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Zephyr To Detour Through Wyoming
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by domefoamer: [QB] I got a personal preview of this upcoming detour last week, when Wednesday's Zephyr had to go UP after that big coal train derailment in Glenwood Canyon. At first, I was disappointed in the change of route. After riding the UP, I still was disappointed, mostly. I was glad they cleaned up enough of the mess in time for my return trip to follow the Colorado River on Saturday. About a dozen hopper cars were placed on the few flat spaces above the single track. That track was newly laid, if the scads of broken ties alongside were evidence. I can imagine worse places to work a cleanup, like Gore Canyon. But this was pretty confining, squeezed between the cliffs and ther river. Agter the trip, it was amusing to read this discussion, which manages to add an air of mystery to route of the old Pioneer. If you want to preserve that, don't read any further. Just wait 'til it's your turn to ride. But if you, like me, read these pages for the enjoyment of vicarious travel, here's a brief description of the alternate route, with only a fraction of its glorious emptiness. Leaving Denver's Union Station: for all its vacant spaces and shabbiness, this is still a train station. Much more inviting than the grubby AmShack where we're to be dropped beneath the viaducts of Salt Lake. In a few minutes, we fail to turn left over the wooden bridge that crosses the mighty Platte Creek (officially, a river). Now our course is set northbound. First comes a long drive-by factory tour of Commerce City, so aptly named. Refineries and scrapyards galore, with Rocky Mountain National Park's peaks drawing the horizion the horizon 20 miles westward. That's about as close as we'll see any mountains today. In about a half hour-- sorry, I'm not a timekeeper, that's how I can enjoy Amtrak!-- we're in Greeley, after past new acres of new subdivision homes packed two-story & wall-to-wall. If we were on the Zephyr's usual route, we'd be basket-weaving through the inclined rock slabs of the Flatironsby now, turning west into Eldorado Canyon just south of Boulder. Instead, our westward heading comes just across the Wyoming border. This point turns out to be fairly scenic. There's a big wind power farm on the train's right, and a picturesque herd of ranch buffalo on the left who total far more than the scant number of cows we see on the rest of the route. Experiencing the westbound UP route really drives home the point of how heroic were the efforts of David Moffat's D&RG as they carved out the Colorado route. Wyoming is a cakewalk! I've seen much tougher grades along I-70 in eastern Kansas. Here, the sights include row upon row of snow fences, bare except for white remnants in the shadows. For a short while, distant peaks of the Medicine Bow Mountains punctuate the horizon. But the most dramatic sights are the passing eastbound freight trains, roaring by with no warning in an a blurred rush. Each time, I silently thank the signal system and dispatchers for doing their job. Our combined passing velocity must be over 150 mph. We meet several freights like this every hour. On the return through Colorado, we made only two or three slow passes. There are a few signs that we're riding on unfamiliar rails. A yellow UP locomotive heads our train, probably only to carry the locally experienced engineers. Some old Amwaitingrooms are shuttered, even less inviting than the tough little towns they used to serve. Sunset, on this gray winter day, we see in Rock Springs. I have proof of this: a sequence of through-the-window shots of the UP office building in Rock Springs. Notice how the light changes as the clouds almost part, and then as day dims. Study the unusual slickrock formations that seem to flow down to the back doors of main street, behind its little skyline of red neon bar signs. Linger with me, one hour I'd guess, while we wait for a fresh engine crew to show up for work. An hour late, to meet a train already hours late! Part of the answer why this route, officially 4 hours shorter, took us 15 1/2 hours. But oddly enough, the snafu has shown me arguably the most scenic view of the trip at the prettiest time of day. If Rock Springs is the most scenic part of a 500-mile journey, you might be on the wrong route. Your results may differ, though. A woman I met in Colorado on the return was "so glad" she got to see it all," she said. She spent her time watching for animals, and was thrilled to see a red fox. History buffs, if armed with a copy of the old book Rail Ventures, can spot a once-inhabited heap of wood where Butch and Sundance planned their train robberies nearby. (Doesn't seem like much of a hideout, does it?) The final leg of the trip, through the Wasatch through Echo Canyon, probably is quite scenic in the daylight. For me, it was a dream of flying through black space, oriented only by subtle hints of gravity and momentum. Out the window, red and white lights arced past in opposite directions, sometimes beside us, sometimes quite far below, so I know we followed I-80 through some steep country here. This summer, eastbounders would get a much better look. Unfortunatley, no one except a few plutocrats in some private car at the tail would see much of the Great Salt Lake behind the train, I'd guess. I won't bother you with details of the better-known route of Price & Soldier Summit & Helper, down to the Colorado River. Except to say, IMHO, that its least interesting miles, between Helper and Green River, best resemble the barren, rolling plains of southern Wyoming. The UP was a great rail route because it stayed as far away from scenery as possible. And it still does. So for sightseeers, this is a loss. For fans of railroad hostory and operations, that's another matter entirely... [/QB][/QUOTE]
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