Spring of 2012; A Railfan Trip Down to the Durango and Silverton

Spring break of 2012; I was a young adult ready to graduate high school when my dad and I set of for a journey down to the Four Corners area. I had a desire to go and see the famed Durango and Silverton railroad. I was a relatively new railfan, having been actively photographing trains for only a few years. 

It was during this time I had a hankering to go and see some good steam engines at work. Other than my family trips to Disneyland every other year or so; I rarely got the opportunity to see steam engines. The clean, polished, and cooking grease fired steamers at Disney also made them seem less authentic than "the real deal" engines lurking at other railroads and museums. It had been years since I had visited the Golden Spike National Historic Site at Promontory Summit, and at that time the Heber Valley's steam had gone quiet. My only memories of steam that were fresh in my mind were a brief encounter with Virginia and Truckee #29 in Virginia City, Nevada; and a brief chase of UP 844 through my hometown in late 2011.

August 8, 2010; other than my encounters with the Disneyland steamers; I went years between my experiences as a small child seeing UP 618 and the Promontory engines in steam, to the point in 2010 when I got to see Virginia and Truckee #29 "Robert C. Gray" pulling a short car load of tourists into the station in Virginia City, Nevada. I didn't get to ride the engine that day; nor did I have more than ten minutes to admire it... But the oily smoke, the hissing machinery, and the beautiful appearance of this 2-8-0 reignited a passion for steam engines within me.

If the V&T 29 piqued my interest in steam engines, it was the UP 844 which set the hook! I was lucky enough to have the 844 pass through my hometown on the Lynndyl Subdivision during my senior year of high school. Compared to the hundreds of miles some railfans take to chase these steamers, my brief jaunt across the county from Stockton to Erda, Utah; was rather modest in comparison. Yet the image of a large steamer blasting through my hometown has stuck with me.

One amazing thing about steam engines is that you don't need to be a dedicated railfan or "foamer" to understand the appeal. A large crowd of locals gathered in Stockton, Utah; to see UP 844 when it stopped in town. This sight would be repeated nearly three years later in 2014 when Big Boy 4014 was towed through town dead in consist.

With my renewed interest in steam engines reaching fever interest; my dad and I planned our trip to see the Durango and Silverton. Along the way, we would stop at both Arches National Park, and Mesa Verde National Park. Our route would take us over old Denver and Rio Grande Western territory, including Soldier Summit and Spanish Fork Canyon (places I finally got to go and railfan up close just a few weeks ago as I wrote about in this blog post here). I was a new comer to Soldier Summit at the time, I had only passed through the route twice before; first time in 2006 with my family (back when SD40T-2 units such as DRGW 5371 still called Helper home), and a second time with my local Boy Scouts of America group to go to a camp in Moab. I wasn't stopping to admire the scenery in Spanish Fork Canyon with my dad, as my knowledge of the area was still growing and new. I had heard about the Thistle landslide, and I knew that Helper was named after helper locomotives; but that was about it! 

On a bit of non-train related side note; my dad and I stopped in Moab to see Delicate Arch before setting off on the road again. Once we reached the vantage point of the arch, rain clouds formed and soon we were drenched in a quick desert rain. Fortunately, my camera stayed dry during the process; ready for the train pictures coming up the following day...

After a surprisingly wet stop in Arches National Park, my dad and I continued on our trip to Durango, Colorado. What followed was one of the most quirky road trips I had ever been on. My dad and I entered what was new territory for the both of us as we passed down into the Four Corner's region. My Grandfather Lyman insisted that we stopped in Dove Creek, Colorado; to buy him some Anasazi Beans. After searching the town high and low to buy some Anasazi Beans, we continued on our trip; beans in tow, only to shortly there after recognize the brakes on our old Dodge Caravan weren't doing so good... As we made the descent down Highway 160 in darkness, my dad was fighting the brakes in the car to keep us on the road. Our dramatic descent into Durango was without incident though, and we were fortunately able to come to a stop at the end of the road! 

It was there at the intersection of Highway 160 and 550; that I got my first glimpse of the Durango and Silverton railroad. In the cold damp air, steam was rising above the roundhouse; suggesting the slumbering steam locomotives inside. Few moments in my time railfanning have made me feel like I was in another time; that I was witnessing something far more ancient than I was (walking around East Ely yard in the Nevada Northern, and watching a set of MK50-3 units being fired up in Martin, Utah; are the only comparable memories in my mind). I was ecstatic for our upcoming trip on the railroad, and could hardly wait for the next day! 

Of course, we had to find our hotel building... After driving up and down the 550 a bit, we finally pulled our beaten Dodge Caravan into a parking lot and set off to sleep for the night. It had been a long trip getting there!

After my dad ensured that our Dodge Caravan was in a repair shop getting new brakes; we finally rushed off to the train station in Durango. Durango is a unique town; while the railroad gives it a certain historical appeal, tourism and the local university have kept the place modern. This is not the hard luck mining town that the Denver and Rio Grande Western served; but instead a modern small city. While the darkness of the night made the sight of the railroad more authentic feeling, in broad daylight it felt more anachronistic. The large McDonalds encroaching the railyard, only helped to further the feeling like the railroad was the prized antique in a very modern city. Any feelings of modern encroachment though were shunned when I finally got to get close to our train.  

The classic narrow gauge rolling stock was being lead by D&S 478. An ALCO 2-8-2, the utilitarian look of this K-28 class engine was in stark contrast with the refined taste of the V&T 29, the race horse look of the 844, or the pristine colors of those Disneyland engines. 478, looked like a true working steamer, weathered; oily, and dirty. Appliances sat on the frame and smokebox of the engine, hissing and growling. The coal smoke it breathed was dirty and dense; not unlike the smelters and mines this engine was built to serve. The winter snowplow was still affixed on the pilot of the engine, and gave it a sort of mean, aggressive look. It was everything I was hoping for, and as we climbed aboard for our trip to the Cascade Wye, I was excited to see this machine in action.

After our train left Durango; we began to climb through the river valley and then slowly up through a small forest on approach to Rockwood. Even though our train was running in what is considered "the off-season" for the Durango and Silverton; we still had quite the crowd with us on the train. The first car was entirely full of school kids on a trip, with their teaches herding them and keeping them in line. There was a large amount of European tourists. One of them who I remembered, was a man from Britain who was taking a month long vacation to the United States. He was riding Amtrak across the country, getting out to see the tourists steam railroads along the way! Another group of European tourists smuggled what appeared to be a zip lock bag of Vodka onto the train, and were sharing it among themselves.

I was spending a large chunk of the trip from one of the open air cars, watching as our train entered Rockwood. The forest here made it hard to see the engine up front, but the distinct chuffing sound carried all the way back to us. After departing Rockwood, we began our trip along the highline route.

There is a very good reason that the highline on the Silverton Branch is world renowned. The Denver and Rio Grande Western and its predecessors, seemed to have an astounding habit of building railroads in the most extreme of mountain passes. Sharp curves and sudden drops can give riders a sense of vertigo, as the train slowly crawls through the terrain. It is absolutely a gorgeous area to, making it look less like a real railroad; and more like something out of the mind of some model railroader. 478 held up well making the trip, even as her stalk barked in loud chuffs signalling the effort the engine was putting into keeping our train climbing up hill.

After crossing the bridge over the Animas river, our train came closer to the waterside. This part of the trip is not to dissimilar to the experiences one may get on the Heber Valley Railroad in Utah or other tourist lines; as the train snakes alongside a river in a forested canyon. Of course, even in springtime this forest of the Durango and Silverton was chilly; a reminder of its high altitude. We were truly in the heart of the mountains, and 478 pulled us towards the Cascade Wye.

Now out in the woods, parked on the leg of the wye, and away from such modern structures such as Durango's McDonalds and coffee shops; #478 truly looked like it was back in its element. The forest was a great backdrop to view the engine, and crowds gathered around to closely inspect the stalwart machine which had brought us this far on our journey. Of course, even at rest on the wye; the crew was preparing our train for our departure back to Durango. The engine's two air compressors on its smokebox were firing constantly, probably filling up the air tanks to provide a steady air stream to power the brakes which would keep our train under control on the downhill trip. Every time the air compressors fired, the front of the engine would violently shudder; as if the machine was sneezing! 

Our trip down hill had the benefit of being able to try and nag some photos and views of the train for a second time. We crawled along the highline again, admiring the scenery one last time before our train returned to Durango. Although the Cascade Wye "off-season" trip is shorter than the summer season trains to Silverton, it is still a lengthy journey which takes a round trip of three hours to complete. Compared to modern passenger trains, or highway speeds; the narrow gauge steamers of Durango are rather slow. Yet, the view is incredible; and watching a train being pulled by a steam train is always a ton of fun. I am pretty sure sometime during this leg of the trip, a piece of ash from the engine landed in my eye! Ouch! One of the few downsides to riding behind a coal burning steamer I guess! 

On our return to Durango we toured the line's roundhouse. The roundhouse was built in the 1990's to replace the original, which had been destroyed in a fire. We toured the museum displays inside, then watched as diesel engine #11 began switching the yard. The Durango and Silverton's small fleet of diesels are used only for MOW trains, yard switching, and dry summers where using a steam engine runs the risk of starting a lineside fire. 

Once our Dodge Caravan left the repair shop, my dad and I were off out of Durango on our way to see Mesa Verde National Park. Although we had left behind the famed railroad, the memories of riding behind a K-28 climbing up the Animas River valley is still fresh in my mind.

-Jacob Lyman

Snowfall: Railfanning in Downtown Salt Lake City

The snow got thicker than I expected and set the mood for the day pretty quick... Dramatic, cold, and hard to get good pictures in. But dang the atmosphere was awesome! The train pictured here was the second grain shuttle I had seen that day passing through CP 784.

Sometime nearly a year ago I made a joke in a Facebook discussion, that the decision to railfan in the snow is comparable to the scene in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back when Luke Skywalker is crawling in the snow; only for the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi to appear to him ordering him to seek out Yoda. I joked that in a way railfans have their "Obi-Wan" calling them into the snow despite their better judgement. On November, 28th; I had an "Obi-Wan" calling me to go snow railfanning when I got the news that Union Pacific's Denver & Rio Grande Western Heritage Unit (number 1989) was coming through Salt Lake City that day on the KOASCX-17. I couldn't resist, and had to get out trackside to catch the unit.


I have seen UP 1989 multiple times before; the first time being nearly five years ago on a train being held on the track behind the bowling alley in my hometown in Tooele, Utah. However, knowing many people online who miss the old Rio Grande; I had a newfound desire to see the locomotive again.

The yard switchers working the southern end of North Yard today were a SD40N and a GP15.

I decided to hunt for UP 1989 around CP 784, a control point at the southern end of Salt Lake City's North Yard. My first catches of the day was the familiar sight of the remote controlled yard switchers at work on the yard lead. UP 1956 was on point of the yard switcher, with its roof mounted strobe lights blinking to indicate remote controlled service. Behind it was the smaller UPY 582, a venerable GP15 which had once served the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The ex-MP GP's are still used as road switchers in the prairie country UP serves back east, but their small size and lack of dynamic brake units makes them ill suited to road work in Utah. As such in Utah they are confined to switching duties in the yards in Ogden, Provo, and Salt Lake. The growl of the EMD engines from the yard switchers made the area around CP 784 resonate with sound.

I also encountered a four legged friend at CP 784. The dog was a bit goofy, chasing my car and running into the railroad tracks. Fortunately he wasn't hurt, although he ran behind my car a few times while I was backing it up! He perhaps had better sense than I, and was gone when the snowflakes began to fall again.

One of the great things about railfanning Downtown Salt Lake City is the constant parade of Frontrunner trains. North Temple Station sees two Frontrunner trains meet each other every hour. Getting to see these trains plow through the snow reminded me of a Trains Magazine article from earlier this year which stated, "UTA has created a modern, comfortable, six-day-a-week operation in an area of the country that experiences snowy, below-zero winters and hot, dry 100-plus-degree summers. (David Lusting, Trains Magazine, July, 2016.) It wasn't yet "below-zero" today, but the air was hovering at freezing and the snow flurries made it clear that winter's onslaught was upon us. 

My first through-freight train catch of the day was a stack train being lead by four SD70M units (I suspect it was the KG3LB). The SD70M's are one of the most common units on the UP, but catching an entire train being powered by just  SD70M units is an increasingly rare sight. From conversations I have had with railroad employees, it seems the older DC traction units used on SD70M's don't make them quite as popular among train crews as the AC traction models which were released later. With that said, the SD70M is growing to become a railfan favorite engine, an opinion which is furthered thanks to the engine's unique production features. For example the train in the photo includes different production series of the SD70M from an earlier flat radiator model, to three flared radiators, and one cab with slights indents in the nose which was a harbinger of the future cab on the SD70ACe model.

UTAH 2006 and UTAH 2003 were on point on the Utah Railway train. Both engines are ex-SP units.

A few Frontrunner trains passed through after the stack train; and the snow began to fall at a furious rate. It was in this mini-blizzard like storm that a Utah Railway train began to peak through the fog and pull up alongside CP 784. The train pulled to a stop on Main 2, preparing to back up along Grant Tower so it could interchange freight cars (box cars, hoppers, and low-level radioactive waste) with the Salt Lake Garfield & Western shortline railroad. 

When the Utah Railway train came to a halt I was surprised by the attire the conductor was wearing when he left the cab! While the safety vest was nothing out of the ordinary, his festive Christmas hat instantly caught my eye. With heavy snow blanketing the area, it was easy to imagine that it was Santa Claus himself, conducting a train loaded full of goodies (and radioactive waste too!). It seemed as if this conductor had decided to make the best of a snowy day at work, by dressing the part!

Even in the snow, the fresh paint on UP 7719 is instantly noticeable!

After the Utah Railway train had backed down Grant Tower I saw the headlights of an incoming UP train. Was it UP 1989 after all my time waiting for her? No, to my surprise it was a unit train of grain hoppers being lead by UP 7719, aa AC45CCTE sporting a fresh paint job. The grain train rumbled slowly through CP 784, and I began to get anxious waiting for the eventual arrival of UP 1989. The storm kept getting thicker, only taking brief rests before kicking up again with even more snow!

 The snow stopped for a brief moment just as the Utah Railway train returned to CP 784. Having dropped most of its cargo off at the SLG&W interchange, the train was now carrying a short string of tank cars bound for the oil refineries north of Salt Lake City.

I was getting cold, and decided I needed to take a break from the tracks for a moment. I had gotten word that UP 1989 was still waiting for a crew change up in Ogden, so I made the quick drive to North Temple to pick up a hamburger! Railfanning in cold weather is actually a bit of a tricky challenge, and requires taking shelter in car and buildings to keep warm. My shoes weren't up to the task, and snow was melting into my socks. 

Shortly after I began eating my burger the snow began to fall again in earnest. The fog seemed to creep further in and blocked visibility. Headlights of trains were visible long before the train itself, and when I saw another set of headlights approaching on Main 1, I was hoping that UP 1989 had finally arrived! Instead it turned out to be UP 8194 heading the second grain train I had seen that day. The numberboards were lit up making the train even more visible in the soupy fog. 

A few more Frontrunner train whizzed by before I finally saw the familiar gray nose of UP 1989 pull into North Yard. The train was covered by clumps of snow, and the gray paint seemed to blend with the fog. I can see why the actual Rio Grande painted the noses of their units in a black and orange "zebra stripe" scheme; which surely would have been easier seen in a snow storm than UP 1989's gray hood! The locomotive stopped its train just short of the leaving the yard, and I would later learn that it was delayed here to wait for a train up ahead at the Salt Lake Intermodal Yard to clear the offloading area. I sat for 30 minutes or so waiting for UP 1989 to began the last leg of its journey. Finally a little bit before 4:40 pm, I saw the headlights of the engine brighten to cut their way through the fog as the train began to lurch forward. 

I tried to frame UP 1989's train underneath the signal bridge at CP 784 in a sort of recreation of a similar shot I had taken of Heber Valley's 1813 earlier this year (both engines are painted in a faux-Rio Grande inspired paint so it seemed appropriate!) The train crawled along Main 2 gaining speed as it rolled down to the Salt Lake Intermodal Yard. The golden orange sides of the locomotive were far more easier to spot in the snow than its gray nose, and seeing the Rio Grande flying letters conjured up images of yester-year when SD40T-2's battled their way across snowcapped peaks in Colorado and Utah. Of course with UP 1989 rolling out of sight I quickly jumped back into my car. I wasn't going to stay in that cold any longer! :)

Railfanning in cold weather certainly has its challenges and issues, but it also offers an amazing glimpse of railroads at work during even the harshest conditions. Even if my toes get a little cold, and my hands and face turn a bit red in the chill air; I always have fun railfanning in the snow! The sight of snow falling on the ground is one of the most stunning visuals of the intermountain west, signalling with it a change in seasons. Railroads are affected by snowfall, and watching them work in it is one of the most amazing ways to railfan.

Hasta Luego

-Jacob Lyman

Dedicated in memory of my Grandfather Rodney Lyman (March 26, 1937-December 12, 2016) who was with me and my father nearly five years ago the first time I saw UP 1989 in Tooele, Utah; parked behind the local bowling alley.

Short, fast freight - or long, stalled and late?

At noon on September 2 2016, the Provo, Utah to North Yard, Colorado MRONY, consisting of five locomotives and 115 cars, stalled on the grade at Castilla in Spanish Fork Canyon in Utah. Since the ex-D&RGW main line from Provo to Denver is paramount to the transport of coal to electrical power plants in Utah and California, this was a serious block to traffic. SD70ACe number 8838 was sent out as a helper unit, but one locomotive did nothing to restart the train on its way east, so three more units had to be called from Helper, Utah, to be added mid-train; they didn’t arrive until 7:00 pm, causing a more than seven-hour delay in traffic as the 8838 switched out the train on the main to splice in the three helpers.

This event is not uncommon in the mountain regions of the Union Pacific system. While some may claim that the American economy is on the rise since the 2008 housing market collapse, the condition of the transportation industry says otherwise, and Union Pacific seems to be in some dire straits considering their recent policy of running longer trains with less power in a desperate attempt to cut down on crews and locomotives. In Utah, the problem has manifested itself most on the old Rio Grande routes, which reflecting the Grande’s motto of “Through the Rockies, not around them!” are reasonably steep in order to ascend Soldier Summit in the heart of the Wasatch Range. The Rio Grande had no problem with this landscape, operating under the policy of short, fast freight, running more trains with less cars at a quicker speed over the summit. BNSF, which operates trackage rights on this route, also has no problem (although some BNSF employees may say otherwise). Union Pacific, on the other hand, is struggling.

As another extreme example of the impracticality of this policy elsewhere on the system, on August 3 a grain train from Salt Lake stalled on the grade just west of the Nevada border. A single helper locomotive (ES44AC number 8247) was dispatched from Salt Lake to shove it uphill. Since Distributed Power Units are rarely manned, the extra helper unit cost the UP a crew which could have been saved by simply tacking on the DPU before heading out. And if that wasn’t enough, another westbound train had to wait for the light engine to clear the Shaffter subdivision before proceeding, causing further delay and expense as commodities sat idle both on the stalled train and the manifest in the hole.

August 3, 2016; on the Shaffter Subdivision near Aragonite. A lone helper is on the move to help out a grain train stalled on the grades west from here. I found it near Lake Point, Utah; and chased it out here. Discussions over Facebook confirmed that this was an emergency helper move.(Jacob Lyman photo and description)

A former engineer on the Union Pacific remarked that he observes that the same problem is happening in the Blue Mountains of Oregon and explained that “train delay is directly attributable to train length.” From his perspective as a locomotive operator he added that extra-long trains pose several serious problems: few sidings have the capacity to hold these trains, meaning that meets are impossible and traffic must be restricted to one direction for extended periods of time until they clear the main line; in addition, if a train were to fall into Undesired Emergency (UDE), the crew is obligated to walk the entire length to identify the problem. In his words, “it’s a damned long way for one employee to walk.”

This train didn't stall, but it almost did - by the time it neared Wahsatch Summit it was moving at barely faster than the photographer could walk. While this made it easy to chase the train, it also meant waiting at this location for over an hour as it traveled less than 25 miles in that time. The problem? Three locomotives with over 100 cars aren't enough to maintain a steady speed even on the Echo Canyon's 1.14 percent grade.

 

Operating crews will use this as an example of the disconnect that exists between the men on the ground and the men in the office, particularly dispatchers. A revealing anecdote from one engineer illustrates this: at one point, an engineman complained that his train had more tonnage than his locomotives could handle. The dispatcher replied “The book says they are rated for (x) amount of tons,” to which the engineer shot back, “Yes, but these engines haven’t learned to read yet!”

The issue, and perhaps one of the contributing factors to UP’s policy, is that every locomotive is rated to pull a certain number of tons, but only at 100% capacity. That may be relevant on level track during the testing phase, but on the road is impossible. In real life, locomotives operate at far below their full capacity due to age, abuse, and environmental factors (wet rail, steep grades, sharp curves, etc.). So while dispatchers go by the manufacturer’s ratings, an operating crew knows to cut an estimated 25-50% from the written statistics in order to play it safe on a run. This concept, however, is impossible for an economist to understand as they try to cut expenses and maximize revenues on paper.

BNSF seems to have copied the Rio Grande's strategy of short, fast freight, such as this one speeding upgrade to the Thistle Tunnels in August 2016. This train has three lead units and one DPU for 22 cars, which allows it to maintain a steady speed going uphill; a typical Union Pacific freight train on this route will have the same number of locomotives for over 50 cars and struggles on this same 2% grade.

 

In some cases, crews have become creative to get around the demand for long trains with less power. Steve Creer, a now-retired engineer and conductor who started with the D&RGW and worked through the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific mergers, was called to Elko to run a train measuring at 8,950 feet. Trains running east of Elko cannot exceed 9,000 feet due to the length of passing sidings on that stretch. However, the Manager of Yard Operations approached and informed him that he was required to pick up ten cars, which surpassed the limit by almost 450 feet. Mr. Creer protested, knowing that he was scheduled to meet two 12,000 foot westbound trains; the manager shrugged him off. Even after the dispatcher in Omaha confirmed that the train could not exceed 9,000 feet under any circumstances the Elko managers insisted that the ten cars be added.

“A conductor is an overpaid liar because he has the educated pencil,” Creer remarked. He opened up the computer system and marked that he had picked up the cars without actually doing so, then forced the MYO to enter the train as having departed Elko, again without actually doing so. Steve then returned to his own computer and set the ten cars out at a short maintenance siding a mile from town, told the MYO to put the cars on the next short train (for real that time), loaded up his own train, and headed for Ogden. Management was happy, the operating crew was happy, and nobody noticed that the cars had been recorded as added, moved, and set out in the impossibly short time of less than five minutes. Without this sort of trickery, incomprehensible delay would have been the result.

September 10, 2016; Schon Norris, James Belmont, and I were with each other railfanning the area south of North Yard in Salt Lake City, when two "Monster Trains" arrived in opposite directions simultaneously, the MWCNP, and the MNPWC (shown in the picture). The eastbound MWCNP barely fit the yard, while the westbound MNPWC was so large the lead locomotives and freight cars where outside the southern yard portal, where they blocked several grade crossings for an extended period of time. To complicate matters worse, these two trains switch and drop off loads in the yard, meaning the crews had to work a tricky balancing act  between the two monsters to get their jobs done.

However the greatest issue of these monster trains soon became apparent as the minutes passed. The MNPWC blocked off the grade crossings in the area, causing frustration for the commuters and pedestrians in the area. To the shock of Schon, James, and I; many pedestrians began to blatantly trespass, crossing over the couplings on many of the cars on the MNPWC. We witnessed a man with a bike crossing over the coupler, and shortly there after we also saw a family with several children crossing over. At this time the MNPWC was making switching moves to try and drop off cars in the yard, and in some-cases these trespassers avoided being caught between cars on a moving train by a few seconds. Another danger was the active tracks surrounding this train, with two active Frontrunner commuter rail tracks on one side, and an open mainline to the other (with an approaching hot ZDVSC coming down on it). It was a very stressful thing for Schon, James, and I to watch; and it illustrated how the absurd length of these trains can frustrate pedestrians and inspire some awful stupidity. (Jacob Lyman photo and description)

It has been suggested that this is simply a remnant of Union Pacific’s bitter and emotional rivalry with the Denver & Rio Grande Western. One railroader remarked that “The Rio Grande was a chief competitor to the UP and they did what the UP couldn't do - ran a fast freight line on single track through the Rockies. Even though the heyday of this was 30+ years ago, I'm certain that sting still hurt some senior folk in Omaha many years later.” Assuming this idea is true, a jealous Union Pacific is trying to prove that they can do better than the Rio Grande. So far it seems that they aren’t.

Some hope that these stalled trains will be a learning experience for the Union Pacific. As mentioned, BNSF already has already figured out the ideal operating system, running 25-50 cars with the same number of locomotives that UP puts on a 50-150 car train. BNSF trains often arrive in Provo from Denver four to five hours earlier than initially scheduled, whereas UP trains on the same route will often be late by an equal amount. The idea is that UP managers will recognize the fallacy of their current paradigm and pull some of the hundreds of locomotives stored dead in Ogden and elsewhere to push their freight through more effectively. Only time will tell if they wise up.

DISCLAIMER: I do not represent Union Pacific, BNSF, or any other railroad company. This article is based on observation of true events and the judgement of people knowledgeable on the subject; I welcome any further insights into this phenomenon.

Sources:

Spencer Peterson, who witnessed the stalled MRONY and photographed the process of the three helper locomotives being switched in to the train at Castilla.

Jacob Lyman, who photographed the light move to Wendover on August 3, and provided further insights into the event from discussions he had with railroad employees.

Steve Creer, a former D&RGW engineer from Provo, Utah, who worked a short time for the UP after the merger. He shared many of the laughable interactions between operating crews and dispatchers.

Matt Paulson, James Belmont, and others who provided commentary through the Rails Through the Wasatch, Utah Rail Enthusiasts and Fans of the Union Pacific Railroad Facebook groups. Some names, particularly those of current railroad employees, have been withheld due to privacy concerns.