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In Video #23 I just posted recently you will see the Cameo Power Plant pass by the window. He was there photographing the train but was on the other side of the track; otherwise, he might have both caught each other on camera.
quote:Originally posted by Stourbridge Lion: Here is Ben's shots as we passed the plant...
I will be riding on this PV after I win the Lotto, and I will win the Lotto.
I'll be giving a number of people a ride as we pass through your areas (even if it is just between SBA and SLO or SLO & EMY). Expect an email before we depart from Houston {It is stationed in Houston}.
Posts: 1418 | From: Houston, Republic of Texas | Registered: Jan 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Stourbridge Lion: I will pick up two nice books by Eva J. Hoffman on the California Zephyr for the sections we travlled on this trip at the Gift Shop which is a hopping place when the train come in. She was a thrid book of the section we didn't travel on this trip. I will post more info on the books later...
Here are four books I've used to help put this Trip Report together; including the two mentioned earlier...
We start out this section passing through Parachute where we find lots of Hoppers on the siding that include many Fallen Flags intermixed. Lots of great views continue to pass by the window as we pass Lacy, Riffle, and Silt Siding before crossing over the river near Chacra, CO. Not thinking, we setup a 1PM Lunch reservation in the Diner Car...
Shortly after putting in our Lunch Order we reach Glenwood Springs and I have left the Video Camera in our room to not have it at the table. As you might understand, we are now heading into another great section and without the video camera the wife is a bit upset. I do have my point and shot with me that (and you have seen earlier) can take video so out it comes while we eat. Those clips will come in the next video post...
We try to eat quickly and get back to the room where both of our primary cameras are but we are basically coming out of the main part of thecanyon by then...
We next pass by Allen Siding where the views once again wonderful but it would be nice to get rid of a few trees. Note how high the river is from all the rain that has fallen in this area as well; yes, the Walk/Bike path is underwater in spots. As we reach Dotsero we pull onto the siding to wait for Train #5 to pass; is that a deer our there on the island...
This next short clip is from my little Point and Shoot that I had with me during lunch in the Dining Car. Since some of the shots are stills that obviously would not have sound, I have added a little music into this clip where most of those are also contained in the clip.
We start Video Clip #25 at the exact same spot Video Clip#24 ended, as we are still waiting for Amtrak Train #5 to pass us along Allen Siding. We sat for about 30 minutes and then Train #5 came into view behind us as we finally get going again.
We now change lines once again at Dotsero Junction as we jump from MP 342 on one line to MP 166.8 on the other. Here again you can see the river is right at or just above it's banks. We pass Lyons Gulch at MP 162 and soon see folks enjoy some river water sports; nope, nobody is mooning us. Sweetwater Tunnel sneaks up on me while filming the views out the window but the track curves nicely for a shot of the portal.
The train now cross the river back and forth as we travel down the canyon. We eventually reach Derby Junction, pass Burns (MP 144.6), before reaching Dell Siding at MP 142.1; I wonder what kind of a bird that is flying above us?
We start off this section with a nice clean view of the Special Sleeper/Dome that are traveling with us. We once again have wonderful river shots and rock formations pass by our window. Later Yarmony Tunnel comes next before we cross back and forth over the river at Bond. Here we a nice yard with all sorts of equipment around, ready for a major UP project that is going on. You can tell by the speed of the train that we are under a Slow Order here. Remember how late Train#5 was passing through this section earlier in this topic as it looks like we are about to loose time again given our current pace. We later pass Yarmony Siding and get some good views of the Sleeper/Dome cars again. We end this clip as we reach the west end of Radium Siding...
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Video #27 - Radium Siding to Sulphur Siding
With this next clip we continue our travels past Radium Siding where we pass by an idle UP freight train; mostly empty hopper cars. As we pass through Radium itself, we see more MOW equipment sitting ready for work. We now reach Tunnel #42 and then enter a large turn giving me a good view of the other passenger cars behind us. Gore Canyon now comes into view so I aim the video camera upward. Tunnel #40 and #39 show up next and I catch a nice shot of the portal of 39 with the train passing though it. Soon we come up on Azure Siding that sits mostly empty. Tunnel #38 comes next and I catch a small glimpse of the portal and the train passing though it as well. The wall of the canyon are close to the track so keep looking up. Tunnel #37, 36, and 35 are reached next before pass by Gore Siding which holes another UP train in waiting.
Kremnling Siding and Station are a highlight in this video clip, see Kremnling Station that you will see is now longer there; it was moved since the video was taken as UP had no more use for it but the town wanted it saved.
Our Sleeper Car attendant, Sandy, from Train#5 stops by to talk to us as we reach. I found she has been working for Amtrak for 31 years. Troublesome Siding! Sandy has photos on some of the staff, Pete which is our Train#6 Sleeper Car attendant and Nadalle our Dining Car attendant.
We now pass Flat Siding before reaching Parshall, CO where there is a shoot range. We next pass into Byers Canyon and the canyon wall are once again near the track so it's time to look up again to catch the views. Hope no rocks come down as I don't think that fence will stop much as this angle. We end this clip at Sulphur Siding near MP 86.
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Video #28 - Sulphur Siding - Moffat Tunnel - Rollins, CO
In this next installment we pass by Sulphur Sidings and soon the canyon walls dominate the views out the window until we pass under Highway 40. As we exit the canyon Fraser River comes into view before we reach Willows at MP 80. We next pass through Granby and soon afterwords you can look forward and see the Mountain Ranges just outside Fraser. It's 5PM and we are off to Diner as the train pulls into Fraser. Not long into the meal we learn that a UP Freight Train is having an issue at Moffat. We finish our meal and get off the train; I take the time to take several photos that I will post later as we will sit here for 2 HOURS!
It's just a bit past 7PM now and we are finally on our way again. It's June and still lots of snow in the high ranges. At MP 60 we make a nice wide turn, and once again a get a nice clean sort of the Sleeper/Dome cars on the reat of the train. Here you see many Pine Trees that have red pine neddles, this is all dead tress from the Pine Bettle that is wiping out the forests rapidly in the area.
Soon we reach Winter Park Siding as we reach Winter Park Resort, here is where the Ski Train stops (or did stop until sold recently). I will have a future topic on our ride on the Ski Train we took in 2008 as well. In to Moffat Tunnel we go as we plunge into darkness for about 10 minutes; as we exit I do catch the plaque on the portal wall. On this side there is also a siding and a Wye which comes into view. Tolland Siding is next and you can see the sun is quickly setting behind the mountains. We will end this clip as we reach Rollins and pass under Highway 119 and it's close to 8PM with a schedule arrival in Denver at 7:38; we are going to be very, very late...
As mentioned earlier, just as we approached Frisco and headed for the Diner Car for lunch we learned that a UP Freight Train was having an issue at Moffat Tunnel and we would end up staying at Frisco for 2 hours. As we finished our meal, I caught our Diner Car crew having a few minutes of rest. John and Nathalie have been with us for the entire trip and they did a wonderful job throughout the trip.
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THANK YOU Sandy & Pete; Our Amtrak Attendants
With our meal over, we take advantage to get off the train and stretch our legs and take several photographs. Well naturally one of the first things I would take a photo of would be the station. I also was able to grab Sandy would was our attendant on Car#531 on Train#5 and Pete who is our attendant for Car #632 on Train #6 and took a photograph of them in front of their assigned cars. The two of them did a wonderful job making our trip as smooth of an experience as they could.
Not knowing how much time I had left for taking photographs I took a shot of the platform and headed for the end of the train to catch our two special cars; starting with the Sleeper Car WRHX#800149.
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Frisco? Did you mean (looks like) Fraser? That's a pretty late lunch (4:50 pm). No rails in Frisco! That is Summit County, a long way from the UP (ex-D&RGW)ROW.
Also, I wonder why you didn't shoot from both sides of the train. DeBeque Canyon is much better from the right side. Was the Sightseer Lounge fully occupied?
Posts: 87 | From: Snowmass, CO USA | Registered: Jun 2003
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Mr. Gardner, if one has paid for a Bed/Room/ette and it is on Fireman side, I would guess that is where Mr. Hadley would locate his "studio".
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Gilbert B Norman: Mr. Gardner, if one has paid for a Bed/Room/ette and it is on Fireman side, I would guess that is where Mr. Hadley would locate his "studio".
We traveled in both directions in a Roomette and you are correct that we choose to enjoy our ride from the privacy of our room both coming and going and hence most of the video was shot from the room.
Sleeper Car #39042 which was right behind the baggage car also displayed this faded marking; Transition Sleeper. Yes, this is what the car is and was being used for during our trip, a Crew Dormitory car.
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Point well taken. An engrossing and quite fabulous record of the trip which I have taken several times, but it is always fun to see it from someone else's perspective. Even in the Amtrak era it is wonderful, even without the Feather River Canyon. I was lucky enough to ride Chris Skow's "recreation" several years ago between Reno and the Bay area. Can hardly wait for Rollins - Denver (in the dark?)!
Posts: 87 | From: Snowmass, CO USA | Registered: Jun 2003
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In this next clip, we have once again reach the Tunnel District, and we will pass though Tunnel#30 through Tunnel#1. As often as possible, I tried to catch shots of the portal as we existed each tunnel and when the opportunity arisen, catch shots of the train itself passing out of the portal. In some cases I will even catch our special Sleeper and Dome cars too as they exit the tunnels. Can you believe how low the water level was in Gross Reservoir...
Now, it's time to sit back and enjoy the ride down through the Tunnel District...
We have now cleared the Tunnel Distrinct and head into Plainview. Here we can look back at various locations and see Tunnel#1 that we existed in the last clip. As we reach Clay Siding, one can see a large freight train sitting at Rocky Siding below. HEY, there is a G&W engine behind the BNSF engines and a railfan taking photographs down there. It took me a bit to determine that it's Rail Line #1005 of the G&W going somewhere. Into the BIG 10 Loop we go and this time I get a good angle of the hoppers that sit here to protect the trains as they pass by this section of track. We soon reach Rocky Siding ourselves and I try to catch RL#1005 again. At MP 16, we pass by Plastic Junction that I believe today sees little traffic. As we pass under Highway 93 you can tell even for my 0 LUX Video Camera it's getting darker and darker as each mile goes by. As we travel along Highway 72 near Leyden you can see lights of the city in the distance and here another freight sits at Leyden Siding that mostly blocks the view out the window. When we reach C&S JCT it's nearly 9PM and we have come to a stop to wait for a freight train to pass. We are more then LATE and we still have to get through the yard before we reach UNION Sation. I wonder what else will pop up to delay our arrival home...
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Your last segment (#30) reminds me that wa-a-ay back (in the 1950s) the D&RGW Ski Train used to make a stop at Rocky (Colorado 93) for Boulder patrons. There was an unpaved parking lot off the highway and there always seemed to be a substantial number of skiers (25 or 30) who took advantage of this stop. I was one of them!
Posts: 87 | From: Snowmass, CO USA | Registered: Jun 2003
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Video #31 - C&S JCT to Denver UNION Station
It's nearly 9PM and we are now back on the move pulling out of C&S JCT. We are being told that before we officially arrive, they are going to need to perform several switching maneuvers as our Private Cars are going to depart the train in DENVER. At this point the say we should De-Train at 9:30PM. We only travel a short while and we again stop with a new estimate of 9:45PM before we will officially arrive.
For those that have not taken the trip into Denver, Amtrak has to "Back" into UNION Station so the train was to work with UP and BN dispatchers to pull into various yards to turn the train around and this was to get done while freight are using the yard too. This 4 mile yard tour can be painful and this time looks to be bad...
We first pass by the Critter Yard and even in the dark you can see allot of MOW equipment pass by the window. We next pull into North Yard which is actually 3 different yards. We cross over the river and make a hard left turn but we again have to stop for freight traffic. We are now told they thin we will officially arrive about 9:50PM. By about 9:30 we are moving forward again to switch into BN 31st Yard. Once again we stop and wait and pull to a stop for a few minutes.
We now start to "Back" into the station to a alternate platform where we we uncouple the Private Cars. I will catch shots of several engines that are currently in the yard before we pass by the BN Engine House. I just missed getting a shot of a SF Engine as I was to fixed on a Electro Motive that was sitting in front of her. By 9:40 we pass by BN 23st where we enter into the station platform area. Amtrak GE P42DC #189 is sitting here as well.
Now the next few minutes will fell like hours to us. They have to kill the power and fan/air conditioning to the entire train as they are having issues decoupling the Private Cars. You can fell the train rock back and forth as the fail several times to get the Private Cars separated.
It's now a little after 10PM and they finally get the Private Cars separated from the train. We now pull back into the BN Yard to switch to our platform track. It's 10:15PM and we can finally get off the train. We still have no lights, fan, air, nothing working so it's going to be hard to make sure we have all our belongings.
Let's see, it took 1.25 hours to travel the final 4 miles... Officially we are 2:37 late pulling into UNION Station. I think our "ride" was likely given up on us too.
Once off the train I take advantage and film the other cars that are still behind us. We head down the ramp to the tunnel and back up the ramp on the other end to head outside. Yep, our "ride" is no where in sight and it will be another 30 minutes before they get back to the station to pick us up. After 4 days on the train we are ready to go home and this part couple of hours we could have down without...
quote:Originally posted by Stourbridge Lion: We still have no lights, fan, air, nothing working so it's going to be hard to make sure we have all our belongings.
The next day we get a call at home from Amtrak at Denver UNION Station to tell us that Pete (Train #6 - 632 Attendant) did find that Lisa had dropped her sunglasses in the room and that he has dropped them off at the station so we could pick them up... THANKS PETE!
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