What follows is a chronological look at the Moffat Route over the
past 35 years. I'm restricting our photo opportunities to one per year (or
less), to keep it simpler.
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1970. An eastbound coal train below
Pinecliffe is headed by a relatively-new SD45, along with a GP30 and GP35.
All of these units are relatively new at this point, as locomotives go.
Note that all are in the then-standard road-switcher scheme with the small
flying Rio Grande. |
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1971. The California Zephyr met its
demise the previous March, and the Rio Grande has decided to continue its
portion of the route as an every-other-day operation known as the Rio Grande
Zephyr. Here it is climbing up towards the Big 10 curves. |
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1972. New arrivals on the property
are the first of the GP40-2 series, which incidentally all come delivered in
the "billboard" Rio Grande scheme. Here an eastbound freight is
descending Big 10, past the recently-installed hopper car windbreak. |
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1974. This year brings the first of a new model of 6-axle power,
the SD40T-2. Also known as "tunnel motors", these units come equipped with
deck-level radiator intake vents at the rear of the long hood. Here,
several of the new units led by No. 5348 exit Tunnel 2. |
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1975. Operations west of the Moffat Tunnel often include a shove
from the West Helper, based down at Tabernash. Here, a GP30 / GP40-2 pair
do the honors for an eastbound freight. Rio Grande practice allowed for no
more than eight powered axles pushing behind a caboose. |
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1976. A typical run of the Ski Train has a
pair of GP40-2's for power, and steam generator car No. 251 to provide heat for
the steam-heated coaches. Combine No. 1230 is just behind the steam
generator car. |
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1977. Tunnel motors are becoming increasingly
numerous, and are proving their worth in the tunnel district. Here, three
SD40T-2's led by No. 5376 (plus an SD45) are leading a loaded coal train through
Hideaway Park. The driver of the microbus is no doubt cursing his timing--
he'll have to wait for the slow 73-car train to grind its way up the hill before
he can return to his condo! (By
the way, on my layout, the train isn't really 73 cars. Just thought I'd
point that out, in the interest of full disclosure... Also, drivers of HO
scale autos don't curse either!) |
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1978. February 25, to be precise. The
Moffat Tunnel was celebrating its 50th anniversary, and the railroad ran a
special Rio Grande Zephyr for the occasion. The longer RGZ
required more power than the F9 trio could provide, so they were bumped down to
the Ski Train, which is seen here at Clay.
(I actually saw this train, quite by
accident. A friend and I were sledding up near East Portal, completely
unaware of the event. I'll never forget the sight of the train as it
rounded the S curves below us in the snow...) |
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1979. At the piggyback track at North yard, City Market trailers
have been loaded for the overnight trip to Grand Junction. Another
van is being positioned for loading. This is the era of 40-foot trailers. |
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1980. Coal is booming, and unit
coal trains are beginning to proliferate. Here, a unit train of Thrall
gons for Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCX) is rolling through Tunnel
29 below Pinecliffe. |
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1981. Train 183 is moving Cargill
grain west from Denver. Here it's just exiting the west portal of
Moffat Tunnel. The ski area has recently expanded its facilities,
adding several modern lodge buildings at the base. |
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1982. The Ski Train is running its annual special for the mayor of
Denver. Today it is borrowing two dome coaches from the RGZ.
We see it rounding the lower curves of the Big 10 loops. This
was another of those trains that I saw, accidentally. This time, though,
I had a camera with me... |
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1983. It's the swan song for the Rio Grande Zephyr, which
will make its last runs in April. Here, a shortened mid-week No. 17 is
passing Clay siding. |
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1984. At Big 10 we see a fixture of the
Moffat line, the Colorado Springs utilities unit coal train (reporting marks
CSUX). For 20 years this train made trips between the coalfields of
north-west Colorado and the two powerplants in/near the Springs. Today,
four tunnel motors and an SD45 power the empty train up the hill. |
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1985. SD50 No. 5507 pops out of the Moffat
Tunnel westbound. In the latter part of 1984, the Rio Grande had taken
delivery of 17 SD50's, being the last six-axle units the railroad would acquire
prior to mergers. |
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1986. Westbound freight 101, a piggyback
train, is led by a quartet of tunnel motors and has a block of insulated boxcars
loaded with Coors beer, as the train climbs the Front Range at dusk.
Compare to
this photo of the real deal... |
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1987. For about four years now, Amtrak has been routing its
California Zephyr across the Rio Grande. Here, No. 5 is led by F40PH
No. 303 as it exits Tunnel 27. |
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1988. Rio Grande's train 103, the westbound
Railblazer, is passing Vasquez Road after dusk. This train was the
ultimate hotshot sprint train, carrying trailers overnight between Denver and
Salt Lake City (and vice versa). |
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In Autumn of 1988, Rio Grande Industries acquired Southern Pacific
Transportation, creating a new merged railroad system which was comprised of SP,
Rio Grande, and the St. Louis & Southwestern (SSW, or Cotton Belt). For a
while at least, the D&RGW maintained its operating identity, but SP power
started showing up on the Moffat in increasing numbers. |
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1989. Westbound freight No. 187 is
approaching tunnel 29, with a Southern Pacific SD45T-2 in the consist.
See
here for a
similar movement from December 1988. |
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1990. The Ski Train unloads passengers at the Winter Park
ski area. The owners of the railroad had re-equipped the train in 1988
with second-hand Tempo cars from Canada, and re-launched the service as a
luxurious yet economical way to reach the slopes. The train has been a
great success. Interestingly, though, the train is not owned by the
railroad, but rather by a private company of Phil Anschutz. |
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1991. The face of the service tracks and
ready line has begun to change. Many more SP locomotives are present.
To be sure, run-through power had been making appearances since the early
1980's, but the pendulum has begun to swing towards SP dominance.
Also note the trailers parked in the background. BN
had recently completed a new intermodal facility on the land across from and
parallel to the yard bypass track. |
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1992. A pair of 6-axle home-road
units are working as the swing helper on a coal train approaching West
Portal. This is in January. A couple of months later, the
decision was made to emphasize the SP brand, which included a new,
fully-integrated operating philosophy. Solid sets of Rio Grande power
became a thing of the past. 1992 marks the de facto end of the Rio
Grande as an operation. |
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1993. Train DVOAF hustles priority trailers through Winter
Park. Two new GP60's are spliced by a GP40M. The first two units
are wearing the new Rio Grande-inspired merger paint scheme. Trailing
is one of the last 3 units delivered in DRGW paint, No. 3155. |
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1994. Symbol RODVM waits in Winter
Park siding for the passage of DVOAT. The SP system used alpha symbols
for its trains; in this case, DV = Denver, OA = Oakland, RO = Roper (the ex-DRGW
yard in Salt Lake). The last character is the train type: T =
Trailers, M = Manifest freight, F = Forwarder (priority freight). |
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1995. Amtrak as been updating its
equipment during this period. Here, No 5 sports a pair of P40
locomotives built in 1993, and several Superliner 2 cars (in the Phase IV
paint scheme). |
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1996.
It's February, and a pair of fairly-new SP AC4400s
lead coal train EYCKC. It's about to enter the Moffat Tunnel. A
pair of remote helpers is on the rear.
|
| In September 1996, Southern
Pacific merged with Union Pacific, with UP being the surviving identity.
Merging two nearly-equally-sized systems meant that the SP image stayed
around for a long time, at least in terms of equipment. Even Rio
Grande power (what remained) was fairly commonly seen in its old haunts, as
much was brought "home" by Colorado and Utah management. |
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1997. One of the first, and most ironic,
changes after the UP merger: the return of DRGW power to the Ski Train!
The 1996-97 season featured a pair of Rio Grande GP60s for power. Here
the train passes eastbound through Tunnel 29. |
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1998. The new face of the Moffat
line, UP SD90/43 MAC No. 8146 pops out of Tunnel 30. Yellow power
would become increasingly more frequent as time passed and older units were
repainted or retired. |
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1999. A common scene, the westbound
CSUX train meets an wastbound coal load at Rocky. SP power (in the
form of AC4400's) was still well-represented for several years after the
merger. |
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2002. UP traffic on the Moffat be
this time was mainly coal, coal, and more coal, with a single manifest
freight each way daily. Here the CAICK coal train (PSCX) meets the
MDVRO at Clay. DRGW tunnel motor 5390 is trailing on the MDVRO, and
will be dropped off in Helper, UT after undergoing its 92-day inspection in
Denver. |
A note about the photos: Yes. I use Photoshop. And I don't
apologize for it. It's mostly used for removing clutter at the edges of
images, painting in the sky, or lighting up the headlights on locomotives.
I find that, when viewing the layout in person, the mind filters out the other
objects in the room, but they prove to be quite distracting in photographs.
