Photos with all kinds of interesting things in them
Under the category of miscellaneous railroad subjects, I’m displaying a few photos here that are difficult to pigeonhole. Sometimes when we point a camera at a scene, we end up with an image without a single subject to dominate the shot. Conventional wisdom would say that’s not a good photograph. But another way of looking at it is, the cluttered scene is the subject. And sometimes, within such shots is a plethora of interesting items. I’ll try to point out the things that I find interesting, but feel free to make your own judgments– and discoveries. To borrow the phrase from the first Gulf War, they’re target-rich environments.
If you click on the images you’ll see MUCH larger renderings, making details easier to see.
This photo by David Standen shows the Pueblo locomotive tracks in early 1990. Things of interest to me are:
• Tunnel motor 5395 at left. I photographed that one myself elsewhere about a year later.
• GP40-2 3116 right behind it. I shot that one on the Railblazer about a year prior to this.
• GP40-2 3095 next to them– with a clean pilot and a grimy carbody, which is the reverse condition from the typical D&RGW unit.
• Right behind is SD50 5510.
• One track over is an unidentified SP unit, a reminder of the merger that’s about 18 months old now.
• At right is SD45 5338. In less than 4 years it would be sold, and rebuilt as SP 8684, an SD40M-2.
• At far left, a pair of UP-system units, including MoPac alumnus painted in the merger scheme– a GP38-2 which lacks dynamic brakes.
This image of mine is of the Ski Train, waiting to depart Winter Park for Denver on the afternoon of December 29, 1994. Visually it’s very cluttered but there’s so much to see here it’s kind of a priceless shot.
• First of all: the Moffat Tunnel itself. You only get a side view of the portal, but you also get a glimpse of the top of the water tunnel, where I’m standing.
• The Ski Train, as it ran in the early 1990s. It’s equipped with the Tempo cars from Canada; it’s pulled by a pair of Southern Pacific GP60’s; head-end power is provided by that power car right behind the locomotives. Notice how long the train is, as compared with nearly any other passenger train. We can’t even see the end of it.
• To the right of the train there’s a whole collection of maintenance-of-way gear, including: a Fairmont track speeder (often used to ferry workers through the tunnel to their cars parked on the far side of the mountain); a string of MOW cars including a bulkhead flat, two D&RGW boxcars, a hopper, and a hi-rail gravel loader with a conveyor belt appliance; and the blue truck, which is a D&RGW hi-rail truck with a scissor-lift platform. This was used for inspecting and maintaining the tunnel. Also note the little gas tank on stilts, used for refueling the speeder.
• The repeater signal to the left of the power car, with its large shield. This aims directly into the tunnel and is to give westbound trains advance warning of the signal indications on the West Poral siding just around the curve. It could be seen by engineers once they passed the tunnel’s apex. (UP replaced it later, and the new one is too tall to see very well; crews complain about it.)
About the ski area itself: to the left are some of the lodge buildings, built sometime around 1980 (the former buildings were far less imposing!). You also see the protective barrier between the track and the lodges; the base of a ski lift; the moguls hill to the right of the chairlift; the ski jump hill to the right of that.
All of the ground that the train is currently sitting on consists of tailings excavated from the digging of the Moffat Tunnel. They filled in the entire valley floor with the rubble. Ponder that one for a moment.
A veritable plethora (no other word for it) of power: here on the morning of New Years Eve 2006, a massive blizzard has shut down all rail traffic on the plains. The snow wasn’t all that deep in Denver but with multiple engine crews snowbound east of town, not much was moving– including the Ski Train, which is why we were in town! Anyhoo, since I couldn’t ride the train, I came down to North Yard and photographed some. This shot, just as dawn breaks, is taken from the 48th street viaduct looking northwest. Ten years post-merger, UP has solidly taken over the former Rio Grande facility, and nearly every type of current UP locomotive is shown here. Models represented are:
• SD70M (both kinds), SW1500, GP40M, AC4400 (C44ac and C45AC), C40-8, SD9043MAC, GP38… There are also patched units from SP and CNW. Just out of the view to the left are a Cotton Belt GP40M and GP60, plus a repainted D&GW GP40-2. ( I need to re-scan that negative.)
• The old D&RGW sand towers are in the center (green structures).
• The two streetlights in the foreground illuminate what was the caboose track, back when cabooses were still in use.
• There’s a covered hopper center-right delivering sand for the sanding towers.
• What’s with the bulkhead flat dead center? Those “stakes” are the tallest I’ve seen on a flatcar and to me look like they exceed plate C for sure. There’s another similar car at the right edge of the photo.
• Two empty coal trains are parked on the bypass tracks in the foreground; all aluminum hoppers.
• Long’s Peak is visible on the horizon.
In this photo by David Standen is a veritable bonanza of Rio Grande history! The image is taken from the 8th Street viaduct looking north, over Rio Grande’s Burnham facility. There is so much to call out that we almost need a key. I’ll do my best to describe.
• First of all, dead center are two wrecked tunnel motors, Nos. 5402 and 5408. They both came to grief on Tennessee Pass on February 7,1989. 5408 in the background was unrepairable and scrapped; 5402 in the foreground was sold and eventually rebuilt a couple of times; it ended up as FURX 3021, a SD40-2.
OK, starting at upper left:
• A little yard donkey is in front of a bulkhead flat and a Bucyrus-Erie derrick.
• Next track over appears to be a GP9 and four SD9’s, deadlined.
• On the track with the two wrecked units is a string of what might be GP9’s and a GP35 or two. Beyond that are some cabooses.
• Next track over, behind the four boxcars, are a GP9 and THE F9 A/B/B SET from the Rio Grande Zephyr! The 5771 is on the far end.
• Beyond 5771 is something I can’t identify, then comes Steam Generator car No. 252. It has to be 252 because by this date the 253 had been converted to a power car for the Ski Train and looked very different. The 252 was built from the carbody of one of the Alco PB units around 1964.
• Various yard switchers are beyond that including an SW-1200, then a Jordan spreader, then a D&SL caboose (I think), then the shell of Dome-Buffet-Lounge 832 of California Zephyr vintage (one of the WP cars). Beyond that is another string of cabooses.
• Next track to the right: behind the bulkhead flatcar is the ACF diner #1116, which was picked up from UP to protect the SILVER BANQUET. It was used for a few months in 1981/82; I actually ate in it with my parents. Coupled to it is the SILVER BRONCO dome-coach from the CZ and RGZ. Beyond that are what might be the extra, spare Tempo cars from the Ski Train upgrade from 1988. If so, those cars are now in Scottsdale AZ in the McCormick-Stillman Park.
• On the stub track in center is the Dynamometer car that the D&RGW built from a Pullman troop sleeper car. This car was famous as being ever-present with the Krauss-Maffei diesel-hydraulic locomotives while they were being tested in 1962-1963.
• At far right is one of the signal sheds from Granby; it must have been replaced and the old one hauled down to the shop or something.
To the right of the tracks are various shop structures, most of which I can’t hope to identify. It’s sad to look at this area now, because nearly everything is gone, including track.
These four shots will do for a start. If I come across additional, suitable images, I’ll post them here.
Action Road 