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Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts

Friday, December 17, 2021

21-12-17 PHOTOS: Fraser Winter Park

In 2021, although I had already been to Denver once, my friend had some expiring airline benefits and we decided to go again before the end of the year. This time we looked at a map and figured we could visit the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park, which, during the winter months, is not directly accessible from the eastern side that we had previously visited in 2020. Although both sides of the park are kinda blah in winter, a trip to the western side would take my party past the Moffat Tunnel route Amtrak stations of Granby and Fraser-Winter Park. In addition to those railfanning opportunities, I also had the occasion to ride the Denver RTD Light Rail "W" line that is often recommended for its great scenery. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

Starting out in Granby it was some time before either California Zephyr Trains 5 or 6 would pass, so I figured I would just grab some photos of the station and platform.



Suddenly from out of the blue, an eastbound Union Pacific manifest train appeared with AC4400 #6303, AC4400 #7225 and SD70ACe #3059 in the front and AC's4400 #7047 and #7206 pushing on the rear.



 





A new Granby station building had been recently built, but was not yet open for passengers.



Although the Winter Park ski resort has its own station for Ski Train use, regular Amtrak Trains 5 and 6 use the stop at Fraser, CO, about 4 miles to the south.


Although the detached station building is a bit hum drum, it has the coolest door art of any Amtrak station.




As train #6 approached, a pair of kids appeared with a cart selling $1 drinks and snacks. Apparently the concession is passed down from one family to another as the children age out.


The engineer on Amtrak P42DC #22 gave the kids some horn as Train 6 pulled into the station.


P42DC #22 was paired up with P42DC #152.



Fraser-Winter Park, like Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs is an extended "smoking" stop due to the amount of time it takes to cross western Colorado.


With a clear signal at EE FRASER Amtrak Train 6 departed, sounding the horn for Eisenhower Ave. At over 8500 feet, these engines are working hard on the ascending grade to the Moffat Tunnel summit located at over 9000 feet.



Jumping back to Denver, I caught a train of RTD SD100/160 LRVs on the towntown loop at the 16th and California station with #214 and United wrapped #218.



Union Station was seeing quite a bit more action with Silverliner V trains on the A, B, G and N routings now terminating there. When I walked through early on a Sunday morning, a single married pair with #4037 was sitting on track 8 I think waiting for a B Line departure to Westminster.



My plan was to catch an 'E' Line train to Auraria Station and then change to a 'W' Line train there. I arrived at the light rail part of Union Station just in time for an 'E' route train to leave as I stepped up.



Here is the 'E' line LRV that I eventually caught. #285 was leading two others.


RTD LRV's #333, #288, #310 and #219 at Auraria.





Some of the 'W' Line scenery crossing US Route 6 west of downtown.


RTD LRV #319 and #232 at the terminus of the 'W' Line at the Golden-Jefferson County station before departing back towards downtown Denver.





In addition to all of the rail vehicles there were lots and lots of Mule Deer.


Back at the airport I got another head end video from the Denver International Airport peoplemover.



And that wraps it up for my 2021 holiday season trip to Denver. I hope you all enjoyed the photos. Next week I'll be back with some content of R32 subbing in for the usual holiday train.

Friday, December 29, 2017

17-12-29 PHOTOS: Middle Division Cleanup

In June of 2017 I embarked on another of my PRR Middle Division signal documentation sweeps and visited about as many signal locations as I could cram into daylight hours. However both on that trip and some others I later realized that I had missed some locations that were easily accessible or I had screwed up important photos due to an errant camera setting. Whatever the cause when a friend expressed interest in attending a New Year's gathering in Clarion, PA I jumped at the chance of being able to pick up some of these missed photo opportunities on the way out. All in all I would be able to pick up previously ruined photos at CP-HAWSTONE, document automatic signals at MP 167, MP 174 and MP 225 and lastly get a few shots of CP-GRAY in the snow.

 Also included in this set are photos taken of the old Lakeshore and Michigan Southern Northwestern Pennsylvania Branch, which was started in the 1920's, but never lived up to expectations despite a massive outlay in infrastructure. You can see both sets of photos here and here.

We begin with Amtrak P42DC #125 leading Train 44, the eastbound Pennsylvanian, past the Milepost 167 automatic signals located between CP-LONG and CP-LEWIS.



Because of the early departure from Pittsburgh and the high speed of the PRR Main Line, the Pennsylvanian is a surprisingly early train reaching Harrisburg before noon, so I am frequently surprise when out on the main line to have it just sort of show up xD



The 3-track Milepost 225 automatic signal bridge located at Tipton, PA is a very popular railfan location due to the sweeping curve and easy access from a major highway. There are almost always railfans on hand and today was no exception.


Here we see a westbound NS intermodal train with lead unit C44-9W #9374 that appears to have had some front end work done.


The trailing unit was C44-10W #7649 with an EMD SD70AC in in the middle.


A short while later NS C44-9W #9643 leads UP ES44AC #5281 under the signals with another westbound intermodal train.


Just as the end of the stack train passed, an eastbound coal train appeared on the controlled siding with classic cab SD70 #2576 in front, rolling towards a stop at CP-GRAY.


Saturday, January 10, 2015

15-01-10 PHOTOS: Princeton Relocation

Well it's time to kick off the 2015 railfan year the same way I've kicked off many of the most recent railfan years, with a trip to Princeton, NJ to watch the Engineers of RPI get thrashed by the Princeton Tigers. This usually results in an extended visit to the Princeton Jct NJT station in the warning hours of the winter sunlight where I catch the evening action before I get sick and tired of being cold.

This year was the first occasion where I would actually be taking transit from the game due to the way my ride situation had worked out. As a result I have photos of both PJ and the newly relocated Princeton, NJ station. You can find the full set of photos here

We start off at Princeton Jct with ALP-46 #4621 at the head of my eastbound push-pull train.


Shuttle duties were being performed by a pair of Arrow III singles #1311 (seen here) and #1306. The shuttle pulled off the platform so that people wouldn't have the temerity to get on and warm themselves during the crew's break. The Princeton shuttle waits patiently for the outbound NJT NEC train to unload its passengers.


Did I say it was cold? Yeah, it was cold. So cold that the LCD screen on my camera starts to glitch up.


Half-hour headways meant plenty of NJT action. Here palindrome unit ALP-46 #4664 waits the buzz to depart Princeton.


Pulling out past the former PRR NASSAU tower and Princeton Substation.


While the light sucked for still photos, it still worked for video. Here is a little montage of NJT NEC Trains and Princeton shuttles moving through the Junction.



If that wasn't enough for you here is a shorter montage of Amtrak traffic blowing through PJ at speed. Sorry, I didn't really try to keep track of what train was what.



#1311 and #1306 at the new Princeton Station.