Colorado-Utah-Wyoming
Trip From 24/8/2007 to 4/9/2007
A trip to Colorado, Utah and Wyoming
 BNSF 4748 is seen climbing the 2% of the Moffat Pass working flat out and barely above walking space seen here below Tolland, Co with a long westbound freight – 24/08/2007 |  UP6632 is seen heading downgrade near Tolland on a loaded coal train from the Craig area. - 24/08/2007 |  UP 6656 is seen waiting at Pinecliffe, Colorado with a southbound loaded coal train - 24/08/2007 |  Cumbres & Toltec K-36 #488 is seen storming up the 4% grade near windy point below the summit of the Cumbres pass at 10,015ft above sea level. The last Revenue freight over the line was in 1968 before the line between Antonito, Co and Chama, NM was sold to the states of Colorado and New Mexico to become a tourist operation – 25/08/2007 |
 Cumbres & Toltec K-36 #487 is seen drifting down the 4% of the Cumbres Pass east of Dalton (of the 10 K-36s built as part of the modernisation scheme in 1924 and 9 are still around today and all of them at worked in new ownership and 8 are currently inservice where they were built to work 80 years before) - 25/08/2007 |  C&TS #487 is seen heading west approaching the 10,017ft high Cumbres Pass after working up 40 miles or so of 1.41% on the east side of the pass - 25/08/2007 |  The west side of the Cumbres Pass is only about 10 miles long and as Chama is lower than Antonito the line is on a pretty constant 4% grade. Here #484 is seen approaching the summit after a hard climb up the 4% summit - 25/08/2007 |  487 is seen coming down the 4% below windy point - 25/08/2007 |
 484 is seen storming up the 4% grade at Dalton - 25/08/2007 |  Moving onto what’s left of the once vast Narrow Gauge system Cumbres & Toltec K-36 #488 is seen with an evening extra at Los Pinos - 25/08/2007 |  The same train is seen now returning back from La Veta to Alamosa near Sierra, Co – 26/08/2007 |  SLRG 8542 (lettered for the 'Rio Grande') is seen leading the Antonito local on the Antonito branch which was Dual Gauge up until the late 60s - 27/08/2007 |
 The North Folk Branch was built as a narrow gauge branch turning off the main narrow gauge transcontinental at Delta north of Montrose but was soon converted to standard gauge with the opening of Tennessee Pass. Today due toincreased coal the line has seen a huge increase in traffic in recent years being one of the few branches to be upgraded in Colorado. Here UP6510 and UP5924 are seen leading a loaded coal east near Rodgers Mesa – 28/08/2007 |  UP 5908 is seen leading a westbound coal along the North Folk Branch crossing the Gunnison River just east of Delta, Co – 28/08/2007 |  486 is seen working up the 2.5% grade between Hermosa and Rockwood - 28/08/2007 |  UP 6046 is seen leading a empty coal train east at Rogers Mesa on the North Fork sub - 28/08/2007 |
 K-36 #480 is seen working hard up the 2.5% between Hermosa and Rockwood near Rockwood - 28/08/2007 |  UP 5908 is seen leading a loaded coal train upgrade at Escalante, Colorado - 28/08/2007 |  UP 5908 is seen leading a loaded coal train west of Delta, Colorado - 28/08/2007 |  Amtrak 204 is seen leading a late #6 the east bound ‘California Zephyr’ along the Colorado River on the ‘Dotzero Cutoff’ at about 4pm, this being the first train seen moving all day due a long possession all morning – 29/08/2007 |
 At Helper, Ut the 2.4% grade of Solider Summit begins also here the Utah Railway branch comes in and under an early agreement with the Utah Railway were given trackage rights over the D&RGW into Salt Lake City and the line was also double tracked as part of the agreement. Here Utah Railway MK5000 #5005 is seen leading an empty coal train down grade at Castle Gate – 30/08/2007 |  Climbing the 2.4% grade and working flat out with a loaded coal train behind UP5673 is seen heading west at Colton with 2 other locos at the front and 6 Utah Railway mid trains helpers in the middle which will be cut out at the summit - 30/08/2007 |  UP 8228 is seen leading a empty coal down the 2.4% grade of Solider Summit – 30/08/2007 |  UP 4827 is seen leading a empty coal train downgrade at Colton, Utah - 30/08/2007 |
 At Brendel the 35-mile Cane Creek branch turns off to the south passing some pretty spectacular scenery. Here UP3246 and UP3285 are seen leading the weekly (Fridays only) train before entering the Bootlegger Canyon – 31/08/2007 |  UP 3246 is seen leading again leading the Potash local north of Moab Utah - 31/08/2007 |  UP 3285 is seen leading the southbound Potash local in Moab Canyon - 31/08/2007 |  UP 3246 is seen leading the northbound Potash local back near Brendell, Utah - 31/08/2007 |
 BNSF manifest running under trackage right agreements is seen near Thompson Springs (about 20 miles west of Green River) with BNSF4631 up front heading west – 01/09/2007 |  Looking the same way from the same 'mud hill' UP7047 is seen leading the daily manifest from Provo to Denver (the old route of US6 can be seen in the distance) – 01/09/2007 |  Following the manifest was Amtrak #6 with Amtrak 81 in charge seen here again near Thompson Springs (which overtook manifest at the next loop) - 01/09/2007 |  UP 5357 is seen leading a 'Hotshot' east past Rock River - 02/09/2007 |
 UP 4040 is seen leading a Manifest west at Hana, Wy - 02/09/2007 |  UP 8617 is seen leading a west bound double stack about to cross the Continental Divide west of Rawlins, Wy - 02/09/2007 |  UP 8155 is seen leading a empty Coal train west at Rock River, Wy - 02/09/2007 |  UP 8527 is seen leading a morning westbound at Bitter Creek, Wyoming - 02/09/2007 |
 UP 8504 is seen leading a westbound Manifest near Rawlins, Wyoming about to cross the Continental Divide - 02/09/2007 |  UP 844 is seen leading a Passenger extra east at Archer, Wy - 03/09/2007 |  UP 4216 is seen leading an eastbound freight at Granite, Wy - 03/09/2007 |  UP 3967 is seen leading a eastbound Autorack train down Sherman hill at Granite, Wyoming - 03/09/2007 |
All Photos © Copyright Jonathan Lewis and may not be re-used without permission. Please e-mail jonathan@milepost39.co.uk if you require a high resolution image.