21-10-14 PHOTOS: MOAPA

The National Parks are America's Best Idea, however sometimes it can be challenging to incorporate sufficient rail content into a national parks trip. During my 2021 visit to Bryce and Zion National parks in southern Utah I was able to identify a rail related point of interest in the small Nevada town of Moapa, just a mile or so off Interstate 15. Due to various circumstances I was able to finagle a stop there on both the outbound and inbound legs of the journey from Las Vegas and despite long odds, I was ultimately rewarded for my perseverance. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).


The Moapa station/siding is located on the Union pacific Caliente Sub on what used to be Amtrak's old Desert Wind route, until that service was cancelled in 1997. The siding is 384 miles from Las Angeles and I visited the northern end due to its proximity to a paved road and potential fire fuel. Although the Caliente Sub had been resignaled during the great PTC purge, the old pole line had been abandoned in place and provided some interesting visual content.

The railroad location of MOAPA is about a mile north of the town of Moapa and within spitting distance of Path 27, a 500kv HVDC power line running from Salt Lake City to the Los Angeles basin.

Because I was with non-train people I only had limited time to take some photos of the location and I was not expecting to catch a train movement. While my friend gathered wood I was treated to some A-10 Warthog ground attack aircraft flying out of nearby Nellis AFB.

Just before I was about to head out a Clear indication on the approach lit westbound mast signaled the presence of an approaching Union Pacific freight train.

It was a doublestack intermodal train led by Union Pacific SD70ACe #9048 and SD70Ms #4832 and #4543.

After the passage of the train I could not delay any further and I was off to Zion National Park. Because most of what people come to experiance is located in a blind, narrow valley with extremely limited parking, for most of the year the only access into the valley is via a shuttle bus service using bespoke propane powered motor-trailer buses made specifically for the park.

The trailer cars, which clearly make use of the same body shell, even have a little busfan seat going on.

While at Zion I did all of the Zion things such as hiking Angel's Landing and Observation Point.

Of course one can't visit Zion without also popping over to Bryce via the Mount Carmel tunnel



At Bryce I was able to catch the sun rising over the hoodoos and tour the valley floor, but unfortunately Wall Street had been closed for the season due to the onset of freeze-thaw conditions making rockfalls likely.

While returning to Las Vegas at Class 4 speeds I convinced my friend to stop off at Moapa again. Any hope of visiting the west end of the siding and station area were dashed when we encountered fast moving eastbound manifest freight train and had t dash to the east end of the siding to get ahead of it. The train was being hauled by Union Pacific AC4400's #6567 and #6602 with ES44AC #7863 helping on the tail end.

Well that wraps things up for my big 2021 national parks trip. Tune in next week when I get back to HARRIS tower on All Hallows Eve Eve.