Railroad Yards Contain Locomotives, Rolling Stock, and Danger

BNSF Police
shoulder patch

As a railfan just 15 years ago, it was hard for me to appreciate the railroads' point of view when it came to allowing access to their yard. I can remember at least one encounter when, looking into a railroad policeman's eyes, I could tell what frustration and anger my "idiocy" had caused. Moments before, I felt I was safe because it was a hot summer day and no one was out there making any moves. No one except the police man, I found out. His face reminded me of how my father's looked when I had one time wandered into danger. I didn't enjoy either experience.

Railroad Radio in Colorado

If you've never listened to Railroad Radio, you've missed an opportunity to learn all about how freight moves in Colorado. It takes a bit of patience and knowledge of the nature of railroad operations, but, having it on in the background, you'd be surprised what you can pick up.

It's also a good indicator, given how expensive gas is recently, of how busy these rail routes are on a given day. Careful listening will help you know where the trains are, and how likely a photo run will produce good results.

All three live audio feeds are linked below and in the near column.

Railroad Radio in Colorado

• BNSF Front Range Sub - Denver to Cheyenne
• BNSF/UP Joint Line - Denver to Pueblo
• UP Moffat Line - Winter Park to Tabernash

 

POTD - Empty Hoppers In the Sunset

From a river named "The Animas" in the San Juan mountains to a town named Las Animas on the eastern plains, it's hard to believe they're in the same world, let alone the same state at the same rough latitude (0.5° difference). From narrow gauge Rio Grande rails hung precariously on canyon walls to standard gauge Santa Fe rails somewhere in a vast prairie, these are Colorado Railroads!

Empty Hoppers In the Sunset - Coal hoppers wait their turn for service in beside a
piece of disused rail in the quiet town of Las Animas, Colorado, on June 16, 2008
Photo: Jenny Vaughn

New Railroad Construction In Denver

It's always a good sign when your friendly neighborhood railroad, usually BNSF or Union Pacific west of Chicago, starts adding capacity in your region. It could be a second main line between two points only a few miles apart, or it could be a third or (wow!) fourth main for 20 miles or more. After a century of contraction and abandoned routes, railroads are cautiously upgrading and adding rail routes.

Officer Special On the Joint Line

Prolific videographer Carlos Ferran, whose channel on YouTube, trainsruleandroll, is a shrine to all things Rio Grande, has yet another video (HD) that I can't pass up without passing along. He's got a good eye for railroad photography, and he keeps his finger on the pulse of the Joint Line.




I'll conclude this post by explaining what an officer special is and what the Joint Line is.

Cold Weather Can Cripple Railroads

With the temperature at 15 degrees below zero outside and the winds at 20 MPH, we had a wind chill near 42 below last week! It got me to thinking,  we all know how Colorado's snow can snarl a railroad, but what cold weather problems can railroaders face? Aside from the obvious frostbite, which can occur in as little as 5 minutes in these conditions, what else can extreme cold do to make work on a railroad even more difficult and strenuous?

Featured Photographer - Gary Morris

Aside from the photo aggregate sites like  railpictures.net and rrpicturearchives.net, it's hard to find photographers with high-quality railroad photographs of the 60s, 70s and 80s in Colorado. That's why I got a bit excited when I found Gary Morris' site and his section on the Rio Grande Railroad earlier this summer. He's got his collection organized in HTML by railroad, but you can still find a few BN and UP shots in Denver if you dig for them.

Trains Magazine Features Colorado's Distributed Power

I got my October issue of Trains on Saturday. Did you?

Trains Sept 2010

The September 2010 issue of Trains Magazine features diesel engines using distributed power in Colorado. The cover  boasts, "Ultimate Motive Power, 6 Locomotives [under] 1 Engineer, How distributed power changed the way railroads run big trains." The main article by David Lustig features a double page spread of the Moffat Route through Little Gore Canyon to start the article, another from the Front Range sub north of Palmer Lake, and yet another from the west of Denver above the Big Ten Curve west of Clay, Colorado, which is also where the cover was shot (see at left).

Tunnel Motor Spared For Colorado Railroad Museum

The yard at Denver's Burnham shops have seen more than a few engines these days as Union Pacific held an auction of more than 50 units on July 14, 2010. Earlier in the month,  a request came in from the Colorado Railroad Museum. Would it be possible, they asked, for UP to donate unit UP 9871?  Within hours, UP said yes!

Palmer Lake Meets Set For May

For those near the Front Range, a small, semi-regular gathering of railfans reconvenes at their usual spot, a small parking lot in north Palmer Lake (see map). The meet is as egalitarian and informal as possible, with no meals or facilities provided. Someone usually brings a scanner that picks up what trains are in the area.


View Larger Map

UP Retires ex-Rio Grande Tunnel Motors To Dead Line At Burnham

It was bound to happen. With a continued lack of demand because of the recession, old locomotives that have seen their share of railroad miles are rounded up and sent via "funeral train" to a retirement storage, known as a "dead line." Intrepid photographer Kevin Morgan chased a funeral train on April 17, 2010. This time it seems to be a large
percentage of tunnel motors that had been marked for retirement, with 17 out of 21 (81%) being SD40T-2s. The train continued on to the dead line at Burnham.

Highball, Westbound Photo Turn CRB001 Track One

Climb aboard, brakeman! We're going on a run for the latest Colorado railroad photos out there on the web. Put your grip beneath your seat, click the Read More link, and we'll get moving!

Amtrak: CZ Denver To Chicago Run Canceled Friday

Important Information

The information below was based on facts available in 2010. For updated information on Amtrak train status, the first site to check is always www.amtrak.com. - S.Walden 2015-FEB-17


Amtrak's California Zephyr, the only Amtrak train serving the state has canceled Friday's eastbound run from Denver to Chicago because of the snow.

From the National Association of Railroad Passengers:

The California Zephyr due to arrive Chicago yesterday afternoon got there at 17 hours 56 minutes late, at 9:26 this morning. The Zephyr due to arrive Chicago today terminated in Denver yesterday. Yesterday’s departure from Chicago did not operate Chicago-Denver but the train departed Denver west this morning.

Similarly, freight service on BNSF (route of the CZ) and  Union Pacific, has been disrupted. From the AP:

Burlington Northern Santa Fe said the cold weather and snow was causing its freight trains to be delayed between 24 and 72 hours in Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana and North and South Dakota.

There is no word whether service for Saturday is canceled.

More Info: Amtrak Suspends Chicago-Denver Train Due To Snow

Buffett Buys BNSF

Financial emperor Warren Buffett has been buying up BNSF shares for years, but even in the first 48 hours since the announcement, this much is known about Berkshire Hathaway's $34 Billion purchase: Buffett is betting the farm on American rail.

Buffett believes that American coal will continue to produce in the long term, carried by Rio Grande-like unit trains from western sources such as the Wyoming and Colorado coal fields. He also believes that the American economy will rebound, once again driving demand for cheap and easy imports from China and the Pacific Rim to Wal-Mart and Sears aboard BNSF container trains from Washington and California ports.

Little if any impact is expected at the operations level. In a letter to BNSFs customers, John Lanigan stated,

You will not see any changes in the weeks and months ahead. Our leadership will remain in place and focused on providing value to our customers.

BNSFs Ft. Worth, Texas-based operations will remain in Ft. Worth. Largely, this looks like a move that's behind the scenes. The funny thing about those behind-the-scenes moves, however, is that they have an uncanny way of driving long-term strategies. Is this the anticipated move that sets the "fabled" next round of mergers in action that pairs BNSF and UP with their East Coast counterparts CSX and NS? What would this mean for the plans of high speed rail? If mergers happen, they will happen in the next 12 months. That's just a hunch based off the last round in 1995-96 where Conrail was divided up between CSX and NS and BN and Santa Fe merged, forcing UP to buy Southern Pacific from Colorado's Phil Anschutz.

Runaway Rail Car Rolls Through Arvada

What happens when you mix morning rush hour, a carload of plastic pellets, no brakes, and Arvada's finest? One wild ride!

Apparently the fun started just before 8:04 a.m. Thursday morning when calls came in to the Arvada police about a runaway freight car. According to the Denver Post, the car reached 40 miles per hour as it rolled out of control on the BNSF railroad tracks west of Denver. With that speed and with the car being so short, the gates at the grade crossings never descended or signaled approaching traffic. The car could have easily struck a car or pedestrian, or several, if any had been in the crossing at the time the car quietly rolled through.

As it was, Arvada police tried to get to the crossings in time to protect the intersections. Whether it was the police or the work of an angel or two, thankfully no one was injured and no railroad traffic was threatened. A BNSF  switching crew was in the area at the time and BNSF's team is investigating the incident.

Three Hobos Halt BNSF Freight In Glenwood Canyon

Three hobos climbed aboard a BNSF train on Saturday night (22nd) and got into one of the engines on the back of the train. Blowing the train's horn and tampering with the controls, they caused the train to dump its air in Glenwood Canyon. Triggering the emergency brakes on a moving freight is a class 3 felony. From the Glenwood Springs Post Independent:

According to the Garfield County Sheriff's Office, Bradley C. Sanders, 29, David Michael Delvisco, 25, and Mary Ellen Carter, 31, were charged with endangering public transportation, a class 3 felony, in Garfield County District Court Monday afternoon. If found guilty, the three face a possible penalty of between four and 12 years in prison and between $3,000 and $750,000 in fines, for the felony charge alone.

The train was carrying hazardous materials and, had the emergency braking caused the train to derail, the public's safety could have been endangered. The engineer never lost control, however, according to Steven Forsberg, BNSF media relations. The train stopped near the Bair Ranch Rest Area on I-70 in the canyon. They locked the locomotive's cab and ducked out of sight when the sheriff's deputies arrived. With the engineer's assistance, the deputies gained access to the cab and arrested the three, one of which was unconscious and intoxicated. The cab later required decontamination.

There's a romance to the rails, but I'm not sure this is it.

KM: Rio Grande Heritage Unit Leads California Zephyr

The Rio Grande heritage unit, UP 1989, was sent out to Utah on Saturday last week and when an eastbound California Zephyr P42 engine wouldn't take a load (run its traction motors), Union Pacific loaned the heritage unit to lead the way from Utah through Denver. That's right, through. Kevin Morgan reports that there was no Amtrak power on hand at Denver and so the Rio Grande continued on east toward Chicago and BNSF territory. If anyone out there spots our unit, let me know! In the meantime, here's Kevin's pictures from the Moffat Tunnel eastward.

Tanker Driver Burns Locomotive To A Crisp

Colorado Railroads does not cover every grade crossing incident, but we can't ignore stuff like this.

According to the only surviving Denver newspaper, the Denver Post, a tanker truck in--where else?--Commerce City tried to beat the train and tied-lost. As a result, 5,200 gallons of ethanol were spilled, producing a fireball that was captured on private surveillance cameras. The truck, the switcher and pretty much everything at the crossing were burnt crisper than a tortilla chip and a total loss. The three men on the locomotive had injuries and a nameless driver for Roger Morris Trucking Co. escaped unharmed.

On further examination, the railroad involved was not indicated, but the switcher was a formerly cascade green Burlington Northern EMD SD road locomotive. The accident appeared to be a spur in the vicinity of the UP/BNSF crossover for the two lines northeast out of Denver, CP DS902 UP Junction.

Fuel Cell Switcher Set To Test In Pueblo

BNSF Railway and Vehicle Projects Inc recently unveiled a new hydrogen fuel cell locomotive to a Topeka, Kansas crowd. The switcher will test at the DOT Test Center in Pueblo before taking its place in service in Los Angeles along side other "clean burning" switchers. The time of the move is unclear, but being the first of its kind, it has a lot to prove.

A Done Deal - RTD Buys Boulder Line From UP

Despite slumping revenues and a continuing shortfall for it's FasTracks project, Denver's RTD has secured the right-of-way for a commuter rail line to Boulder. Well, kinda. They didn't secure the rail line into the city proper. In fact, they've gotten as far as Valmont.

To make sure no one is mistaken, this is not the BNSF line from Denver to Boulder, a logical, direct approach which might be accomplished by the Northwest Rail Corridor (pdf). Instead, this is the North Metro Corridor (pdf), the Union Pacific line that follows I-25 to north of the NW Parkway interchange near 162nd Avenue (?!) and then turns west toward Boulder, following a serpentine right-of-way, dodging farms most of the way. RTD has transfer agreements governing the next three sales which will help them build the East Rail Corridor (pdf), the Gold Line (pdf) (Arvada) and a small portion of the West Line (pdf) already underway in Lakewood.

Opinion: Why are we going to Boulder... and, if money is tight, why are we going twice?