Tracking West
Houston We Have A Problem
It was around 2:45 AM in Colfax on December 13, 2025. As you could imagine, everyone in the small town was sleeping, but not for long. At this time, the nightly IOANP, Oakland, CA to North Platte, NE stacks, were headed through town. The train was making its way through downtown, that is until about halfway through the train. As it made its way through town, all of a sudden it came to a screeching halt, and the sound of derailed cars I'm sure woke everyone living near downtown up. However, it would take a minute before anyone knew what happened.
Listening to the radio chatter, it started with the crew talking to the dispatcher, nobody had a clue what just happened. At first, they thought something snapped, a coupler or hose, so the conductor hopped off as they made an attempt to fix the problem. They spent over 20 minutes trying to regain air, including closing anglecocks. Then just before 3:08, that's when they found out. The conductor said the train had split, then the dispatcher was talking to the crew when the conductor, clearly in shock, cut him off stating "Nah you guys, it's uh... derailed." Derailed it was, several cars had bunched up and some tipped over, making both tracks unusable in the process. The dispatcher was speechless, eventually coming back to state "I'm gonna have to ask you a million questions from RMCC," which is UP's Response Management Communication Center. Shortly after, an army of MOW crews were dispatched out to the scene.
This derailment came at a very inconvenient time, both Z trains were due to go up Donner within a few hours, the westbound ZG2LT would be held in Weso, NV and the eastbound ZLTG2 would be called. However, with no estimate as to when the tracks would reopen, the westbound would be rerouted over the Feather River Canyon. The eastbound on the other hand would sit in Lathrop until further notice, and it was being considered to split the train in half and send it over the canyon as well. Eventually, word got out that track one would reopen in reasonable time, so the full eastbound would be sent up Donner, being held at Colfax until the track was completely fixed. When it was, the train slowly rolled through at a speed restriction of 5 MPH. Now that one track was back open, trains could finally continue to run their regular routing. Since track two was in very rough shape though, a maintenance train would be built and sent out of Roseville with ballast and tracks, which would be to rebuild the completely mangled right of way. As evening hit, Colfax held its annual Winterfest, with the main attraction accidentally being a derailment cleanup. As the evening turned to dark, several eastbound trains and a westbound were sent through. The first one was the MRVGR, Roseville, CA to Green River, WY manifest. The next one, which is the one in this photo, was the MRVNP, Roseville, CA to North Platte, NE manifest. Afterwards, a westbound manifest and two empty grain trains would pass, though I did not stay for those.
After the MOW train arrived, I watched as crews got the right of way ready to rebuild the track. When I had initially arrived, the tipped over stack cars in the back were still standing, containers and all. However, they were sitting halfway on the tracks, and in order to rebuild it they had no choice but to tip over everything. With the cars tipped over, the remaining damaged track was ripped out, now MOW was ready to receive their train. The power for the train originally had moved a cut of cars left behind, though not derailed, in order to make room for their train. Since track one needed to stay open so trains could pass, the MOW train would back up to the derailment site on two, and with the track cars in front, MOW had easy access to start placing new track. About 45 minutes after I took this photo, which was around the time I left, almost all the new track had been laid, though of course it was rough like in the photo. The crews would work until the track as good as new again, which I assume was early the next morning.
Houston We Have A Problem
It was around 2:45 AM in Colfax on December 13, 2025. As you could imagine, everyone in the small town was sleeping, but not for long. At this time, the nightly IOANP, Oakland, CA to North Platte, NE stacks, were headed through town. The train was making its way through downtown, that is until about halfway through the train. As it made its way through town, all of a sudden it came to a screeching halt, and the sound of derailed cars I'm sure woke everyone living near downtown up. However, it would take a minute before anyone knew what happened.
Listening to the radio chatter, it started with the crew talking to the dispatcher, nobody had a clue what just happened. At first, they thought something snapped, a coupler or hose, so the conductor hopped off as they made an attempt to fix the problem. They spent over 20 minutes trying to regain air, including closing anglecocks. Then just before 3:08, that's when they found out. The conductor said the train had split, then the dispatcher was talking to the crew when the conductor, clearly in shock, cut him off stating "Nah you guys, it's uh... derailed." Derailed it was, several cars had bunched up and some tipped over, making both tracks unusable in the process. The dispatcher was speechless, eventually coming back to state "I'm gonna have to ask you a million questions from RMCC," which is UP's Response Management Communication Center. Shortly after, an army of MOW crews were dispatched out to the scene.
This derailment came at a very inconvenient time, both Z trains were due to go up Donner within a few hours, the westbound ZG2LT would be held in Weso, NV and the eastbound ZLTG2 would be called. However, with no estimate as to when the tracks would reopen, the westbound would be rerouted over the Feather River Canyon. The eastbound on the other hand would sit in Lathrop until further notice, and it was being considered to split the train in half and send it over the canyon as well. Eventually, word got out that track one would reopen in reasonable time, so the full eastbound would be sent up Donner, being held at Colfax until the track was completely fixed. When it was, the train slowly rolled through at a speed restriction of 5 MPH. Now that one track was back open, trains could finally continue to run their regular routing. Since track two was in very rough shape though, a maintenance train would be built and sent out of Roseville with ballast and tracks, which would be to rebuild the completely mangled right of way. As evening hit, Colfax held its annual Winterfest, with the main attraction accidentally being a derailment cleanup. As the evening turned to dark, several eastbound trains and a westbound were sent through. The first one was the MRVGR, Roseville, CA to Green River, WY manifest. The next one, which is the one in this photo, was the MRVNP, Roseville, CA to North Platte, NE manifest. Afterwards, a westbound manifest and two empty grain trains would pass, though I did not stay for those.
After the MOW train arrived, I watched as crews got the right of way ready to rebuild the track. When I had initially arrived, the tipped over stack cars in the back were still standing, containers and all. However, they were sitting halfway on the tracks, and in order to rebuild it they had no choice but to tip over everything. With the cars tipped over, the remaining damaged track was ripped out, now MOW was ready to receive their train. The power for the train originally had moved a cut of cars left behind, though not derailed, in order to make room for their train. Since track one needed to stay open so trains could pass, the MOW train would back up to the derailment site on two, and with the track cars in front, MOW had easy access to start placing new track. About 45 minutes after I took this photo, which was around the time I left, almost all the new track had been laid, though of course it was rough like in the photo. The crews would work until the track as good as new again, which I assume was early the next morning.