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The California Zephyr Detouring West Across Wyoming, As Well As Union Pacific 3985 Leaving Denver 7/21-26/2004

Early on the morning of March 11, 2004, someone posted this message on Trainorders.com, which I took great interest in.

National Railroad Passenger Corporation 60 Massachusetts Avenue NE Washington, DC 20002 www.amtrak.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Marc Magliari 312 880.5390 ATK-04-020 March 11, 2004

Some Colorado and Utah stops affected during parts of June and July

CHICAGO -- Scheduled track improvements on the Union Pacific Railroad west of Denver will require Amtrak to use an alternate route for the California Zephyr between Denver and Salt Lake City during four, eight-day periods this summer. The detour will follow the historic transcontinental railroad route through Wyoming and Utah on freight rail tracks that passenger trains have not traversed since 1997.

From June 8-15, June 23-30, July 8-15 and July 23-30, Amtrak will be unable to use the Union Pacific route through the Moffat Tunnel west of Denver. On those days, the California Zephyr will detour between Denver and Salt Lake City via a northern route through Wyoming, making no intermediate station stops. On the days the train detours, Amtrak will provide alternate motor coach transportation between Denver and Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction, Colo., only.

Passengers traveling between Chicago and Denver or between Salt Lake City and the San Francisco Bay Area (Emeryville) will be unaffected.

Service to Fraser-Winter Park, Colo.; Granby, Colo.; Green River, Utah; Helper, Utah and Provo, Utah, will be suspended on the days of the train's detour. Passengers already ticketed to those stations are being notified of the service suspensions.

Amtrak will also notify all passengers ticketed between Denver and Salt Lake City during the 32 days of the detour and/or the alternate transportation from Denver to and from Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction. Passengers will be offered travel on alternate days or refunds.

The detour route will follow a portion of the original transcontinental Union Pacific route that was completed in 1869. While the scenery is less mountainous than the California Zephyr's regular routing, it offers broad vistas of the high plains and an opportunity to see pronghorn antelope and other wildlife.

Amtrak regrets the service disruption and has notified the affected communities. However, the Union Pacific Railroad has said the improvements are needed to maintain safe and timely operation of trains through the Moffat Tunnel route.

For more information about the California Zephyr, fares and schedules, call 800.USA.RAIL or visit www.amtrak.com.

--Originally posted at: http://www.amtrak.com/press/atk20040311020.html

I called Ray Burns and Steve Grande, co-owners of Trainweb.org, about us covering the event and they thought we should so I made the reservations for two people and reserved a hotel room in Denver, so we were all set. The other party cancelled two days before the trip and Ray asked Carl Morrison, another Trainweb.org writer, to attend and his name was added to the reservation, so everything was in order.

The bus arrived at Santa Ana on time and I took the front seat as the other four passengers boarded and we made our way via California Highway 57 to Fullerton, where Carl boarded and sat at the back of the bus. I dozed to Los Angeles, where the bus filled up a little more but I retained my two seats. This bus was extremely cold and made it hard to sleep since I was in shorts knowing the valley temperatures of the morning. I asked the driver to put the heat on but he did not believe that it was cold. We stopped at Glendale, Van Nuys and Saugus but I still was cold and could not sleep. Finally, someone else complained and the driver adjusted the temperature. I was extremely glad to step off that bus into the much warmer morning air of Bakersfield and the train crew opened the train immediately, which was a great gesture on their part to make our transfer easy.

The train had a consist of F59PHI 2001 pulling coach/baggage 8205 "Monterey Bay", café 8802 "Sacramento Valley", coach 8002 "Feather River" and cab car 8306 "Mount San Gorgonio". Carl and I boarded "Feather River" for his journey to Stockton and mine to Hanford. The station was not even open when we arrived and up to ten minutes before we left, but the café was, so I ordered a cup of tea. Our train departed Bakersfield on time and after passing through the BNSF yard, we proceeded into what was left of the night. The oil refineries looked beautiful lit up in the night sky and day began as we rolled through Shafter then onto Wasco, where two passengers detrained. The Sierra Nevada Mountains stood out against the ever-lightening sky as we made our way to Corcoran and the sun rose as we travelled the final miles to Hanford, where I detrained.

Following a picture of our train, the agent told me there was a MacDonald's two blocks away where I enjoyed my usual breakfast of hot cakes and sausage then toured the station before I went out to the platform to watch the BNSF pass through Hanford.

A flashing yellow turned to a green signal before BNSF 8011 East, a bare table train, flew through.

Just behind him came a dead-heading southbound Amtrak train on the way to Bakersfield to become San Joaquin 713 later this morning. Due to highway bridge construction in North Fresno, the trains were not running but buses had been substituted between Merced and Fresno. This set presumably came down from Merced where they must have laid over last night.

BNSF 4759 East came through next.

That was followed by BNSF 4097 West with a general freight in tow.

BNSF 5158 West was the final train in the parade of freights. At 8:52 AM, Amtrak 701 arrived twenty minutes late and I boarded the cab car, choosing a backwards-facing seat to try and get some rest.

This train had a consist of B-32BWH 2051 pulling coach/baggage 8203 "Bodega Bay", café 8813 "San Fernando Valley", coach 8003 "American River" and cab car 8311 "Mount Palomar". I tried the single seat at the end of the car but a lady talking loudly on her cell phone caused me to move. I slept almost to Madera, which we departed 46 minutes late then at Sharon, we slowed for an eastbound BNSF and at Planda, for Amtrak 712. At Merced, we waited for BNSF 5709 East to enter the long siding there. I would have to say with what I witnessed in Hanford and from this train, BNSF must be doing a record business.

At Empire, the Modesto and Empire Traction had a pair of 70 ton switchers working the BNSF interchange yard. Valley Lift in Empire, where there used to be gantry cranes, does not exist anymore as the new BNSF yard in Stockton handles all BNSF business in the north San Joaquin Valley. We stopped briefly in Modesto before running through Riverbank and Escalon, then sprinted the rest of the way into Stockton, slowing as we approached the connection of Union Pacific to the Stockton ACE station. We continued north to Lodi, where we sat for a few minutes while a Union Pacific freight went into the siding at Acampo. 701 ran through Galt then passed the siding at Need before crossing the Consumnes River and going through Elk Grove, then passed a northbound Union Pacific freight in the Elk Grove siding. We crossed Calvine Road near my brother Bruce's house, went past the Siemens plant where there was a pair of California cars being worked on and stopped before Florin. We slowly travelled past the Sharp depot and onto Polk, where we picked up speed, ran under the Sacramento Light Rail and onto Elvas, turning west to the Sacramento Amtrak station, arriving at 1:20 PM, or one hour late.

I stored my bags in the baggage room before walking over to Old Sacramento and visited the California State Railroad Museum store for a copy of CTC Board magazine.

I walked over to the Sacramento River and met a railfan from San José and there was a Union Pacific train crossing the I Street bridge.

My San Joaquin train then came out onto the bridge before reversing into the storage tracks for an afternoon of cleaning and servicing. My brother Bruce finished work at 3:00 PM and after driving to his house, we took a dip in his pool then later we went to the store followed by barbecuing some hamburgers. I had a nice visit with the family before calling it an early night.

7/22/2004 We drove back to the Amtrak station and I bought a roundtrip ticket to Emeryville since Carl was arriving later today and I had nothing else to do.

My first train of the day had F59PHI 2010 pulling coaches 8025 "Mokelumne River" and 8022 "Pitt River", café 8810 "Owens Valley", coach 8002 "San Joaquin River" and cab car 8301 "Mount Whitney". We departed on time into the morning darkness as I was reading my new CTC Board about the former Western Pacific 7th Subdivision that I would be riding tonight. I bought a chocolate chip cookie and orange juice for breakfast.

The sun rose after the Suisan-Fairfield stop and we sped across the marshes to the bridge over the Carquinez Strait into Martinez. I rode in the cab car, which was the quiet car on this train, and it was so silent that most of the passengers were sleeping. We rolled along the Straits in brilliant sunshine before going under the cloud deck to San Pablo Bay and stopped at Richmond and Berkeley then arrived at Emeryville on time. I went inside the station before going outside in the cool windy morning air to wait for my next train. Amtrak San Joaquin 712 arrived and boarded a large crowd and I watched the wheelchair lift in action, then it departed on time for Bakersfield.

The train's consist was cab car 8302 "Mount Shasta", coach 8006 "Merced River", café 8806 "Coachella Valley", coaches 8024 "Consumnes" and 8009 "Santa Ana River" with F59PHI 2006 pushing. After my ticket was taken, I slept all the way to Martinez, where a lady on a cell phone was talking so loud you could have heard her two cars away. Later, we stopped at Fairfield before rolling to a stop at Tolenas to wait for the Coast Starlight, which was running well over two hours late. As we returned to the Sacramento Valley, it was evident that it was going to be another very hot day and I will miss all that cool air in Emeryville. We arrived at Davis with that very beautiful restored station Bruce used to work at years ago then crossed the Yolo Causeway before going through West Sacramento and across the Sacramento River into the Amtrak station.

I detrained and walked over to Denny's and had a fabulous French Toast platter then returned to the station to wait for Carl. Bruce had to go to the bank so I walked with him to Wells Fargo, which had a museum inside. Here I found two pictures of Billy Miner, who had robbed Wells Fargo twice. Billy fled to Canada and introduced Canada to the phrase "Hands Up!" I first learned about him in the melodrama in Kamloops on my Rocky Mountaineer trip in 2001. We returned to Amtrak and Carl met us as we walked in the door.

Bruce told us that the California Zephyr was still in Emeryville and our sleeper was at the front of the train. At 11:18 AM, it was announced that the Zephyr was on the move and would be here at 1:00 PM. A toilet in a handicapped bedroom was the problem and the passenger had to be reaccommodated in another handicapped bedroom in another car. After a while, Carl and I went out to the platform and into more of a cooling breeze. Off a Capitol Corridor train that had been parked came Engineer Ernie, whom I had known on the Pacific Surfliners and he had just transferred to Sacramento. The small world is happening on this trip as well. Bruce came out to give us an update right after a westbound Union Pacific freight, as well as a local, passed the station.

Amtrak San Joaquin 701 arrived only eight minutes late.

Our California Zephyr finally came into view at 1:10 PM and arrived. We boarded sleeping car 32017 Room 4 on the train whose consist was P42DC's 201 and 129, baggage 1161, sleepers 32045, 32017 and 33020, diner 38035, lounge 33022, coaches 34086, 31510 (former smoker) and 31005 (former smoker), Express 71192 and 71273, ExpressTrak 74052 and Express 71212. We departed at 1:26 PM {11:32 AM} and proceeded east towards Elvas Tower.

As we neared there, I saw two large puffs of smoke coming from between our sleeping car and the one ahead. We stopped and along came the conductors and a Union Pacific hi-rail truck. Smoke was coming out from under the car and began to fill our car. We learned that a head end power cable had exploded and the hot end had set the ties under the train on fire. Everyone had to exit the car so we had to sit in the lounge car then the train was reversed back into the station to attempt to solve this problem. Passengers were allowed to be on the platform and I went out to watch.

Harlon Beck and Larry Follis, a new road foreman from Bakersfield, worked on the dilemma. The fried electrical connector was cut with a yellow hacksaw and at first, they cut the remaining part off at the same length, but after a few moments of thought, cut the cable top to different lengths then used duct tape to cover the newly-cut sections of the multiple cables. Next, they short-looped the train so that the head end power would only go down the other side of the train to provide the power to the rest of the train. The power was then turned on and everything worked properly. Remember, "Every trip is an adventure!

There was only a small piece left of the cable that had caused the issue. It was then "All Aboard!" and we reboarded and departed for the second time today at 2:39 PM {11:32 AM}. Applegate finally introduced himself to Carl and I before he returned to lunch. The air conditioning quickly cooled our car and cleared it o the smoke. We reached our furthest point we had been at Elvas and came to a red signal just a short distance east then it was upgraded to a yellow signal and we were off, crossing the American River, passing the J.R. Davis Yard in Roseville and the large diesel facility there before we stopped at Roseville. We passed Union Pacific 5424 West parked on mainline 1 with no crew as we left town then travelled on mainline 2 through Rocklin and climbed the grade through the Sierra Foothills into the pine trees to Colfax, our next passenger stop, departing there at at 4:26 PM {12:45 PM}.

We crossed the long ravine on the climb to Norden and I listened to Jethro Tull while Carl worked on his story on his Apple laptop. The train climbed through Gold Run, Midas and Emigrant Gap, passing the purple wildflowers that were out in force.

Our journey from Yuba Gap to Shed 10. I had a 6:00 PM dinner reservation, having a nice meal with a couple from Chicago and "Parky" Wetherell, a Parkinson's survivor who rode a bicycle 28,000 miles in four years. He was going to Omaha for a Missouri River-to-Mississippi River bicycle ride from Council Bluffs to Clinton. Put your rear tire in the Missouri River, go all the way across Iowa then put your front tire in the Mississippi River when you are done! You really have to respect his determination in life. I enjoyed a T-Bone steak and a sundae and thought 'what a great dining car experience!'

After entering Nevada, we stopped for some reason at Verdi before reaching Reno where the downtown trench project had commenced, so we were on a relocated mainline. Yeah, new mileage! We came to the new temporary Reno station across from the former Southern Pacific freight house then departed at 8:03 PM {4:13 PM} with Carl and I having a great time travelling together. Sparks was an off-and-on stop then we continued east into the Nevada night. Carl had a 7:45 PM dinner reservation since he had a late lunch, but they skipped 7:45 and did a last call, which Carl went to. The Nevada sky was completely filled with stars and a crescent moon. Carl returned, I made up the room and we called it a night.

I woke up at Knolls siding in Utah and showered.

We crossed the Salt Flats and I watched the sun rise over the Wasatch Mountains.

Minutes later we ran along the south shore of the Great Salt Lake with Antelope Island to the north.

The California Zephyr ran through Smelter with the large smokestack and a few minutes later, I saw the control tower for Salt Lake City International Airport. At Grant Tower, we turned south onto the former Rio Grande freight mainline and I picked up a little new mileage as we rolled into the new Amtrak modular station, which is the third Amtrak station for Salt Lake City - the Union Pacific station for the Desert Wind and Pioneer, the Rio Grande station for the Desert Wind, California Zephyr and the Rio Grande Zephyr, and now this new one. The train was serviced, locomotives refuelled and crew changed.

Carl and I sat down for breakfast with a couple from northern Virginia and Lisa ordered a Pepsi that exploded. Today a Pepsi, yesterday a head end power cable!

We departed at 7:48 AM {4:06 AM} and proceeded south to the former Rio Grande mainline but would not be going via Wyoming on this line. Despite that news, I still enjoyed my French Toast and sausage breakfast.

At Midvale, we passed the Utah Railroad shop area with Utah Railway GP38-3 2004, ex. Utah Railway GP38 2004, exx. Southern Pacific GP35R 6320, exx. Southern Pacific GP35 6618, nee Southern Pacific 7721 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1965, then Utah Transit Authority's light rail shops. That was followed by the Jordan River below Point of the Mountain into the Provo Valley where we stopped in Provo but of course, no one boarded because our train was not supposed to be here today.

The California Zephyr started the climb out of the Provo Valley with the Wasatch Mountains in the background and we entered Spanish Fork Canyon and I told Carl about Thistle and the landslide in 1983.

We then ascended the Gilluly Loops and made our way over Soldier Summit, at which point the film "Welcome to Mooseport" was shown. We passed through Kyunne and went under Castle Rock into Helper.

I asked our conductor, "Why did we not run across Wyoming as scheduled this morning?" She said "The Union Pacific delayed their work by one day so tomorrow the trains would run that way!" I then said, "With no passengers on or off today, this has to be an easy day of work." She just smiled. We departed Helper at 11:02 AM {7:15 AM} and descended into the Utah Desert with the Book Cliffs to the north. I napped to Green River before enjoying the desert views and went to the dining car just for a delicious chocolate cake as I was not hungry. We stopped at Cisco to wait for track workers to clear the mainline and I was sure they were not expecting us today as we were scheduled to be in Wyoming.

The Zephyr then entered my favourite canyon on the whole Amtrak system, Ruby Canyons.

After all those great vistas, the train entered Grand Valley and rolled into Grand Junction.

Our California Zephyr with a BNSF freight beside.

I spotted Denver and Rio Grande Western narrow gauge box car 3001 built by American Car and Foundry in 1904 across the street from the former Rio Grande station. We departed at 2:47 PM {11:05 AM}.

The California Zephyr continued east across the Grand Valley and through De Beque Canyon then at Lacy, we met our westbound counterpart in the siding running slightly tardy at 45 minutes. We ran through Rifle then made our way to Glenwood Springs, departing there at 4:38 PM {12:57 PM} before travelling into a darkened Glenwood Canyon beneath some clouds that produced a little rain. At Dotsero, we had a red signal that finally changed to red over green with our train travelling north for Red Rock Canyon. We came to Bond and Carl and I went in for our 6:00 PM dinner reservation, eating with Al from Akron, Ohio and Mary from Des Moines, Iowa. I ordered the "Evening Special", beef tips, which were excellent and had a sundae. While this incredible meal was occuring, we did not move an inch and there were no announcements in the dining car about our delay.

The Colorado River had turned a chocolate milk colour, meaning there had been flash flooding somewhere in the mountains. After dinner, I found the conductor who said the dining car had turned off their public address system and that he had made three announcements about the freight train outside our window that had broken in two and had 32 cars overhanging onto the mainline.

We sat for a long time while I listened to Blue Oyster Cult. The freight had to double his train, then the crew had to walk their train before pumping air in the brakeline of the train. Every trip is an adventure! At 7:55 PM, the freight started to pull forward off the mainline and at 7:59 PM, the California Zephyr took off for Granby.

Further east at Yarmony, we saw the results of a major derailment. Journey's "Look into the Future" and their first album "Journey" was my evening musical choice as we proceeded first into Little Gore Canyon, then later Gore Canyon. We stopped at Kremmling due to a signal problem and did not reach Byers Canyon in any kind of light as the sun had set long ago. I napped all the way to Rocky Flats before we arrived in Denver where the train was wyed before reversing, first picking up more express cars before reversing into Denver Union Station at 12:40 AM {7:18 PM}. How will all my new friends whom I met manager their connections in Chicagoland?

Carl and I detrained to walk to the La Quinta Inn and on the way, we saw Union Pacific 3985 Challenger completely under steam laying over for the excursion train later this morning. We arrived at the hotel, checked in and after a well-deserved shower, called it a night.