What gets routed via UP’s overland route vs the Moffat Road and why?
My understanding is that currently, at present traffic levels, ALL transcontinental central corridor UP frieght traffic gets routed via Sherman Hill. Only local UP traffic is currently routed via the Moffat. The reason is far lower operating expenses via Sherman Hill. Shorter route, fewer grades, double and triple track. fewer speed resstrictions. In addition to local UP traffic, BNSF has trackage rights from Denver to Salt Lake City and uses them. And Utah Railroad from Helper to Salt Lake City. (On Soldier Summit, one track is owned by Utah Railroad and one by, now, the UP.) And also the Amtrak Cal Zephyr with spectacular scenery the drawer.
A mainstay of U.P. freight traffic through the Moffat Tunnel is Colorado coal moving off the Somerset Branch (near Grand Junction) and the Craig Subdivision west of Phippsburg.
Coal going east from Grand Junction coal must of course go through the Moffat Tunnel. Does any of the Craig branch coal go through the Moffat to go west or does it all go east?
My understanding is that there is enough local business on the line for the UP to run a daily frieght over the whole line, in addition to the coal movements. The BNSF uses trackage rights as far as Grand Juntion, so I understand, and then the UP hauls for the BNSF between Grand Junction and Salt Lake City, where the BNSF does have one-shift yard job. Is this current?
Yes, some coal that originates between Phippsburg and the Craig, Colorado area does move westward through Grand Junction.
Again, yes. A pair of U.P. manifest freights operate most days of the week between Denver and Salt Lake City via the Moffat Tunnel route.
Thanks for the update. I rode the Moffat Denver - SLC line about 32 one-way trips, the first in 1960 and the last in 1995. Knew both Tom Long and Leonard J. Bernstein. Rode in the Wilson McCarthy from Glenwood Springs to Denver once on the back of the RGZ, and Dick Horstmann’s LV PV 353 (now at Steamtown) on the back of Amtrak SLC-Denver.
I’d ride it again if I could, but it is a shame what happened to the Castle Gate rock formation.
And, yes, I did once enjoy the interior of the D&RGW heavyweight lounge car Castle Gate on a Chicago Railroad Club Morie Kleibolt fantrip special.
Wow, Dave, you may be really dating yourself. Wasn’t Morie Kleibolt the “traction heavy” whose world revolved around the affairs of the Illinois Terminal System in the mid-1950s?
I do not remember just how many freights we saw west of Denver this past Monday on our way home, but I do remember overtaking one before we reached the Little Ten curve and seeing two more before we got away from the Big Ten. We were pleased that the dispatcher let us pass the one we overtook, especially since it was passing the Zephyr for a while. As I recall, we had only one meet at which we had to wait for the eb freight.
As to Castle Gate, when we were on our honeymoon, in '72 (bus from Boise to Ogden and then to Salt Lake City by way of San Francisco and Denver, and back to Boise by bus), the conductor spoke of how the highway department had taken their side of the gateway for use in road construction.
[Edit; add] Dave and I don’t mind dating ourselves; we can admit to reality.