I can just picture a photo composition from that bluff overlooking the trailing hopper.... Nice photos!
Got furloughed. Again. At least I can spend a week or three with the family. On my way out of town, I spotted these two by the roundhouse (engine facility - there is no real roundhouse) and thought they would make excellent subjects. Of course as I pulled up, I realized all I had was a crappy cell phone camera. At least they don't look tooooooo bad. The SD9043MAC isn't as rare as the SP unit, but the local engineers mostly hate it. Word is, the SD doesn't communicate well with the GE AC units when using the remote links, so management tries to limit how many we get in.
Thanks. Nah, when things picked up back in Jan, they recalled to many guys from Denver. When originally called these 5-6 guys were furloughed out of Denver. By contract, they have 30 days to report, because Grand Junction wasn't their home terminal. All of them waited the 30 days hoping Denver would pick up and they wouldn't have to come over the hill, but it didn't. So now that they've come back and been through their local 3 weeks of training, I'm getting bumped. I'll have to wait for traffic to come up a bit more, or for the Denver guys to go back, or perhaps a combination. The local managers know of my desire to stay in Grand Junction, so they've been pretty cool about letting me know what's going on. I probably won't be off for more than 2-4 weeks. It's enough time for my wife to get sick of me around the house, and then I'll go back.
Well we have captured a few more shots over the last couple of weeks. First up is a Southern hopper in Olathe, CO. I view of the new signals in Palisade, CO. And sadly the old D&RGW signals found sitting at Cameo, CO. I wonder if the U.P. might be interested in selling a signal or two to us railfans? Ben
This ballast train has been busy dumping ballast around western Colorado. Here come the ties. And we close the post of an empty coal train passing through Palisade, CO. Ben
The way this winter has passed, I'd believe UP has a big head start in getting after maintenance and upgrade projects.
Your thoughts echoed mine about those signals. I would have asked on the spot if they were selling/giving any away. What a front yard accessory!!
They sure have a good start here. We have had a really mild winter which probably helps as well. I would have asked but nobody was around. It would be a great conversation piece for sure! Ben
A lot of MOW activity has been taking place here on the western slope. I have not had much time to photograph it but here are some various shots from the area that have been captured over the last month. A U.P. ballast train in Palisade, CO. Ben
An east bound coal train passes the blooming orchards of Palisade, CO. A Rio Grande survivor is part of a MOW tie train. A MOW crew unloads old Rio Grande signal components in the west yard. Another MOW crew installs a new signal on the west side of town. Ben
A loaded east bound coal train enters the Grand Junction yard. A new signal mast has been erected at MP 450. MOW equipment being serviced after it arrived in Grand Junction. Ben
U.P. power enters the wye to turn around and hook up to a string of coal hoppers in the west yard. Ben
Musta been a little nippy those last few shots- I definitely saw snow in the folds of the Book Cliffs, and a ring on Mt. Garfield. BTW- how much coal are they bringing back from the mines east of Delta these days?
Hi Bob! The snow in the last set of photos was a reminder that winter was not over even though the week before we were enjoying temperatures near 70 degrees in April. One has to love the Colorado weather! As for the coal trains they seem to go up and down. At one point two of the mines shut down to address safety issues, then a latter on TB member k3ndawg said that there was some talk of traffic picking up for a month or so last year. If memory serves me right they were thinking that they may be running 3-4 trains a day during that period. Hopefully k3ndawg will be on here again soon and can elaborate as to what the traffic currently is. Ben
I took a quick trip out to catch some of the MOW equipment in action after work. The photos are not the best and some required a bit of cropping. Work near Palisade, CO. Ben
A Dyna-Cat heading back to the yard for the night. Equipment being parked in the west yard for the evening. Ben
Thats a cool gon. It looks a lot more modern than the older D&RGW gons. Any idea as to what the prototype?
I am surprised that there is any coal left in paonia or that area. I used to live on orchard Mesa in the 1970's and that same line ran behind the house I grew up in. There were at least 3 trains a week even back then. That's a lot of coal in the last 30 years or so!
