Like the last one Jere,unit coalie.Tell me you didn't camp out over night?Would've been a little bit chilly!!!
Nah, I hiked in. Didn't have to wait long, once 'Maintenance' was 'outta-the-way'.... MOW crews usually shut down the RR just after noon, and it lasts till about 3-5 PM sometimes. I have wanted to hike in, and camp, at a few locations, but the chill even in summer woud have been interesting.
New material!!! East of Tunnel 1, MOW crews are laying new rail on the curves that need it most, up to MP 29: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/628/work_east_of_T1.jpg http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/628/work_east_of_T1_b.jpg Thanks to Maintenance -in-the-way, all traffic on the Moffat Route was shut down from 8AM-5PM... So not a train even on the radar! The cut west of Bull Gulch: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/cut_west_of_T2.jpg Tunnel 2's west portal opens up to this view: Hiking up a short ways up a slope parallel to the flatiron finger cut in between T2 and 3 yields this shot EB: And this shot WB, framed by a dead tree: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/t3_ep_empties.jpg This shot is looking east, towards T5, from above the ridge that T6 cuts thru: More new material coming next week, after another trip!
No Moffat Route tour would be complete without Rio Grande power, would it? Here's some power on the Rocky Flats Local:
What a day!!! From brilliant sunlight to fog so thick you could cut it with a knife. Here's a teaser, the Flatirons, at first light. Spectacular light--so incredible, pics don't do it justice. You really had to see it to believe it. The snow that hammered Colorado was in full effect, with over a foot in spots, and the trees were all covered, their branches drooping from the weight. Icicles were everywhere, and the unspoiled wilderness was breathtaking! The score: Arriving at 6:15 AM, and leaving just past noon, 7 trains. 2 coal loads EB, 3 empties WB, a WB mainfest, and Amtrak. The first 2 trains were brilliantly lit, and the rest, well, were fog shots. Still interesting, but not as spectacular.
Thats a very unique shot of those tunnels Jere,thats what I like about your photo's,they are very different from what you always see in the books/vids. Beautiful scenery,man I just gotta get over there one year.....in the mean time please keep 'em coming Jere.
Thanks, Jason. I should get out there more often, and shoot more of T2-8. There is so many more angles I'd like to try, but the icy rocks were hard to climb on. Getting there ar first light is great, and leaving for lunch about noon then come back after about 2-3PM. Maintenance is in the way about lunchtime, so the traffic dies off. That's a good time to head for higher elevation, to new shots on the rest of the tunnel district. I have about 85 shots to sort thru, so stay tuned!
The wife sends her WOW! for this one as well. Good old Spring storms in the Rocky Mountains... One of these days we need to hook up but I just don't know my schedule right now to know when.
hehehhe, first he has to stop spending money on fancy cars and computer parts. I'll take a picture of the Royal Gorge when I'm there in 5mnths Jason
New material!! I'll go in chronological order, starting with the shots I took when I started,a nd ending with the shots I took before leaving. They will not seem in much order, but it might make more sense after the tour! Thanks to a mid-spring snowstorm, the entire Front Range was plastered with white stuff. I arrived at first light on saturday, and after hiking to T2, this is the views that were before me: Looking back on Plain siding: Rainbow Cut from T2: Here's T2, east portal, resplendent with fesh rocky mountain snow: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_t2_ep.jpg Moving along, I thought I'd hike as far as I could before I encountered a train coming, and then set up for a shot. Here's T3's west portal--for some reason I didn't shoot the east portal, I think it was heavily shadowed; little did I know what the day would hold in store for me! http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_t3_wp.jpg After shooting the portal shot, I proceed west, shooting the T4 area like so: East portal in snow: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_t4_ep.jpg West portal, seldomly recorded, since it is impossible in most circumstances to get any kind of light in the shadowed portal: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_t4_wp.jpg Another stop, to record the brilliantly-highlighted east portal of T5: T5's west portal: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_t5_wp.jpg More to come, stay tuned!
Moving right along, tunnel 6 sits in shadows and sunlight (this shot is better in winter, with the low-angle sun): http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_t6_ep.jpg West portal of T6 is much like that of T4, heavily shadowed, and rarely recorded: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_t6_wp_area.jpg T7 is on that long tangent (still a 2% grade, however), which cuts thru 2 flatiron fingers, and bores thru a third. Here's a view from T6, looking west: T7's east portal, brilliantly lit: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_T7_EP_b.jpg Bingo!! EB coal load at T7: (since I set up for a WB, the EB load surprised me, and the shot isn't too great, but here it is anyways) http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_T7_loads.jpg And the pusher in heavy dynamic braking: The action EB gave me a few minutes to head further west, and get more shots. Here's the view from T7 looking west: The flatiron finger with the large cut is where I set up the next series of shots of the next train... http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_t7_west_view.jpg
The load cleared, I headed west again, and flipped 180* to shoot the west portal of T7 like so: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_t7_wp.jpg Hearing a WB on the radio, I climbed up a snowy (over a foot in places!) rock slope to the top of the ridge in the last shot of the last post, and waited for a train. What a surprise when the leader is a rare (on the Moffat Route) SD70M, and an SD40-2 in consist!!: Grinding along at a snail's pace, and not on its knees at run 8, this train was negotiating a slow order somewhere east of here. That gave me plenty of time to shoot the train for many angles. The best shot I could muster from my perch 30 feet above the track, on the rare head-end power: The train being so slow, I clambered down from my perch, and walked along the train, which was going walking speed. It then finally cleared the slow order, put the spurs to the throttle, and she took off! I headed down to T8, and shot the tail end disappearing into the 753-foot long dark, tightly-curved bore: Not 20 minutes after the manifest, a thick, dark cloud of fog rolled in, cutting visibility to mere feet at some moments. I decided to head back east to T6, and shoot what I could, and make the best of it. The slow-order still in effect east of here, a coal load tiptoes by me, in fog so thick you could cut it with a knife, (I'm set up on the flatiron finger between T6 and 7) flanges and brake shoes screaming for mercy on the 2% ruling grade: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_T6_wp_loads.jpg http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/989/snow_sp_147.jpg http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/snow_t6_dpu.jpg
Yes, you CAN still find remnants of the Grande on the Moffat Route! Granted, its not tunnel motors and SD50's, but these 100T quad hoppers, available in N scale from Trainworx, are very common in coal trains here: The mid-train set of DPU's on this load was solid Espee, with an unpatched unit in center position: The trailing DPU disappearing into T6, and the thick fog: I followed the load thru T6, and awaitied Amtrak, surely soon to arrive. I set up on the slope that T6 cut thru, and watched as the fog got thicker, and thicker. Eventually, after crawling by the slow-order, Amtrak #5 barrels thru the fog, in between T5 and 6: I hiked thru T5 after #5 cleared, and decided to try someting at T4. Arriving at the EP of T4, I heard (not on the scanner) a WB coming, and coming fast. I set up on the slope T4 bores thru, and awaited the consist. Here's a WB coal empty charges up the grade out of the fog with a solid consist of aluminum dump gons in tow: The tail end disappearing into T4: [ May 01, 2005, 05:24 PM: Message edited by: HemiAdda2d ]
I heard another coal empty on the scanner, after calling the dispatcher with a clear signal indication, and I hustled along to tunnel 3, and set up just east of the east portal, on the other side of the wire rockslide fence. Here's that empty, thundering by: And his clean trailing DPU: I headed further east, this time thinking of setting up west of Bull Gulch creek, and trying that shot I got 2 weeks ago. Since the dispatcher was seemingly fleeting these empties up the mountain, I had little time. No sooner I got to the base of the hill, I heard the empty charging up the grade out of Plain siding, and I hustled to a shot that seemed reasonable. Here's what I got, while nearly sliding back down the slippery snow: This shot portrays Bull Gulch: And this is his tail end disppearing into T3: And then it got really quiet. Nothing on the radio, nothing on the rails, no noise whatsoever. Too quiet... And here's why: Maintenance was in-the-way, so the dispatcher shut off the faucet of trains. I headed back to the truck, and went home, tired and sore from hiking and climbing all over God's creation. I hope you enjoyed this trip report!!
Thanks, Hank! I look forward to each trip I make down there. I'm sure gonna miss it when I move to Montana next year! Then, I'll have to start fanning the Marias Pass line, and the remnants of the old CMStP&P, NP, GN, and the MRL.
