I finaly got some time to do a trip report from my trip to Cheyenne, Wy. and back to California.
Better late then never I guess. For those that don’t know on October 7th I flew from here (San
Diego) to Reno, Nv. where I met my dad for a week long railfanning trip to Cheyenne, Wy. and back
roughly following the UP Overland route. I mostly shot video on this trip but I also managed to
shoot 7 rolls of 35mm film. Unfortunately the CD came back from the lab looking a bit washed
out and pixelated, although with the cloudy weather that we were in most of the trip they wouldn’t
have been that great to begin with. These are a mix of my 35mm shots and my dad’s digital shots.
Saturday, the first day of the trip, was to be the longest day with the most ground covered. I
left home at 6:30 am for a 7:30 flight from San Diego to Reno via Oakland. It was clear when I
left and I got a good view of Catalina Island and the LA / Long Beach ports then it started
getting cloudy. I arrived in Reno where I met my dad for a long drive straight on through to
Rawlins, Wy. We didn’t have much time for stops so I only got a couple pics that day.
This is the ex SP depot at Lovelock where we made our first gas stop.
I got a few from the interstate but they didn’t turn out because of guardrails and other
obstacles in the way. The next stop was for this emptey grain train at Wells headding tward
Montello Hill on the ex SP line with an ex SP unit in the consist.
By 2 am we had gone across Nevada, Utah and half of Wyoming, about 550 miles of flight and 800
miles of driveing, almost 1400 miles for me that day. We stayed that night in Rawlins in a hotel
right next to the tracks and after a few trains I was done
Wow Chad, Excellent trip! Although it looks like you hit Green River on a really slow day. That dragline you saw on the south side of I-80 belongs to Black Butte Coal Co. and in the past couple weeks was as close as 500 feet off the highway. They are just starting a new pit there. Those things are a real awesome sight at night!
Yea, those things are awsome. I thought I was haveing an acid trip when I saw what I thought was a tower start swinging from side to side, of course driveing 800 miles can make you see things.[:D]
You should get a photograph of a refinery at sunrise or sunset. The light level is low enough for the refinery lights to be on, but it is still bright enough to see everything. It is a very impressive sight.
I guess that Union Tankcar Company must have built a new shop in Evanston.
I would guess that the plant by Battle Mountain is a power plant under construction.
Did you notice that the last “SJVR” locomotive is a BL20-2? Unfortunately, there are not many locomotives still around that are actually lettered for SJVR. Was UPY 2004 actually being used or was it busy being the shop queen?
Thanks for the tip Eric, but it was my dads project, not mine. I think you are correct about the Evanston shop being a union tank shop. And yes, the 2004 was working hard swsitching with a couple conventional diesel-electrics.
Actually, none of those schemes is the official RailAmerica scheme. The red and gray scheme is RailTex, the blue (on top) and white is Kyle, and the white (on top) and blue is presumably Railink. RailAmerica’s scheme is red on top, then light gray, with blue on the bottom… SJVR has one locomotive recently transfered over in this paint scheme. I rarely see it though.
Great Trip Report Chad, and lots of great pictures. Can’t wait to see the rest when you get the links fixed! It was a lot of fun meeting you, too, and we’ll see what 2007 holds for a trip out west.
I’ll get to it eventually. Been real busy with some projects that all seem to hit me at the same time. And my spare time has been spent playing with the ATCS monitor I recently got. Hope you can make it out here next year.
Chad the coal train train you saw at Valmy NV, got loaded at Black Butte where you saw the Big Shovel off of I-80. CBBVY9-?? We take that train from Green River run it over there, load it and bring it back, then hand it off to the Salt Lake guys.
