Rise’n shine at 6 am… Today we start on the trip that will take us to Glenwood Springs over Tennessee Pass, down to Peueblo and back to Denver. Cloudy and rain! We drive up to Berthoud Pass (11315 ft) on US 40 where there’s snow on the ground and just a few degrees C, but the sun in shining again.
Next stop is Winter Park where we find the other end of the Moffat tunnel. No trains… We continue to Fraser and after shopping some food we wait at the nice “station”! After a short while the same (next day’s train that is) westbound BNSF train we saw yesterday shows up. They stop to meet an eastbound SP coal train with two mid-train helpers and a lot of Rio Grande hoppers. We follow the BNSF train to just west of Granby where we stop to shoot another eastbound SP coal train.
After passing through Hot Sulphur Springs we enter a narrow canyon with the tracks on the opposite side. A perfect place to shoot trains, but none is coming. On the scanner we hear the dispatcher talk to the eastbound “C-train”. After the canyon the valley opens up and just after crossing the tracks on a bridge we see a headlight in the distance. I waste no time and turn the car and drive to the bridge to wait. It’s the “C-train” with 2 Rio Grande SD40′s and 2 SD40T-2′s and 1 UP GE unit. What a sight! I quickly decide that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and the chase is on…
In the open valley the train makes good speed, but I manage to pass it just before the valley narrows. Seconds after I put up my gear the train enters the canyon and I pull the trigger on both my camcorder and camera! The train creeps down the narrow canyon and I realize I can try to catch it one more time. I find a nice spot and this time I only use my camera. From the point where the first unit peeks around the canyon wall until it disappear I shoot 14 frames… Wow, what a sight for sore eyes!
The rest of the trip to Glenwood Springs took us through some very beautiful scenery and remote dirt roads where we almost didn’t see any other cars. We saw some other trains but none of them moved…
In the afternoon we entered Glenwood Canyon and the Colorado River. The water was very high and several rest areas where partly flooded. After a little search we decided to stay at the Best Western mainly because of their nice pool…
We ate dinner at Denny’s and relaxed in our very nice room with a couple of Coors before we hit the sack…
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