LUE46 "The Warner Local"

The LUE46 with two SD70M locomotives at Fassio Eggs in Erda, Utah this August.

There is for many railfans a favorite train or two to chase on the railroad. Often they are local trains; relatively small mixed freights which travel from major rail hubs to outlying industries along the way. In my case one of my favorite trains to see is the "LUE46" a freight which serves businesses in-between Salt Lake City's North Yard down to the Peterson Industrial Depot in Tooele, Utah. It is one of the first trains I learned to predict regularly, and one that I encounter on a regular basis.

In May 2013 two SD40N units (UP 1684 and UP 1616) lead the LUE46 through Erda, Utah. UP 1684 was once SD40-2 UP 1896 one of the two special units used for the Atlanta Olympic games.

The history of local rail freight from Salt Lake to the Tooele area began in the late 1800's with a narrow gauge railroad known as the Utah Nevada Western Railroad. Building off the line already in place by the Salt Lake Sevier Valley, Pioche Railroad; the Utah Nevada Western extended through the valley to Bauer in 1883. The narrow gauge line was essential to serve the budding mining districts to the south in Stockton which sent wagon teams hauling ores up to the rail head in Bauer.

In 1903 standard gauge railroads came to the Tooele area with the Oregon Shortline (and shortly thereafter owned by the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad) building the "Leamington Cut-Off." This Harriman-era mainline had smooth curves and gentle grades. Standard gauge rail opened up new traffic to the area, with the Tooele Valley Railway and St. John & Ophir shortlines connecting into the new mainline a few years after it was built. A mining mill grew in Bauer near the former Utah Nevada Western terminal, and local sugar beet farmers used the rails to feed their crops to the sugar refineries across the state. Further north, on the border of Tooele and Salt Lake, counties was the ASARCO Garfield Smelter which would eventually become part of the Kennecott Corporation.

Wartime brought the changes to the area which continue to affect local rail traffic to this day when the US Army placed two detachments of a new ordinance depot along the route. In Tooele at the Warner Jct. where the Tooele Valley Railway and Western Pacific fed into Union Pacific's inherited LA&SL mainline; the Army built what is now known as the Tooele Army Depot. Further south past the former St. John and Ophir interchange was built the Deseret Chemical Weapons Depot (currently known as the Tooele Army Depot South Area). The northern facility handled conventional weapons and vehicle repairs, while the southern area housed chemical weapons of mass destruction. Both of the military bases were rail served; and as the mines and smelter began to fade away the two bases remained a steady source of rail traffic.

Heber Valley 1218 prior to its donation to the historic railroad, was a US Army switcher used at the Tooele Army Depot South Area/Deseret Chemical Depot. The military retired it in 1993 after years of sporadic use as the weapons depot near St. John saw less and less need for rail traffic. Shortly there after all rail-service at the southern depot came to an end. The primary Tooele Army Depot further north continues to see rail-service provided by the LUE46.

In fact the very first chemical weapons to arrive on site at the depot came in 1942 through the new rail spur to the site. The drums loaded with mustard gas had been shipped from the Ogden army base to the new St. JohnDeseret Chemical/Tooele Army South area site. The decision to begin shipments was so rushed that construction of 200 yards of switch track in Rush Valley had to be built while the Mustard Gas was already in transit! (I learned this bit of history and obtained this historic government photo from Richard Trujillo on the Tooele History Facebook group)

Sometime the local train Union Pacific ran along the route became known as "The St. John Local." The chemical depot (and the way stations in St. John and Stockton) required that the locals make treks down that far south, although industry was sporadic on the line between Bauer and the chemical weapons depot. It should be noted that many of the freight stations even further south than the chemical depot's station such as Faust also accepted freight making it hard to determine just how far south the local train really traveled.  Warner junction area in Tooele drew heavier traffic with its own Army depot and the Tooele Valley Railway's interchange.

When the volatile chemical weapons from South Area had to move on rail, it was unlikely they were placed in with the rest of the St. John local's regular freight mix. More likely special trains originated and terminated at the depot, with the local train providing more "regular" freight services per the base's needs. A detailed history of shipments of chemical weapons can be found in one of the links at the end of the article. Due to the name changes and base command adjustments during the life of the depot it can be identified as either "TEAD" or "Deseret" in the registry below.  The rail service in the chemical depot even earned itself a proper railroad name, "The Beltline Railroad".

May 2017, the LUE46 works the Garfield Yard where it interchanges traffic with Kennecott's smelter.

May 2017, Later the same day as the previous photo, the LUE46 returns to downtown Salt Lake City having completed its trip out to the Tooele area and back.

Times have changed though. The stations in St. John, Stockton, and Warner vanished, some victim of fires. The resin plant in Bauer, the last rail customer in that area came to a close. The Tooele Valley Railway interchanged its last boxcar in the early 1980's with its rails pulled up a few years later. Finally a base realignment and closure action shuttered the repair portions of the Tooele Army Depot. By the 1990's the Chemical Weapons depot had severed its rail link, with its focus transferring to onsite incineration of the stockpile at hand. Kennecott's smelter and its neighboring industries, the occasional ammunition movement to Tooele's remaining base facilities, and a new feed silo in Erda would have kept the eventually re-christened "Warner Local" around but not very busy compared to its glory days in years past.

September 2016, with a load almost entirely consisting of sulfuric acid cars and a classic GP on point; what appeared to be the LUE46 departs North Yard in a bright fall morning as a Frontrunner commuter train rolls past it.

Recently though, the LUE46 "Warner Local" has been finding a new surge of traffic. The base realignment which shut down a corner of the Army Depot opened up new industrial areas in Tooele City and business began to move into the buildings the Army vacated. Where there once was military repair shops there now rises lumber yards, asphalt dealerships, businesses which require outbound shipments of boxcars containing finished products, and now a railcar re-manufacturing and repair shop which voraciously draws in beaten railcars to it. Across the rails in Warner Yard, a plastic water tank manufacturer Norwesco opened business a few hundred yards from where the Tooele Valley Railway joined the Union Pacific, and with it came the demand for a small but steady need of plastic granules. Further up the line, Kennecott's upgraded smelter began producing sulfuric acid caught in its pollution filtration system, an operation which demands a large fleet of incoming and outgoing white tank cars.

August 2017, on the edge of the Tooele Army Depot and the Peterson Industrial Depot the LUE46 with an interloping GE unit switch PID's rail yard.

In the modern day, the LUE46 leaves North Yard in Salt Lake City. It travels through the city limits, until it reaches the Garfield Smelter. In the interchange yard the job shuffles around boxcars of outbound copper anodes, inbound copper ore cars, and sulfuric acid tankers. Once done in Garfield, the train continues up the line and stops at a small warehouse on the edge of the Kennecott property. From there it heads down to Lake Point and into Erda, with grain for the Fassio Eggs feed silo. Once the train has reached Tooele it has several jobs to do, from servicing the Norwesco facility to dropping into the Peterson Industrial Park's former Army railyard to drop off cars for Peterson's own industrial switch engines to deliver to the myriad of business in the area park. It may also stop for loads from the Army depot itself, which still ships occasional ammunition cars. Then it heads back up north, picking up any outbound cars back in Garfield and returning late-afternoon in Salt Lake City. The train has regular appearances on Tuesday and Thursday; however the influx of traffic going into the Peterson Industrial Depot has meant the LUE46 often works jobs on all weekdays; Monday through Friday.

August 2016, the mid train set of a westbound stack train roll by. In the distance though is two sets of headlights; the furthest belong to the LUE46 as it works Garfield. The other is Kennecott's in plant switcher service which is operated by Omaha Track.

 March 2017, the LUE46 to the left is working Garfield while an eastbound work train rolls by.

My first experiences chasing the LUE46 were in 2013, when I had figured out the regular tempo of the train. SD40N units have been the dominant locomotive on the run, although SD60, GP60, and SD70M units all have made regular appearances on the train. GE  power is rare but does show up on occasion. Discovering this rhythm was one of my earlier railfan achievements, and something I remain happy to know in the present day.

The LUE46 is a great train to railfan, and its history is surprisingly deep below the surface level. Even if local trains no longer travel as far south into St. John; the spirit of the St. John local lives on in its present day incarnation.

-Jacob Lyman

Sources:
Leamington Cutoff Construction History (UtahRails.net)
St. John local in Salt Lake City meeting a DRGW train in 1973
St. John Local in 1977
St. John Local in 1977 (2)
St. John Local in 1993
Warner Local in 2010
Warner Local in 2011
Chemical Weapons Shipping History
Utah Rails Company List (Includes mention of the Beltline Railroad at the Chemical Depot)
Mining, Smelting and Railroading in Tooele County

See Also:
Provo's Ubiquitous Local Trains for more information on some local train action in Utah.

A close up of UP 1616 on the  LUE46 in March 2017. UP 1616 has been one of Utah's most prolific diesels having ran freights across the entire Wasatch Front. Its multiple appearances on the LUE46 over several years were what lead me to buy an HO scale model of this exact engine!

Railfanning the Yellowstone Branch / Eastern Idaho Railroad

By Josh Bernhard
(Click on the links embedded in location names to see them on Google Maps.)

Right at the border of Yellowstone National Park is this monument to the railroad's influence in the development of the park.

Among all the states in the union, Idaho is one of the least represented states as far as railfanning. If you follow our Facebook page, the first photo I posted there of the Eastern Idaho Railroad received a slew of comments from Idaho natives who apparently took light-hearted offense at this idea. Apparently some thought that I meant that there are no trains in Idaho but I meant quite the opposite. It's true that there are great locations to photograph trains in Idaho but the state is on nobody's bucket list as far as places to visit, giving way to the Colorado narrow gauge, or Pennsylvania's East Broad Top, or California's dozens of excellent preserved lines. I think this is a shame considering Idaho has some amazing scenery and while daily traffic may not be on par with the Arizona Transcon, once you find a train, it is more than worth the effort. This is especially true of the old Oregon Short Line Yellowstone Branch, the line that opened the west side of Yellowstone National Park, established the town of West Yellowstone and brought thousands, if not millions, of people to enjoy the world's first national park before the age of the automobile.

The branch was built by the Oregon Short Line from 1905 to 1907 to tap into the growing tourist traffic that exploded in the late 1890s. Yellowstone National Park had railroad access via the north entrance from the Northern Pacific so the OSL sought to break open the NP monopoly and allow access for tourists from the southern half of the country. The west entrance and the town of West Yellowstone themselves are the direct product of the railroad and would probably have never existed without it - before the railroad began construction from Ashton, West Yellowstone was simply unsurveyed Forest Service land. Unfortunately Passenger traffic on the Yellowstone Branch ended in 1960 and the rails were torn up from West Yellowstone to Ashton. Today the remainder of the branch, from Idaho Falls to Ashton, is operated by the Eastern Idaho, a Wabtec company with the reporting mark WAMX. The line is fairly well known for its fleet of GP30s and safety cab Canadian GP40-2LWs, most of which are stationed on the western portion of the railroad. The northern portion, which operates the Yellowstone branch, uses mostly GP35s.

The Eastern Idaho Railroad operates the Yellowstone Branch using these smartly-painted black and yellow geeps.

If perchance you find your way to the old Yellowstone branch on the way to the park, the bad news is that trains are few and far between. In the four years that I worked in the Yellowstone area, I only saw one train on the branch, running North to Ashton in the late afternoon. Over the week that I was there in 2017 I saw two trains, one coming off the branch into the yard at Idaho Falls on a Friday afternoon and one leaving Idaho Falls on a Wednesday morning. In speaking to locals in some of the towns along the way they all agreed that trains run simply as needed, with no guarantee of when or how far they will run when they do. In addition the Yellowstone Branch has two smaller branches that break off, one at Orvin on the north end of Idaho Falls going to Newdale, and the other at Ucon going towards Menan. Neither of this smaller branches parallel a road for any good measure of distance apart from where they pass through towns so photographing a train on these lines is even more difficult.

The good news is that the main branch runs almost due north, so sunlight is good almost all day, depending on whether you take Highway 20 (afternoon) or the old Yellowstone Highway (morning). The downside to the Yellowstone Highway is that it is no longer an uninterrupted road but rather appears and disappears at random every few miles, so chasing a train will require hopping back and forth between it and Highway 20 where on ramps are available. Traffic on the Yellowstone Branch consists of three main commodities: grain, potatoes and fuel oils. Tank cars, hoppers and those white Union Pacific ARMN refrigerator cars are the staple rolling stock seen. Since agricultural traffic is largely seasonal, traffic levels fluctuate through the year as harvests wax and wane.

Potato packing plants are equally as common as grain elevators on the branch, playing well with the Idaho stereotype. Cruddy, rusty ARMN reefers are used for this service.

Your tour begins at Idaho Falls, where the Eastern Idaho Railroad interchanges with Union Pacific. A few daily UP locals from Pocatello terminate there and EIRR switching traffic is fairly constant throughout the day. The best time to see the yard is in the morning from the northern end, where a parking lot and street parallel it on a bluff giving a slightly elevated view. In the afternoons you can see the other side of the yard in sun from Centre Avenue (the Union Pacific end) and Emerson Avenue (the EIRR end).

The Idaho Falls yard sees a lot of traffic as EIRR and UP trains switch local industries as well as prepare trains to head out on the Yellowstone Branch. Here the Yellowstone turn pulls out of the yard while another GP35 switches in the background and an SD24 rests near the yard office.

Between Idaho Falls and Rexburg the branch is pretty straightforward, literally. A clean straight shot north with a siding here and there for potato packers. After Rexburg the tracks get a bit more interesting, curving a bit with more sidings branching off at right angles for sawmills and fuel dealerships. However, they run at an angle through the city so there is no one road that parallels them. Following the tracks involves a zig-zag going from one block to another until the track reaches the other end. Just make sure to stop at every track because Rexburg is the only city I have been to where every single grade crossing is protected with a mandatory stop sign - it is easy to forget this when most non-gated crossings are protected only with crossbucks.

This cluster of elevators in Rexburg looks like it may be built around the old freight depot. The building closest to the tracks looks very much like an OSL standard depot.

  

While in Rexburg, be sure to stop at Smith Park near the hospital to check out the steam tractor there. It is a monster of a machine.

At St. Anthony the elevator districts start cropping up and at Ashton the tiny town is filled and surrounded with a maze of spurs, sidings and a wye servicing Elevator Row right on Main Street. Ashton is in my opinion the most interesting of the towns, being the current end-of-track and former junction with the Teton Valley Branch that ran to Victor Idaho.

Garry, Idaho is a typical example of the scenery seen along much of the Yellowstone Branch between Idaho Falls and Rexburg. A potato packer is served by a spur at this location.

 The spurs at Thornton were being reballasted during my trip.

If you wish to continue from Ashton for a bit of ghost railfanning, the grade for the old Yellowstone Branch has been reclaimed by fields. However, it turns east to parallel the Henry's Fork River until it pops out as the Yellowstone Branch Line trail at the Warm River Campground just off the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway. No roads parallel the trail for a long time but it can be hiked or biked through Island Park to West Yellowstone (more on that later). The Teton Valley Branch likewise runs far away from any parallel roads until France Idaho where it more or less parallels the road to Tetonia. The abandoned elevators along this line are as interesting as the railroad grade itself. From appearances where it crosses roads it appears that it is an open access road, but I have not been able to confirm how much is driveable.

Ashton's elevators have their own trackmobile to switch cars when an EIRR locomotive isn't around.

Regardless of whether or not you decide to search out the abandoned grades, the best part of ghost railfanning this line is at the terminus at West Yellowstone. There, the Union Pacific depot, baggage building and Union Pacific Lodge still stand, donated to the City of West Yellowstone. The depot itself is an excellent museum (entry fee $6.00) with a short bit of track relaid along the platform and a car from the Montana Centennial Train representing the once busy passenger traffic on the branch bringing tourists to the park.

Just to the east of the depot are the baggage building, now used by the West Yellowstone Police Department, and the Union Pacific Lodge. Interestingly, the linens from this huge hotel were shipped by train to Ogden Utah where the world's only railroad-owned industrial laundry facility existed. The building still stands and is part of the Utah State Railroad Museum complex although it is closed to the public due to its poor structural condition.

This little stretch of track is a definite bonus to a vacation to the park, so next time you head to the Yellowstone/Teton area be sure to look for it. Maybe you'll be lucky and get some great shots.

Links
Eastern Idaho Railroad website
Eastern Idaho Railroad on Railpictures.net (check out Russell Watson's pictures of the Yellowstone Branch)

Chasing Union Pacific 844: Ogden to Green River

 This is now the Desert Empire Project facebook banner, and for good reason - on one end we have an FEF-2, UP 833, and on the other an FEF-3, UP 844, two classic Union Pacific Northerns in preservation.

In case you haven't followed our recent articles, Jacob covered April 2017's "Boise Turn" from Pocatello Idaho to Ogden Utah in the last post; I took up the baton and followed the 844 on its return journey all the way to Green River, Wyoming. The journey began on Wednesday, April 26th while the 844 was still on display at the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden. A Union Pacific Engineer's Special was passing through over the ex-D&RGW Soldier Summit route (today's Provo Subdivision) so I had to chase it from Provo to the Red Narrows before heading north to meet up with Jacob and Schon for a Desert Empire Project party (having our four editors spread between four cities and two states means that we usually only coordinate via internet chat).

 I met Schon and Jacob near Salt Lake City so we could drive to Ogden together; waiting for them gave an opportunity to photograph UTA's Trax system.

The reason for being in Ogden on Wednesday was that I, as a director for the Golden Spike Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society (the group behind the restoration of D&RGW 223), was invited to the Steam Crew Banquet hosted by the Union Station Foundation to thank Union Pacific for bringing the 844 to Ogden. This is a tradition that stretches back decades, and in fact we have heard from several past and present Steam Team members that Ogden is their favorite place to stop because of the hospitality and friendliness. The banquet was attended by representatives of both government and rail preservation groups, including the Promontory Chapter NRHS, Golden Spike National Historic Site and Dynamic Rail Preservation.

Then it was off to bed - after confirming that the crew would be up and preparing the locomotive at 5:00 am the next morning, I knew that if I wanted to beat the crowds and get some good early-morning shots I needed to be up by 4:00. Seeing the 844 alone, yet alive, in the post-rainstorm night really set the clock back. Replace the crew's reflective jackets with normal overalls and the scene could have been any day at the Junction City in 1955. Once the sun came up the people started pouring in so I hurried to stake out a spot at 26th Street where I hoped the bulk of the crowds would not be. There I met with Mitch Harvey, who is developing a digital simulation of the entire Salt Lake and Evanston Subdivisions of the Union Pacific System for Railworks. He was my copilot and official out-the-window photographer for the trip; this was a good opportunity for him to perform field research for his project. Unfortunately, and perhaps it was because of the lack of sleep, I made several mistakes throughout the day that eventually struck me out from my plan of filming the entire trip.

After watching the 844 leave the Union Station (after minor problems with the electrical system) we raced to Peterson on the other side of Weber Canyon to catch it on the curve just before the highway bridge. I somehow messed up the settings on the video camera and overexposed the image there. It was also there that we realized the sheer magnitude of the crowds that also were chasing as I-84 became a parking lot within minutes of the locomotive passing us. Traffic was stop-and-go all the way to Emory and it was impossible to catch up. Here is an important lesson for photographers - NEVER PACE THE TRAIN ON A FREEWAY. The train was going 15 mph under the speed limit, and both lanes were trying to stay alongside, completely blocking traffic. Those idiots really made a lot of people angry (myself included) and the traffic was held up almost ten miles back until the I-80 junction where most of them jumped ship. Common courtesy is one commodity that is almost always absent from railroad related events.

Two shots of the traffic near Morgan.

Basically, the first four stops that we had carefully planned two weeks in advance were out of the question. Once past Emory the traffic cleared enough for us to arrive at Castle Rock with time to set up and wait as a westbound freight inched its way by before the 844 arrived. The canyon isn't called Echo for nothing, and the sound of the steam locomotive pounding the iron on an upgrade was incredible. Luckily the extra time there gave me the chance to find and fix the exposure problem for the remainder of the day.

This westbound freight entertained us and the dozens of other photographers perched on the edge of the bluff at Castle Rock. Spencer Peterson of UCrail.com was alongside us although we didn't recognize it until after we began posting our individual photos on our respective sites.

The Boise Turn passes the freight at Castle Rock

Then the traffic held us up again, preventing a stop at Wahsatch and forcing us to arrive in Evanston at the same time as the 844. Union Pacific shut down both east and westbound mains for the duration of the 844's half-hour stay there, effectively holding back several freights.

The Evanston yard, with both mains shut down, was flooded with people, many of whom followed the train from Utah.

Mitch and I decided to continue on to find a good spot; after much thought, some confusion, and multiple last-minute decisions, we chose a spot called Leroy, the site of a now-demolished section house. Only the trees planted by the railroad and a small dugout mark the site as having once been inhabited. It was here as well that the wind really picked up, blowing over my tripod which luckily was caught by another photographer who Mitch had met a year ago in Salt Lake City.

From Leroy it was a mad dash down a muddy dirt road to reunite with the interstate and reach Granger before the train, which luckily we did. The gentleman at Leroy advised us to run straight through Granger to the bridge just west of town, which was some of the best advice I have ever received. We had the location all to ourselves as the 844 slowed from track speed to enter the town, where it stayed for another half hour. Unfortunately I set up the tripod on a stack of ties which turned out to be very unstable and with each gust of wind pushed the camera further and further to the side.

The bridge at Granger. Note I was not on the bridge or the track but took this photo from a distance with a zoom lens.

Then on to town to find a sudden and unexpected population explosion as the little town was invaded with people who were there to see it the 844 despite strong winds and alternating hail/snow/rain/sun that hit us every five minutes or so. Granger's existence depends on the junction between the Transcontinental mainline and the ex-Oregon Short Line Pocatello subdivision to Idaho so rail traffic is heavy through there. As temperatures dropped I realized I didn't bring a jacket, so the emergency raincoat was pulled from the back of my car to improvise. Two westbound freights passed through, one of them a Herzog ballast train, while we waited, and then it was on to Green River where the real party began.

 A westbound ballast train approaches Granger

UP 844 highball Granger!

Winds kept getting stronger the further we went until they exceeded 40 mph; when we reached Green River we thought the pedestrian overpass spanning the yard would be a great place to film the train coming in, but the wind was strong enough to sway the bridge enough to cause nausea and vertigo. In addition, a long line of freights and intermodal trains were backed up in the yard so the 844 was held for hours as one westbound after another pulled out.

The 844 was held here for several hours while westbound freights poured through Green River. Dozens of people were crowded on the pedestrian overpass waiting for it to move which it never did.

 A yard job passes under the overpass. Extremely strong winds caused the bridge to sway back and forth, yet this tenacious crowd stuck to it for hours despite the 844's lack of activity during that time.

One of many freights that passed through while waiting for the 844.

After waiting for more than two hours we decided to head back to Ogden, where we caught one more freight in Echo Canyon before parting ways for the day.

This was a great chase. Upon returning to Utah, several friends remarked that we were crazy for going all the way to Green River. In a way we are, I guess. You need to be crazy to devote so much time and effort into following a steam locomotive.

You can watch the video from this trip here:

And my video from the last time UP 844 passed through Utah here:

-Josh

March "Train" Madness

March 13, 2017; the LUE46 works the Garfield Yard track while a M.O.W. train rolls by. The Garfield Smelter stands in the distance.

This month has been rather busy for myself. School, work and doing stuff with my family has kept me occupied.. While I have been able to upload to the Desert Empire Project Facebook page, I really have been putting the blog on the backburner. Furthermore, the change of seasons means that many days are so sunny that I would rather be outside chasing trains instead of inside writing about them! The change in weather is such a relief after a long winter season.

It feels like our blog posts are piling up into a massive "to do list" right now too! We are working on a trip report to the Hostler's Train Show earlier this month, and the Echofest event we had at the end of Febuary where Josh, Schon, and I all went to Echo Canyon with several other railfans for a morning of railfanning. Josh is busy working on rendering and editing film segments to form the final footage for Trackside. On top of this, Union Pacific officially announced the steam schedule for 2017 which will include Union Pacific 844 steaming through Idaho and northern Utah at the end of April! I gotta say I am rather excited for this, and hope to grab plenty of photos for use on the blog here! 

So in a way, this post is meant to be a brief "hobby recap" of the month from me, excluding the forthcoming Hostler's write up. To put it simply, the following is what has kept me busy over the last few weeks!

March 13, 2017: Opportune Railfanning at Garfield, Utah

I had a swing shift scheduled at my work later in the afternoon this day, and had to make the drive from Tooele to Salt Lake to make it to work. I left a bit early though, and had the fortune of encountering LUE46 (Warner Local) working the interchange tracks in Garfield, Utah. Garfield is one of my favorite spots to railfan, with the saline Great Salt Lake to the north, the division between the former LA&SL and WP mainlines, and the massive copper smelter forming a backdrop in the distance. While watching LUE46, a PTI crew van delivered crew to a rail train in a distant siding. There has been a lot of M.O.W work on the Lynndyl Subdivision the past few weeks, and it seemed the rail train had been part of those efforts. I waited long enough to see the rail train depart, and enjoyed the sight of four EMD engines split between the two trains.

UP 1616 (SD40N) and UP 4421 (SD70M) were the power for the LUE46 as it was working the yard tracks at Garfield.

Head shots of UP 1616 and UP 4421 reveal how weathering affects the roofs of the locomotives. I was standing on the side of a lightly trafficked bridge to get this aerial perspective of the duo of engines.

I have grown so accustomed to seeing Kennecott's ubiquitous fleet of sulfuric acid cars that I was surprised to see that there were additional reporting marks on the roof of the car! An interesting detail indeed.

Sulfuric acid is created as part of the copper smelting process at Kennecott, and shipped to distant points where it is often processed into fertilizers.

The M.O.W. train had some pleasant surprises riding on it, a DRGW hopper, and an SP two bay hopper. Classic rolling stock from two fallen flags!

The LUE46 drills the yard as the rail train pulls out of the siding.

March 18, 2017: HO Scale Railroad Operations

One of the funnest parts of the railroad hobby is getting together to operate large model railroads to emulate how real railroads run trains. I have been fortunate enough to now join two operating sessions at Gary Peterson's Salt Lake Southern model railroad. The Salt Lake Southern is a freelanced bridge route between the Western Pacific and Chicago North Western, from Utah to Wyoming in a world where neither railroad had merged into Union Pacific. It is interesting to note the Salt Lake Southern was the name of a shortlived railroad operation in Salt Lake City, although Gary's layout predated the "real" Salt Lake Southern by several years! Gary's layout was last really featured in the hobby press in the 1980's, but some recent rebuilds and the installation of DCC means his current set up is a far more evolved version than the version magazine readers might have seen back in the day... As always, I am grateful when I get to join these model railroad sessions and I always have a blast! 

The small town of "Lander" is a favorite area to switch of fellow DEP editor Schon when he visits Gary's layout, and he was switching it while I was running other trains across the aisle.

A brewery rests at the entrance of an industrial lead in "Hudson" while the mainline snakes through in the foreground.

A CNW Operation Lifesaver Special waits at the "Hudson" station, while a neighbooring locomotive has somehow managed to get itself into a grade crossing incident while resting on a spur...

Salt Lake Southern and Western Pacific power mingle together as helper units in "Hudson."

"Sego" is the Western Pacific's main yard in the fictional and miniaturized world that rests in Gary Peterson's basement.

March 14, 15, 16 and 17th; fun in Salt Lake City

While I was kept busy with work in the afternoons, I went on many early morning railfan adventures during these few days, checking out the sights in a city known as "The Crossroads of the West." From squashed chickens, to industrial parks, to gleaming streetcar lines, Salt Lake has a bit of everything!

March 14, A few rules I try to follow when shooting train photos; "Don't shoot into the sun casting shadow over the subject." "Avoid obstructions blocking the subject" "Get as close as possible to the subject." Sometimes though, those rules can't be followed, and such was the case when I was watching this duo of Utah Railway GP's switching in the Small Arms Industrial plant area alongside the Jordan River.

A closer look at this rail in the Small Arms Industrial plant near the Maverick gas station reveals an interesting detail; "ILLINOIS G IIIII 1917 USA." Yes, this piece of track has been in use for 100 years now!

March 15, After hearing from follow DEP editor Matt Liverani that he saw Salt Lake Garfield and Western DS. 10 at work the other day, I went out early in the morning to watch the engine switching the SLGW yard near the Gadsby power plant. This unit started life as a SW9 for the Union Pacific, before being rebuilt into a SW10 in 1982. It has been working at the SLGW since the turn of the century. It has recently received some touched up paint work, its red pin-striping being rather appealing. 

One of the most surprising finds as I railfanned the SLGW was seeing a few dead chickens resting inbetween the tracks. Is this a sign of "fowl play?" In truth, sacrificing chickens on railroad tracks is part of the Santaria practices originating from Latin America, and is common in places with a heavy Latin population such as Miami (so much so that modeler Lance Mindheim included a dead chicken in 1/87 scale on his Miami based layouts!) Seeing these chickens in a place such as Salt Lake, is a reminder of the increasing diverse cultural scene in the city. 

March 16th was a reminder of the ever present dominance Union Pacific has over railroading in the state of Utah. I watched a duo of older GE units pull a grain train into North Yard early in the morning.

Union Pacific's downtown track to their station and former mainline is now gone, but their presence remains. The Union Pacific station is part of the Gateway Mall complex and is visible driving westbound on South Temple from several blocks away. It is a dominating structure (much in the same way the DRGW depot is for those driving on 300 S). A bikeshare station in downtown is sponsored by UP, their familiar red and blue shield resting among green bikes, instead of the normal Armour Yellow locomotives it normally associates with!

March 17, UTA's S-Line is a single track streetcar line which runs a set of small white LRV's along the former right of way of the DRGW's Park City branch. It is an interesting case as to how a former freight line can be revitalized and incorporated into a growing modern urban area, with a large portion of the line surrounded by gardens, art displays, and a bordering trail.

Josh mentioned he thinks these white LRV units look like "albino banana slugs." I don't think I can argue with him on that! ;)

My own Railroad? Ongoing from February into March.

The visit to the Hostler's train show and to Gary Peterson's layout, along with diving into local industrial parks is part of my efforts to prepare for building myself my first model railroad. My dad and I are working on the project. It is going to based on the West Deerfield Industrial Park layout plan which was featured in Model Railroader magazine, and it has been a driving force behind some of my recent railfan excursions. 

The shelving for the model railroad shortly after installation in late February.

Insulation foam was installed on 3-25, as a subroadbed base for the layout. I left a lot of tools and boxes on the layout to keep pressure on it as the glue dries to the foam. In a twist of irony, some of the boxes I put on the settling foam as weight contain my childhood toy trains!

I've also been building up a fleet of freight cars and weathering them. This Accurail kit was one of my first experiments using pastels to weather a car, and I felt it was rather successful; other than the realization that pastels capture every fingerprint I left on the car while weathering! 

March 24, 2017; A day of Classic Standard Cab power!

My latest railfanning adventures were around Salt Lake City and Garfield. In a strange way, all the trains I was catching in motion that day were powered by classic EMD locomotives! A fun way to end a week! 

UPY 613 working the southern end of North Yard on remote controlled yard switching duty.

UP 533 arrives with loads from the Chevron Local at North Yard, crossing over the mainline tracks in reverse to reach the yard lead.

UP 1708 and 1831 lead a late running Wendover Local train through Garfield, Utah; approaching the I-80 overpass.

What seems to be an abandoned signal stands guard next to abandoned track grade in Garfield, Utah; with a Loram rail grinder resting in the distance.

Well I hope you enjoyed my little adventures around Utah the past few weeks! From model railroading, street cars, historic structures, to strange sights; it has been a blast!

-Jacob Lyman

March 19th, a westbound stacker departs from Erda, Utah; its rear DPU facing back as the train rolls into the distance.