Went up on the Moffat route today to relax and try to get a few pictures. Watched a westbound manifest meet a eastbound load at Pinecliff. Saw a westbound empty waiting at Rollinsville. First train I was able to shoot was another eastbound load around 2:30. Little did I know that train was in for a big surprise in about 15 minutes. It derailed around tunnel 30 east of Rollinsville. Didn't think much of it at the time because that westbound empty followed shortly after I saw the doomed load. I waited for a long time at east Rollins for that westbound manifest. My nap was interrupted by a maintance vehicle. He kindly and somberly suggested that I leave the area. I started to think that there was a derailment. An hour and half later I noticed a westbound empty short of east Pine which added to my suspision. Caught a few pictures of him and decided to try to see what was going on. I drove down as far as the old ice house west of Pine. I could see a headlight about 3/4 mile away. Was going to try and get a shot when I was visited by 2 more maintance trucks. I decided to head home. Caught the westbound empty Being pulled back to Rocky. Got a shot but it was getting pretty dark. When I got home I saw the news verifing the derailment. Tonights news said it was 15 cars. The worse part is that blocked the Ski Train's return and stranded 700 passengers. This also affected Amtrak. No Ski Train tomorrow. Exciting day on the Moffat. Wish I could have watched the rerailing efforts. Would have been interesting.
