Great shots Mike! I might have more zoom but my camera is well worn and a handful of shots did not produce much as far as quality. I will try to upload some more photos tonight. No worries of thread jacking here. Feel free to post all of your Colorado U.P. action. Ben
Mike is a hard photographer to follow, but here goes... A few more shots at Range. Next we pulled off to look at the siding near Bond. Just a few pieces of equipment were to be found. Ben
From Bond we turned off at McCoy and did not find anything moving along the rails. I did however snap a couple of equipment photos at Crater. We then decided to head further up the Craig Branch. Again nothing was moving so we decided to break for lunch at Phippsburg. It was here that I began to drool over some Grande finds! Ben
Having no activity on the Craig Branch we turned around and headed toward Radium. We stopped of in Bond to take a closer look at the old Rio Grande MOW equipment. Ben
Simply 'Grande! Ben, Phippsburg is in the middle 'Drawbar Alley', as evidenced by the abundance of drawbars present at P-burg. There is a 1.8% max eastbound grade from Steamboat Springs, a tricky sag at P-burg, and another avg 1.8% EB grade all the way to Toponas Summit. Helpers were added midtrain at Steamboat or P-burg in 'Grande days for the big shove to Toponas. End of train helpers were added at Tabernash for the last miles of the 2% grind to Moffat Tunnel. A helper district within a helper district.
Thanks Mike! Also I will not be able to post much on here as of tomorrow. I will be working the air show through the weekend and will get back to the TrainBoard early next week. Post away my friend!! Ben
Sorry all, been trying to catch back up on work from being on vacation and haven't had time to get to posting more pics until tonight. So lets see... after Phippsburg and Bond, Ben and I headed back over Trough Rd. No luck at Yarmony or Radium, so we started heading towards Inspiration Point. On the way, I told Ben to pull over so we could walk out to the overlook of Little Gore Canyon. After wasting some time with nothing in site, we started walking back to the truck, with me saying aloud "I just want to catch ONE train here!" Ben had stopped and was looking up canyon when I heard him say "you got your wish!!" We walked back and took our positions at the canyon's edge. -Mike
Nice shots at T39 and T40! I have never caught a power move west of Tunnel 1, so this was refreshing. One day, when I get my first dSLR outfit, I want to come down here at dusk, and shoot long time exposures in this canyon after dark. Seeing the westbounds out of Azure winding thru the serpentine curves in the dark would be cool, and the effect would be striking on camera.
Let me know when the time comes and I would be happy to join you. I just upgraded cameras last week and could sure use some of your photography expertise! A few of my shots near the tunnels. Ben
Mike headed up a hill on the opposite side of the tracks and probably has some better photos to share. Ben
Thanks guys! We still have a handful of photos to share. I know that Mike is back on the road this weekend so it might be a little bit before he gets a chance to add the next batch of images. Ben
