I recently completed Conductor training on the UP and to celebrate, my wife drove out from Denver (I'm assigned to Grand Junction on the North Fork Branch). We spent the weekend driving about and taking pictures. I've uploaded the decent ones, and thought I'd share them with you guys. This is a shot of the Bowie coal mine. The Terror Creek coal mine (love the name) is there too, but it's conveyors are all along the ground and almost appear to be a part of Bowie's operations. Here's a shot of UP 5583 at the West Elk coal mine. West Elk is just 4 or 5 miles up the road from Bowie. If you want to see a few more, I've got them here... http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/ppuser/21879/username/k3ndawg I've also got a short video of a couple of cars being loaded at the West Elk mine. I'll get that uploaded later today.
Great photos! Hopefully I will catch a photo of you rolling a coal train though Bridgeport someday. Ben
I meant to get back to the thread sooner, been kinda busy for the last week. Ben, I've been rolling through there about 5-6 days a week. Rumor has it, we're gonna be averaging 3.5 - 4 trains a day for at least the next month. Hemi, I couldn't agree more. In fact, maybe some more of those tribute paintjobs. Oh, and a quick note. While I had never heard the term before, railfans are known as "foamers" lol Guess that makes me a closet foamer.
I just realized that I can't upload videos to Rail Images... so here's a link to video I promised at YouTube. It's of the first two cars being loaded recently at the West Elk mine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDilZdaD9aE
Great video! My son and I will try to make it out there here in the next month. Is there a better time of day to catch you running by? Ben
Sorry, been busy. As for time of day, it's a complete crapshoot. Day to day, I have a hard time even knowing what my schedule will be. However, the locals are pretty predictable.
