It's been a crazy week. I've seen trains as I drive by going places, but haven't been able to stop and appreciate them.
Let's start it off with CN 5601, EMD SD70I with some road grime, leading a much grimier SD60F: CN bought the only 25 SD70Is produced. My photo, Chutes Sainte-Ursule, April 3rd, 2010.
From about 1975, EJ&E's No. 6 crosses the C&NW's Harvard Sub main at Barrington, IL. The roof of Barrington Tower can be seen above the boxcars. Lead unit 653 is an SD-38, later transferred to sister road DM&IR.
I've shared this one in the past. But now I have a much better quaity scanner and can present a reasonably sharp image. The BN Anacortes Local, heading to the refineries in Anacortes, here at Whitney, Washington almost thirty years ago:
Another favorite. A couple of years ago, this eastward BNSF train on MRL. An earthworm descending the Hill at Evaro, Montana:
Still earning its keep, a Conrail corrugated gondola rides in NS 202 at Wyomissing JCT this past Tuesday.
Nothing wrong with a perfectly good car doing what it was designed to do, regardless of ownership. We let the the Beanie-Weenies sort it out.
Nice! And with minimal graffiti too. I wonder if its carside corrugations render it undesirable for "artists" (read vandals) to use as a canvas?
A throwback to July... "Moffat Road Original" David H. Moffat was the visionary who made the route west of Denver possible, despite the sheer lunacy of building directly west into the heart of the Rockies. The construction was fiercely difficult; when the work didn't drive men to exhaustion, the dizzying altitudes did. Oppressive summer heat and deathly cold and ferocious blizzards alike tested the builders and crews of the Moffat Road. The story of the Moffat Road is that of blizzards, blockades, 4% grades and near extinction. While he never saw his route reach Salt Lake City and the Pacific, his dream (renamed Denver & Salt Lake in 1913) lives on under the vast Union Pacific system. Moffat's railroad, the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific, was incorporated on July 18, 1902, and construction promptly started west for Salt Lake City. The rugged terrain of South Boulder Canyon required blasting of tunnels, construction of fills & trestles and excavation of embankments and cuts. From Coal Creek to Mammoth (Tolland), construction costs soared to nearly 400% of the cost to build the Rollins Pass segment. As difficult as Rollins Pass was to operate, the cost to build it was relatively cheap. By June 23, 1904, the track reached from Denver clear to Mammoth on an unrelenting 2% grade. By September second, the rails reached 11,660 feet elevation at Corona (nicknamed by the road's first chief dispatcher, J. B. Culbertson as the "Crown of the Mountains"). From Ladora Siding (~5 miles west of Tolland) on the Giant's Ladder to Irvings (later Winter Park), the hill line required staggering 4% grades. At around 10,500 feet elevation one is above the protection of the tree line, and there's only two seasons: winter and August. Blizzards in September hampered snowshed construction. Construction proceeded to Arrowhead, shortened to Arrow, reaching the town 22 days after the rails crested the summit. The rails ended at Arrow in 1904 until after winter. In 1905, track reached from Arrow to Hot Sulphur Springs and onto Steamboat Springs by January 1909. Steamboat to Craig, the DNW&P's terminus, was reached by November 1913. Construction of the Rollins Pass line was as cheap as possible to save money to build the main range tunnel, some 2.6 miles long and under the worst winter storms at around 9,900 feet. Culverts were minimal, and ice was as terrible a menace on Hell Hill as blizzards. The decision to delay building the main range tunnel nearly cost the railroad everything. Blockades lasting months plagued the Moffat Road. Blizzards would blockade the railroad if rotaries were not continuously operated over the hill every eight hours or less, even with the finest snowfighting equipment of its time. The DNW&P's mightiest rotary snowplow, "the Red Devil" was 103 tons, at the time the heaviest ever built. The astronomical costs of running the Rollins Pass line involved rotary snow plows, armies of gandy dancers with shovels to clear the tracks, and helper engines on every train to cross the 4% grades. The construction of the Moffat Tunnel completed on February 26, 1928, ending the need to retain the terrible hill line. As soon as the Interstate Commerce Commission authorized it on March 16, 1935, Hell Hill was summarily scrapped by truck. The final rails at Corona, the highest elevation for standard gauge in the nation, were pulled up on this day (October 22) in 1936. A piece of rail from the summit was donated to Republic Steel's museum, commemorating the rail's maker. The caboose you see above likely never fought the bitter winds and snows over Corona, or followed the plow trains incessantly from Ranch Creek Wye to Spruce Wye as its predecessors had, as the 10060 was built in February 1936. In need of a refresh, D&SL 10060 rests at Colorado Railroad Museum.
After getting the 6644 leading on Sunday, it returned northbound as a MidDPU on 475. Buffalo, IA Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That's a nice one, Russell. Other than a few details, that photo could have been taken back in the 50s or 60s. Some gondolas are born corrugated, others have corrugations thrust (mangled) upon them. I'm surprised that it's not banged up to any degree. Great catch, Sepp! Nice scans, Ken. That scanner is a good acquisition.
I greatly enjoyed reading your capsule history of the Moffat Road -- thank you! In the teens and twenties throughout the nation, new routes and reconstruction of old routes were completed. It was a fascinating era, made possible by inexpensive steel, modern explosives, compressed air rock drilling, powerful earthmoving equipment, advanced engineering and deep pockets.
Dropped a trailer the other day at a customer in Stockton, Ca. last week. Saw my old friend ex BN SD40-2 #6775 switching the BNSF intermodal yard: