Some loco shots from the Great Western

On my last trip to Denver (OK, OK, Caboose Hobbies), I returned to Cheyenne via Loveland, CO, to stop by & shoot whatever action was happening on the Great Western Railway. The GW is an Omnitrax railroad, and serves customers in Loveland, Greeley, Ft. Collins, and places in between. The shops are at an old sugar beet processing plant in Loveland, and the motive power is, to say the least, colorful. Some of the tracks are full of motive power (All-EMD) from other lines, in various conditions. The yard itself is pure-dee dirt-track style (that is, dirt for ballast, little to no gravel), but the tracks look decent. When I was there, crews were busy doing crosstie replacement. Didn't look like much else was happening, so I took some shots:



This switcher was shoved off the end of one of the spurs, in the back of the plant. Looks to be in pretty rough shape.



Chopnosed GP9 2003- judging by the paint, this looks like one of the diesels used on the now-defunct Longhorn Railroad (now operated as the Austin Area Terminal, an ex-SP line north of Austin, TX).




SD7 (?) 4310, late of fellow Omnitrax road Panhandle Northern. The PNR operates a former ATSF line from Panhandle to Borger, TX, with the major commodity being carbon black.


This, kids, is what happens when you thin ouit the paint too much- it just doesn't quite cover. Seriously, this sorry- looking GP7R of obvious Santa Fe heritage was last used on the Central Kansas Ry., which is currently being operated as the Kansas & Oklahoma. That engine in the back is former Midsouth GP10 1059, a GP10 rebuilt by ICG,s Paducah shops in the 1970s.



Two more CKR Geeps, the one in front ex-Santa Fe (not sure about the 713). These look to be in service.



Ex- Northwestern Pacific SD9 (?) 4327- this one is definintely being used, as I've seen it on one of its lines crossing under I-25.



Omnitrax Switching Services GP7 4285, apparently ex-CNW heritage. Sharp-looking paint scheme, and most likely also in service.

For more on this railroad, visit this part of the Omnitrax website . FYI, our own Jerry DeBene is an employee of the AT&N, another Omnitrax railroad (and, judging by the looks of his pics, a more robust property).

[ October 08, 2005, 02:16 AM: Message edited by: Colonel ]

 

Bob,

Great pictures however I had to edit all your images as the links were incorrect. I changed /gallery/ to /albums/ and added .sized.jpg after the file name.

 

Thanks- I wondered why I was having problems getting these pics to upload.

 

Definitely some well used stuff. Whenever I see paint like some of these, I wonder how reliable are they?



Boxcab E50

 

As they say back in the Republic of Texas:

"Rode hard & put up wet"

Those poorly-painted CKR diesels get me.

Just goes to show ya, though, that paint don't pull trains........

 

That is a dandy paint job, eh?

I'm kinda partial to the burnt orange and the blue & gray Geeps myself. As to the CKR engines, one has to wonder if they didn't thin the paint down a wee bit too much.....