Next we relocated to the pedestrian bridge in Glenwood Springs. This is a look at the front of the train that we had just photographed in the yard. While walking to the bridge we were passed by an empty west bound coal train. This train would meet the other train that we just photographed. I did not catch a good meet photo so hopefully Mike did. Speaking of Mike.... Here he is in a railfan pose. I have heard he caught my in a photo once or twice which I am sure that he will post soon. Also note another CNW OLS unit. I will now pause here and wait for Mike to post some more photos. Ben
You sly dawg! hahaha good catch! And yes, your turn is coming up mister!!! Let me get some of mine uploaded... -Mike
I only got a front and rear shot of the meet. Front Rear By the time I shot this photo, the loaded started moving towards us. -Mike
trying to take photos and move at a brisk pace towards the station isn't much fun. Hopefully Ben caught some shots. By the time I caught up with the front, the lights had been shut down, so now comes the waiting game. Note the 2 little boys on the left. Their dad had them line up so he could take a picture of them in front of the locomotives. Good job Dad!!! I thought this guy was still down at the yard, apparently he caught a ride up to the station. I never saw him get on the train at the yard or get on the train here at the station. Ben, did you see how this guy got here? And I'd sign up for the repainting job, look at what you get to work next to! -Mike
What you missed was the conductor walking one of two common paths. One, and the most popular, is to cross the river near the MOW shack, not too far from where the swings (helpers) are cut into the train, and walk through the park and follow the path into downtown and then to the station. Or, two, walking along the north side of the tracks up to the head end. The second isn't as well liked, due to the narrow trail and loose ballast. How do I know this? I just ran that route last week, and tried that trail for the first time, and it sucks! Next time I run east out of Grand Junction, I'm walking through the park again!!! And you were right. When the conductor was up in the cab for about 10-20 minutes, he was indeed assisting the engineer with the remoting process. It's not required of the conductors, but it does speed up linking of the units if the engineer has some help.
He just magically appeared! Thanks for the compliment and the explanation of how the conductor appeared! Ben
Most of my photos look very much the same. Here are a few additional ones of the train moving. Here you can see the west bound's rear lights reflecting off of the hoppers after it had passed by the east bound. The loco windshield looks almost as bug splattered as mine. A different angle of the kids posing near the train. Ben
And the rear was brought up by a former SP unit. I will be hitting the road tomorrow but will try to upload some more photos if time permits. In the mean time I am sure that Mike has some more photos to share. Ben
Hahaha! I swear he did! Thanks for the explanation! I had seen the foot bridge crossing the river and wondered if that would be a good place to get photos. Now I know that's a shortcut to the station. -Mike
This will change some with the rest of our photos Mid train the helpers are just visible over the top of the loads Too bad it's patched :/ Our next set of photos are pretty far up the line, so I think this is a good break since both Ben and I are going to be away for the weekend. Great shots so far Ben!!! -Mike
I have a little time to kill before I hit the road so here are a few more photos. We paced the east bound coal train and caught a few photos at Dotsero. Heading north from Dotsero on Colorado River Road I tried to capture a tunnel shot even though the sun was not on my side. Then the race was on to get some bridge shots. This train was moving pretty fast for a loaded coal train. Great shots so far from you as well Mike! Let's see what this bridge looks like from your angle. Ben
We run quite a few of them. Even some old steel D&RGW hoppers. Personally, I hate them. Mainly cause they're one of the few hoppers that still have a high hand brake. lol I'll see if I can get some pictures in the next couple of days.
I didn't get anything decent at Dotsero, Ben has a better zoom than I do. I did manage to grab this just up the road: As Ben said, this train was flying! As we jumped out, Ben went one side, I went the other. -Mike
At Range, the brakes came on and he ended up sitting on the main. Ben, I'm sure you got a better shot than this one, my camera lacks any type of zoom. This would be the last we seen of this coal train. From here our luck fell off drastically. It wasn't until later in the day we'd catch anything again. Ben did get shots of some 'Grande heritage thou! -Mike
