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Not photoshopped. A loaded coal train from West Elk Mine rolls uphill into Thompson Springs, Utah as late afternoon thunderstorms subside and the setting sun imposes a double rainbow and magnificent storm light over the landscape. By nightfall, the coal train will assault the grades of Soldier Summit and I will continue my eastward trek home.
A little bit of photoshop fun. The original image was taken at the ghost town of Bosler where this eastbound stack was seen hurtling by.
LTA42 rounds the classic curve at Dakota past the remains of a March snow storm. During the sand boom of the 2010s, LTA was quite healthy, running two trains a week and generally using three big motors. Car counts were still high with Bentonite traffic off the CP/RCPE. This interchange traffic originated from an agreement formed after CNW dumped the Alco Line and PRC onto the DME.
Little did we know at the time, change was just over the horizon. In 2017, UP and RCPE worked out a new agreement to interchange the Bentonite in Mankato, cutting into LTA's car counts. But even after the loss of the Bentonite, frac sand still kept enough traffic moving to warrant two trains. But this too would bottom out around 2018. The final nail in the coffin was UP's PSR plan and their extreme cost cutting initiatives. Thus, sometime in late 2019/early 2020, UP scaled back LTA to a once-a-week run, using a single SD and the Winona Job's geep.
As morning lake-effect snow starts to taper off, Job 60B rolls past the Prairie Material cement silos after picking up three cars at the Chicago Tribune.
The UP transfer from East Minneapolis proceeds down the hill at Westminster after a bit of a wait at Jackson Street for the NPAL to clear onto the UP rails. It is great to see an increasingly rare UP SD60M in the mix of EMDs on these jobs.
A Utah Railway coal train and a Union Pacific manifest freight race each other through Spanish Fork Canyon at Rio, Utah on Jan. 30, 2009. In the background are the spectacular slopes of 10,687 ft. Loafer Mountain.
A little over an hour of walking later, I found myself back at Snelling Avenue as the UP transfer called East Hump to go back down to St. Paul from East Minneapolis. The second Z of the morning has just pulled through to start some work at the intermodal facility as the transfer opens up the throttle on the 4 EMDs at the top of the hill. Nice running into you here, Andy !
CSXT 7880 leads a westbound empty coal train heading up towards Tunnel 1 into Plainview, CO with 8 other units trailing behind.
A westbound Union Pacific grain train races through the big curve into Rock River, Wyoming, just after sunset on November 19, 2016.
A UPY GP15-1 passes the former site of Noble Street Tower as it shoves towards Ogilvie with coaches serviced at California Avenue. It's crazy to think that it's already been three years since the Panhandle lead in the foreground was last used.
I love this angle looking northeast toward downtown St. Paul. This photo took a long wait, as the glaciers probably moved faster than did this manifest trying to make a start down the Mankato Subdivision. This train left Hoffman Yard and slowly worked its way to under the Wabasha Street Bridge then stopped for 10 minutes. The train then moved the distance of two city blocks near Ontario Street then stopped. I figured there had to be opposing traffic or something causing them to be so hesitant. Sure enough, a long manifest was ending its journey on the Mankato Subdivision and coming into St. Paul. Another 30 minutes went by, perhaps to give traffic downtown a break - the first manifest occupied Chestnut Street for 15 minutes. Finally, this westbound finally moved onto the Mankato Subdivision and completed a glorious scene here viewed from the High Bridge. I estimate it took 1 hour and 30 minutes for this to get here from Hoffman Yard - a distance of only three miles away.
On New Year's Day, 2007, 19 years ago, my friend Ed Dickens is at the helm of rotary 900082 on a UP plow train just west of Sharon Springs, Kansas, on the Limon Subdivision (Kansas Pacific). The train will be serviced at Sharon Springs and will keep moving east through the evening and night. Photowise, it was a rather spectacular day.
UP E9s on Operation Lifesaver deadhead move S-ADAL08 stops for photos at Wyeville, Wis. on June 8, 2007. Because I knew the guy who was in charge of UP's OLS program, the crew stopped the train for us several times for photos.
During a cloudy morning with a little bit of sun peaking through, UP 3012 leads a coal load for Cochise, AZ once again as it passes the southern part of Monument, Colorado.
6/12/23
Union Pacific's Potash Local drifts along the Colorado River with 20 empties for Intrepid Potash on April 19, 2019.
Drifted snow is lit up by a rising sun over the plains as an eastbound Union Pacific coal train descends the 2% grade toward Denver with lone DPU GE AC4400CW No. 7305 on the rear west of Leyden, Colorado, on January 22, 2007.
The double rainbow slowly subsides as sunset approaches. A non-hooded GRS Type D and Type SA dwarf searchlight continue to stand guard on the east end of Thompson. Peculiarly, the replacement masts have been up for at least ten years now.
Union Pacific’s MRONY, a Roper Yard in Salt Lake City to North Yard in Denver manifest freight, curves eastbound through Rocky, Colorado, on a snowy April 23, 2001.
UP YSPMP crosses the 1913 CGW lift bridge over the Mississippi River in St Paul, Minnesota with four SD40Ns leading a train of double stacks and mixed freight. The CGW was one of the first intermodal carriers in the nation, inaugurating piggyback service between Chicago and St Paul in 1936.
Portland Oregon.
18 October 2021
Kodak Portra 400, Minolta SRT102 combo. Processed and printed by Blue Moon Camera.
The "Spirit of the Union Pacific" leads a business train tied up at Union Depot. I would have gotten several more shots but the Highway Patrol came up to my spot noting that this was highly illegal etc. and several people had called 911 to report a dangerous situation. It's a good thing I still can tap dance since after a brief conversation, he just asked me to leave. (Phew)
Thanks to Douglas and Shawn for the heads up.
NS 213 rolls across the Seneca River Trestle in Clemson, SC in some premium afternoon light with a trio of foreign units just a ripe two days before Christmas.
Rio Grande GP9s No. 5934 and 5942 pull train No. 668 through Payson in rural Utah County on Jan. 10, 1976. A wood pile trestle lifts the rails of Rio Grande's Tintic Branch above Union Pacific's Provo Subdivision, on back-to-back +1.1 and -0.9% grades. The 33 hopper cars will load at United States Steel's Keigley limestone quarry in Genola.
Back in 2018 when Butler saw more traffic, a loaded sand train with a patched SP AC44 gets ready to depart Butler, while a manifest with an NS C40-8W works Butler.
The NS Dash 8 is probably a pile of razor blades and the SP AC44 is probably painted in UP by now.
The last rays of sun illuminate an impressive line up of UP locomotives and a passing Utah Railway train in Salt Lake City on July 14, 2019.
The power for Union Pacific’s LJP45 “dirt train” local out of Helper, Utah, sits near the locomotive facility on the frigid, cold night of December 1, 2004. A pair of Rio Grande SD40T-2s are mu’d with a UP SD40-2 and a UP SD60M.
At 9:02 a.m., October 20, 2013, Union Pacific units 4231 and 4826 cross Colorado State Route 86 just east of Cedar Point, Colorado, on UP's Limon Subdivision with an eastbound Herzog ballast train. This is located on the vast eastern plains, just west of Limon on the KP Line (Kansas Pacific) between Denver and Kansas City. Visible many miles distant is Pikes Peak located just west of Colorado Springs.
Snow during springtime in Colorado’s high country is nothing new or unusual. On April 27, 2024, an eastbound Union Pacific coal train heads downgrade between Tolland and Rollinsville along South Boulder Creek in a wintery scene.