On the way home the other night, my wife and I stopped to watch the following in downtown Canon City:
Four UP diesels came clanging through town towing 3 tank cars and one battered empty gondola.
The proceeded to switch the three tank cars onto a yard siding, and then backs the gon onto the Canon Quarry (a former brick factory and now a rock and gravel supply) siding. That's all four diesel units backing the empty gon.
They then proceeded to head back east the way the came. :?
No explanation was offered by the two ground crew handling the switches for needing three locos too many or such a simply task.
Not to surprising, considering "UP" stands for "Unlimited Power"!
That is a weird one though. Perhaps it was part of a light engine move? Is there anywhere else on the line those diesels may have come from? Perhaps they were testing the units?
Nothing unusual there..Judging by the way "They then proceeded to head back east the way they came" I suspect they left their train outside of town so they wouldn't block street crossings while they went about their work.
Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:Not to surprising, considering "UP" stands for "Unlimited Power"!
That is a weird one though. Perhaps it was part of a light engine move? Is there anywhere else on the line those diesels may have come from? Perhaps they were testing the units?
They had to have come out of Pueblo, since that is the only place in this area where they still operate. That's part of the mystery:
The track into the Royal Gorge now belongs to the Royal Gorge Railroad, so the the through route is closed.
The power plant shut down, and that ended UP's service providing coal.
Incidental switchng in Florence and all of this surrounding area including the Portland cement plant is provided by Rock & Rail, a pay-as-you-go contract switching outfit.
This is the first UP consist of any kind to come into town for over a year, and no one seems to know why. My personal theory is that UP was running a road test, because last year they spent a lot of money upgrading the grade crossings, traffic barriers and track, so a good way to test the track would be to run four locos through with a minimal drag.
The tracks still run all the way through the Gorge to Buena Vista and form there to Leadville, the site of the Climax Molydenum mine, largest one in the world, and the train up there now operates as a tourist train. I sometimes wonder if there are plans to re-open the Climax to full capacity. Otherwise, a rail trip up the Arkansas River would be a huge tourist draw. It's a beautiful drive and Leadville is a quaint place to visit.
Otherwise...??
Brakie Wrote:Nothing unusual there..Judging by the way "They then proceeded to head back east the way they came" I suspect they left their train outside of town so they wouldn't block street crossings while they went about their work.
Nope. We go that way to reach our place, and the rail crossings to the east were clear - no cars on the line anywhere in sight. We crossed the line twice in the process looking for signs of more activity.
MountainMan Wrote:Brakie Wrote:Nothing unusual there..Judging by the way "They then proceeded to head back east the way they came" I suspect they left their train outside of town so they wouldn't block street crossings while they went about their work.
Nope. We go that way to reach our place, and the rail crossings to the east were clear - no cars on the line anywhere in sight. We crossed the line twice in the process looking for signs of more activity.
Then there's 2 things left:
1.The units was being Deadheaded.
2.They started the day with several cars and you saw the last of the work.
I've since tracked down one additional fact - one of the locos was "dead".