Spruce and Palmer Lake and watched several trains work hard up grade on track 2, yes it was open now.
We popped into Palmer Lake and got some good photos around the lake as well as a huge Salt beef roll with chilli's from the nice little Deli in the town.
At Colorado Springs we stayed a while near the station watching the coal trains thunder through. A small model shop which deals only in N scale is in part of the station building and needless to say a few purchases were made.
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Our over night stay in Colorado Springs was at a Motel overlooking the railway lines. Evening meal was at the Restaurant in the old Colorado Springs Depot. We had a table overlooking the tracks, great meal, lovely place full of DRGW memorabilia but not one darn train all evening!
21st March: After a huge breakfast we set off back to Palmer Lake. The suprise that Neil had hinted at whilst we were at Gatwick was to have been a cab ride over the Moffat route, however due to increased security and the need for breathing apperatus training this was not going to happen. Russ had been making several phone calls to his contacts at Union Pacific to see what alternatives could be arranged. A call had come in at Breakfast for us to head north to Cheyenne in Wyoming.
Our cabride was to be over Shermann Hill on UP's busiest trans-continental mainline.
Before we left Colorado Springs we decided to see what we could find on the branch lines in the area. At Kelker? we came across the these GE's on a train.
After spending some time at Palmer Lake we headed north back to Denver and on to Cheyenne. The scanner burst into life as we came through Big Lift and the road works. DRGW SD50 5096 (formally 5502 )was leaving North Yard on the Pueblo Manifest and was lead unit. We need to be off the Interstate now!
We turned off at Littleton which is at the southern end of the Denver tram system, found a road that came up by the side of the tracks and waited. Our wait was certainly worth it as 5096 leading a very mixed lash up of loco's came storming along..
5096 leads the Pueblo manifest at Littleton, Denver.
This photo has been published as photo of the day on DRGW.net
A couple of hours later, after a detour via Fort Collins, we arrived at Cheyenne and checked into a motel. It was right opposite the tracks. Trains were going non stop all the time huge, manifest trains and mile long intermodals.
Russ had plans for us that evening, taking us to Jim and Gloria Horn's Cowboy bar in Cheyenne.
The place was very busy and we could not get a table so the three of us sat at the bar. The menu was chilli's burgers and steaks. After finding out what the difference between green and red Chilli was Russ and I opted for the hottest with Neil on the milder one each to be followed by Steak and fries. Beer was $7 drink as much as you like and keep the glass as a souvenir. Well what can I say...The Chilli wasn't as spicy as my wife makes and the beer was Coors Lite....about 0.1% alcohol ( it's revolting ). I know this is easy for me to say thousands of miles away but I thought Cowboys were supposed to be hard men! The band was good (thank god it wasn't Country and Western) and the steak was the size of a pair of shoes so overall the evening was pretty good. Yeeehaa!!!!!!!!
After leaving the bar we went back to the van, all of us completely sober and went hunting......Hunting trains that is. Just as got to the motel a train in the yard got the Highball and we were off chasing it along the parallel road, windows down for the sound of several SD60's and SD40-2's roaring through our ears. It wasn't until we stopped that we realised how cold we were. The vans thermometer registering just 16F. Time for bed.
March 22nd: We checked out of the motel and drove down to the UP depot, an impressive building in the centre of town. The adjacent yard tower is bisected by a road bridge either side and has to be very tall for them to see what's going on.
Our contact there was the yard foreman who was checking trains for us. There had been a derailment further west and trains were stacked up for hundreds of miles, it wasn't looking good.
To pass the time we taken on a tour, this was the only time we didn't have our camera gear to hand. What a mistake that was to be.
Firstly we were taken in to see both UP's preserved steam loco's Mountain type 4-8-4 #844 and the enormous Challenger #3985. Next to them was the E9 A & B units. Outside the shed was a former DRGW F9B unit looking very much the worse for wear. Our next visit was into part of the old roundhouse which housed some of the UP passengers cars as well as DDA40X #6936. This brought back memories for Russ as he had worked on these loco's when they were first built by EMD.
Our tour complete we were back in the Yard office to see what train we were catching. Russ had asked that the train be powered by EMD loco's and preferably SD70's rather than by Brand X. The first hot SD70 powered train to arrive was IG2OA-21. This was I = intermodal, G2 = Global 2, Chicago intermodal terminal to OA = Oakland (San Francisco) 21= 21st March departed Chicago.
This train was powered by three SD70's 4609, 4675 and 4519 was pulling a train 6766 feet long, thats 1.32 miles! loaded with 5600 tons of containers on double stack wagons.
After meeting the crew we walked out to the train which was just arriving and climbed aboard. As there are only three seats in the cab Neil and Russ had elected to go in the second unit 4675. I was to get 3609 on the point. This is the time you do not want the camera to fail!
At about 1430 we got the road out of the yard and slowly headed out to the mainline. 12000hp soon got us moving out of Cheyenne and on to Track 3 up Sherman Hill. What a fantastic trip. I'll let the photos do the talking now.
Approaching Valmosa Tunnel.
This photo has been published as photo of the day on Altamont Railroad News
6 hours and 180 miles later we arrived in Rawlins and after thanking the crew for there hospitality we are whisked off to a motel for our overnight stay and a very early start the next morning.
March 23rd: I'm supposed to be on holiday and I'm getting up at 0500! The UP crew van picks us up and back to Rawlins depot we go. The traffic situation has worsened due to the derailment and there is likely to a problem getting a train...any train.
Come 1000 we finally get our lift on GERONP-22 G = Grain, E = Empty, RO = Roper Yard ( Salt lake City) to NP = North Platte (UP's biggest yard).
An empty grain train is as hot as yesterdays newspaper but at least its heading in the right direction......
UP5782 is on the point a brand new GE AC44CTE with UP7295 as second unit a GE AC4400. No EMD's for Russ but we persuade him to get on and take the lead unit to compare notes!
The first photo has Neil in the Engineers seat.....This was the trailing unit, honest.
The second photo is me trying to escape from the toilet. Enough said.
What surprised us is that there is no hot plate on the engines. In the UK a hotplate is a normal fitting. We had already stocked up with cakes, crisps and candy, a nice balanced meal.
As we approach the top of Sherman Hill on Track 2 we saw some lorry trailers and containers on the side of the track, further on we pass some TOFC flats with the trailer hitches ripped out. The engineer later confirms that the trailers were blown clean off the wagons a few days earlier.
After another 6 hour trip we arrive back in Cheyenne and after saying our thank you's and farewells are on the road back to Denver. A slight detour via Fort Collins again, no trains to see. Fort Collins still has street running of mainline trains but they have eluded us this time.
After checking in to the Hotel its back to North yard to check out the evening action.
March 24th: Our last day in the USA its cold and overcast. The flight leaves mid afternoon, which gives us time to go hunting trains. We decide to go and chase the Ski Train. It's the last run of it's winter season. A quick dash along Interstate 70 gets us to Rocky siding and a prime spot to park. We spot Mike McGowen who we met a week ago arriving. Right on time the Ski Train passes under the bridge the 3 F40PH's running by themselves, no assisting engine this week. The coaches glide by as we take our photos. I have a problem with my SLR, the film has torn and I've lost the first 12 pictures. Thankfully I had bought a back up in the shape of my wife's tiny Canon APS camera.
Back in the van we chase the Ski Train up to Rollins.
The Ski train passes through Rollins.
With time to spare we go back to North Yard for a final session, both the DRGW GP60's are there along with several other DRGW loco's , No SLR means no zoom and no decent photo, Doh!
The ride back to the Airport takes us close to where Paul took us the previous week but today there is no sign of the locos at Stapleton?
It's snowing lightly and getting colder.
Check in is almost a complete replay of the previous flight, we are bumped up to Club again, oh dear I could get used to this. Thanks to BA we have had over £5000 worth of flight for £250. We say goodbye to Russ and settle down for a few hours of pampering
The last incident of the trip was the captain announcing that due to the weather the plane would have to go through De - icing procedure before take off...nice! This involved being sprayed with gallons of De - icing fluid, so 20 minutes late we took off. Neil is asleep inside an hour.
25th March: Arrival back at Gatwick was on time and about 40 mins later we are both on the platform waiting for the train back to Brighton. It's raining.
Our Colorado adventure is over. Will we go back, yes we both had a great time I just wish it was about 9 hrs closer! Thanks to everyone we met during our stay and special thanks to Russ as chauffeur of the year! with the quote of the week " We just need to get a bit of air in that tyre".......but that's another story.
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