Railsightings.com as a railfanning tool

 I have at least four planned posts that cover some interesting current events in Utah's railroads, but I am putting them off in favor of this topic. an acquaintance recommended railsightings.com (please note I am not affiliated with this website in any way) as a way to keep track of locomotives, so I looked into it and found that this website, which is meant as a database to track the movement of locomotives and trains, is a powerful tool for both railfans and historians. Since I have a strange love for data (strange in that I despise the careers that normally deal with large amounts of data), I was excited to discover that the website analyzes all of the sighting submissions and breaks them down into different categories: city, rail location, train symbol, train type, and locomotives. Clicking on any of these categories brings up a page full of charts, diagrams, numbers and maps that show traffic levels throughout the day, through the week, division of train types at a specific location, etc. It is a gold mine of information.

This is an example of railsightings.com's location breakdown, in this case for Provo, Utah. The only drawback to this is a lack of sufficient data, since only 8 trains have been reported in the last year.

 

However, the problem is that very few people are using it. It is a bit tedious to enter all of the pertinent information about a train, and the majority of users appear to live east of the Mississippi and there are only two of us (including me) in Utah, so there isn't much data that pertains to me, and if there is data, it isn't enough to make a conclusion from. I'd like to fix that though. (EDIT: since publishing this article, the number of Utah users has risen to five)


There are a few drawbacks to the site, however. First, there is no option for multiple locations on a single train. This is unfortunate for somebody like me who often chases trains through three or four towns (the LUL57 local, for example, which I usually follow from Provo to Spanish Fork). Thus, the data for that train is only registered to a single location rather than to all of the locations that I know it passed through; thus, while the LUL57 always originates and terminates at Provo, there are five entries so far for it but only one is actually registered for Provo. I could submit a sighting form for every location that I saw the train at, but that, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, is tedious.

These two pictures show the same train, the CPFSR, in two different towns on the same day, the top on in Provo and the other in Sringville. One of the major drawbacks to the railsightings.com submission process is that only one location can be added to a train sighting, which makes accurate submission of data difficult.

Second, the selection of locomotive models is rather limited, and there is no way to enter a new model. GE locomotives are rather sparse and I have found five instances so far in uploading sightings where the model of locomotive that I photographed is not included in railsightings' list, which makes it impossible to categorize properly. However, I contacted the railsightings.com staff and they responded very quickly with some feedback. They asked that any locomotive or location submissions can be emailed to them, and it will be added by their development staff. My requests were added within ten minutes of sending the email.

Despite these drawbacks, it will be fascinating to see who the database expands as time goes on, so we can see how trains move and collect more information about locations. I highly recommend that everybody make an account (and again, I repeat the disclaimer that I am not affiliated with this website in any way).

-Josh

Beyond Echo Canyon: A Look at a Few of Utah's Lesser Known Railfan Sites

The beauty of the Evanston Subdivision through Echo and Weber Canyons is world renowned in the railfan community (as evidenced in this scenic photo taken at Henefer, Utah). However, Utah offers a wide variety of railfan opportunities which often go unnoticed by many railfans who come from out of state.

Kamblach Publishing's Hot Spots Guidebook: Great Places to Watch Trains (2012), is shockingly sparse in its coverage of the Beehive State. Utah's sole entry is focused on the Union Pacific Evanston Subdivision which passes through Weber and Echo Canyon's. Trains Magazine has also published some info on Soldier Summit, and an article about downtown Salt Lake City written by local railfan James Belmont; yet neither of those two articles made it into the Hot Spots Guidebook. The evidence seems to suggest the railroading world has a fixation on the Evanston Subdivision; the beautiful scenery and frequency of trains has made it a magnet for railfans who visit Utah. The route's history as part of the original Transcontinental Railroad and its later dominion by Big Boys, Gas Turbines, and DDA40X's has made the location famous. 

The truth is, this focus on Echo Canyon has meant many visiting out of state railfans are missing out on some of the best locations to railfan in Utah. Some of the greatest locations are known only to 'the locals' and not well published in the hobby press. This is my list of a few of my favorite under represented locations that are mostly visited by local railfans; and could deserve a little bit more love from the rest of the railroading world. This is not a comprehensive list, but a few locations that I consider to be some of my favorite locations that aren't well visited.

North Yard - Salt Lake City

September 2, 2016; the area around North Yard is easily accessible, and has almost constant railroad action. Pictured here is the Union Pacific 1995, the Chicago Northwestern Heritage Unit on point of the KG1CI-31 stack train as it departs from the yard at Control Point 784. The track in the foreground is the right of way for the UTA Frontrunner commuter train.

September 10, 2016; two GP60 units at rest on the northern end of North Yard.

September 24, 2016; an example of visiting power from another railroad at North Yard. This Canadian Pacific unit came into the yard as the DPU on a manifest freight from Hinkle, Oregon.

With constant movement, this busy Union Pacific yard in Salt Lake City offers plenty of action for a visiting railfan. Perhaps what makes this yard enticing to photograph is the fact both ends of the yard are easily viewed from public roads. The three mainlines are in the front of the action, and an observer can often watch mainline trains getting a crew change. One or two yard switchers are in constant motion on the opposing ends of the yard. Even when Union Pacific traffic is low, the UTA Frontrunner passes through the area with two trains every hour from Monday to Saturday. UTA's Warm Springs Shops are on the far east end of the yard inside a former UP diesel shop. A lucky visitor might be able to spot a Utah Railway train passing by the yard on route to industries upline.

From personal experience I have had a lot of unique catches here at North Yard; from military trains, foreign units, heritage units, and unique switchers. The great visibility of the yard from the road makes it a great place to train-spot!

July 8, 2016; the 'essential' view of north yard is that seen on the Frontage Road, facing south-east; where the rail yard is backdropped by the stunning vista of downtown Salt Lake City in the shadows of the mighty Wasatch Mountains.

The Shaffter Subdivision 

August 3, 2016; if one word could define the Shaffter Subdivision it would probably be 'desolation.' This barren landscape makes an interesting backdrop, as seen here with this light power move near Aragonite, Utah. 

This former Western Pacific mainline might not see a lot of through trains, but industrial switching and local freight action is almost constant on the weekdays. Prosperous salt producing industries, a magnesium plant, a waste incinerator, and a low level nuclear waste dump; all demand rail traffic. The copper mines near Ely, Nevada, (home of the famed Nevada Northern Railway) ship their copper ores to a rail loading facility in Wendover, Utah; where trains take them over the line to the famed Garfield Smelter. When a through train does arrive, the desolate scenery is unique. Few photographers venture out here, and those that dare the trip find stark desert scenery which helps to cement the unique history of this line. If timing works out, a visiting railfan might also get to witness the occasional BNSF train or the Amtrak California Zephyr.

The local industries house a lot of strange locomotives and other pieces of railroading equipment. Broken Arrow's salt plant is home to two Baldwin RS-4-TC units used in active switching, and houses two ALCO units in storage. The ore loading facility in Wendover is home to an ex Canadian National GMD-1, a strange sight to see in the sun-baked desert.

May 15, 2016; This local train near Garfield, Utah; reveals the hidden strength of the Shaffter Subdivision, its myriad of busy industries. The desolate desert is home to a variety of industries that keep demand for local train service high. Stauffer Yard (formerly known as Burmester Yard) is the hub of local train activity.

June 15, 2016; with the right timing a railfan can capture BNSF or Amtrak trains along the Shaffter Subdivision. This photograph shows a California Zephyr which had been delayed while crossing Soldier Summit. Now several hours behind schedule, the train has finally reached the start of the Shaffter Subdivision. In the background is the Rio Tinto/Kennecott Garfield Copper Smelter.

Brigham City, the Ogden Subdivision, and the Malad Branch

May 3, 2016; The Central Pacific depot which still stands in Corrine alongside the Malad Branch.

I have talked previously about the Cache Valley Branch on this blog, and with it I mentioned that Brigham City hosts the departure point for local trains on that line. In fact, Brigham City also hosts the operations of yet another branchline, the Malad Branch. The Malad Branch passes through territory that first saw rails as part of the construction of the first Transcontinental Railroad. The city of Corrine, Utah, was one of the last "Hell on Wheels" towns built alongside the railroad. The wild west image of the city has been replaced by the tranquility of rural Utah, but a quick look reveals many artifacts that remain including a rare Central Pacific built train depot still standing near the tracks. A short distance from Corrine is the Promontory Summit Historic Site. Those who are willing to follow the Malad Branch north will enter former Oregon Shortline Territory, which now includes Nucor Steel; a large processor of scrap metals. Local trains on the branch are nearly a daily occurrence, as Nucor Steel demands a constant supply of scrap metal.

Also near Brigham City is the Ogden Subdivision. This route from Pocatello, Idaho, to Ogden, Utah, is not heavily trafficked, often only hosting one, two, or three through trains a day. Yet for those willing to railfan the Ogden Subdivision, they will discover beautiful scenery dotting the line all the way from Brigham City to Pocatello. North of Brigham City is Wheelon, a siding on the Ogden Subdivision that overlooks the stunning Cutler Dam. Further north is Red Rock Pass, a beautiful scenic location in southern Idaho which marks were Lake Bonneville drained into the ocean thousands of years ago.

May 3, 2016; the history of the Malad Branch is more than just that of the Transcontinental Railroad and the Oregon Shortline; it also encompasses the history of NASA and space travel. This facility owned by ATK, is used to load Solid Rocket Booster segments into railcars for transport from Utah to Cape Canaveral in Florida. The rocket motors hauled in these cars would be assembled in Florida and used on the Space Shuttle. With the Space Shuttle's currently mothballed, this facility is not in use; although current NASA designs for the next generation of space vehicles suggest that these rockets will soon be in use again.

June 22, 2016; the Malad Local passing through Corrine. The train often hauls scrap metal for Nucor Steel and grain cars for local grain silos.

The former Oregon Shortline/Union Pacific railroad depot in Brigham City is now home to a musuem on area history. To the north of the depot is the Brigham City railyard which is the hub of operations for the Malad and Cache Valley locals.

"The Cut" - Erda 

April 16, 2016: The frequent stack trains which pass through "The Cut" are one of the area's defining railfan opportunities. The ports in Southern California produce stack train traffic, which is then shipped over to points on the eastern edge of the UP system. 

The Lynndyl Subdivision might as well be the railfan definition of "local favorite." The scenery is a stark sage brush desert passing through sparsely populated desert valleys which house a lot of military and mining history. Once near Tooele, Utah, the scenery slowly begins to urbanize as the rails make their final approach into Salt Lake City. "The Cut" is a bluff overlooking the Lynndyl Subdivision at Erda, Utah, offering views of the Great Salt Lake to the north, and the Tooele area to the south. The traffic in the area mostly consists of intermodal freight which travels from the ports of Los Angeles and its surrounding area, and towards intermodal yards back east. On slow days the train traffic might only be a handful of locals and manifests, while a busy day could see a train every half hour. The site is easily accessible by a short drive from Salt Lake City.

April 16, 2016: The MWCNP, after a meet at Erda Siding, is finally moving through "The Cut" in this photograph. This train was rather popular among railfans that day, in particular due to the presence of SP 343 on it. Schon Norris's post from a few days ago explains a bit more about this train:

April 16, 2016: the KG1CI-14 passing through "The Cut" heading south.

August 9, 2016; the PRORO2 09 a passenger special ran for Operation Lifesaver approaches "The Cut" on an early morning run. 

May 21, 2013; The LUE 46 aka "The Warner Local" or "The Tooele Local" is seen here at "The Cut." The lead unit is UP 1684 trailed by UP 1616. UP 1684 (numbered as UP 1896) was once one of the two SD40-2 locomotives dressed up in special paint for the Atlanta Georgia Olympic Games.

I hope you enjoyed this brief look at some of the less famous railfan sites in Utah! While this list isn't comprehensive, I hope it is enough encouragement to entice railfans to go and visit places other than the most famous ones.

-Jacob Lyman

Note:

I am sure as we continue to post in this blog we will be referring to trains using their symbols (such as the MWCNP or the LUE46). For those unfamiliar with the train symbol system used by the Union Pacific; I highly recommend visiting Spencer Peterson's UC Rail page which has a wonderful resource of current train symbols. These symbols are a great way to understand rail traffic movements through out Utah and the surrounding states.

Notes from an outsider...

Being a relative newcomer to the Utah rail scene, I haven't got a lot to offer in the way of insight or retrospect on the way things used to be.  I can however, provide a glimpse into the present through the lens of a traveler from the great state of Nevada.  I neither claim to know what is what nor do I want to step on any toes by providing misinformation, so my first post to this blog will simply be a photo presentation of my last several trips to the Salt Lake City region of the Beehive State.


First, a little background on my visits to Utah.  About a year ago, I first visited the University of Utah Clinical Neurosciences Center to determine a cause and course of treatment for an issue I was dealing with.  On my first several visits, I strictly came into town, visited the clinic, stayed overnight, shopped at Sam's Club and/or Walmart then left.  I neither had the time or the knowledge to really railfan the area.  Or so I thought.  Then February rolled around and I had surgery to fix the issue we had pinpointed.  I knew that I would be visiting the area guaranteed for the next two years for follow-ups so I invested in a better digital camera and began to plan my trips around my appointments and whatever railfan time I could get in.  I arranged to meet with Chris Fussell and James Belmont, both of whom welcomed me with open arms and showed me some of the easier popular locations within Salt Lake City proper to shoot trains.  Since then, I have returned to Ogden after an 11 year absence and have also visited Echo, which I definitely plan to return to in the future.  What follows is a selection of my photos from these locations.  In the future I hope to be able to provide a more in-depth look at my photos as I gain more knowledge of operations in the Utah arena.




Roper Yard.  May 24, 2016



North Yard.  May 24, 2016



With James Belmont, south end of North Yard.  May 24, 2016



South end of North Yard.  August 1, 2016



South end of North Yard.  August 1, 2016



North Yard.  August 1, 2016



A friendly wave at North Yard.  August 1, 2016



Lease unit on the Chevron Local at North Yard.  August 1, 2016



Ex-CN GMD-1 at Wendover, UT.  August 3, 2016



Parked grain train at Wendover, UT.  August 3, 2016



Chris Fussell working on ex-Amtrak 644 at Ogden Union Station.  September 5, 2016



Ex-Amtrak 231 at Ogden Union Station.  September 5, 2016



Motive power on display at Ogden Union Station.  September 5, 2016



UP local just south of the Kennecott smelter.  September 6, 2016



Captain Jack at Peterson Industrial Depot, Tooele, UT.  September 6, 2016



The other locomotive at Peterson Industrial Depot, Tooele, UT.  September 6, 2016



Original Western Pacific hopper westbound at Echo, UT.  September 28, 2016



Westbound freight train at Croydon, UT.  September 28, 2016



Four bridges over one river at Croydon.  September 28, 2016



My friend Bradley Ogden, who accompanied me to Echo.  September 28, 2016



Ex-Kennecott high cab GP39 at the Kennecott smelter.  September 28, 2016

Making History on the Nevada Northern Railway

History books claim that the last letter to be cancelled in a Railway Post Office was on September 30, 1978. After that, all mail was moved by truck and plane and the railroad contracts cancelled. Today, RPO postmarks are valuable among collectors, within and without railway circles.

But wait, what is this? This letter was postmarked September 3, 2016...in an RPO car! So are the books wrong?

Sort of. The Nevada Northern is known for the high quality of its preservation and interpretation efforts, and partnering with the U.S. Postal Service, opens RPO-baggage car number 20 as a functioning Railway Post Office. Postal employees set up their equipment and process letters that can be sent out or kept as souvenirs. The car didn't move the last time this took place this year's Labor Day weekend, so mail wasn't technically shipped by rail, but it was an actual RPO cancellation performed by the Postal Service in an RPO car.

Conductor and brakeman shoot the breeze next to the soon-to-depart Steptoe Valley Flyer, which uses the original wood-frame coach and RPO-baggage combination car from the early days of the railroad. Just inside the half-open RPO door can be seen the Postal Service employee working the cancellation seal.

This was only a small part of the events of Labor Day Weekend. In addition to the normally scheduled trains, Nevada Northern number 40 was rented as part of their "engineer for a day" program, vintage vehicles were displayed in the parking lot, and on Sunday the steam crane, Wrecker "A", was demonstrated to an enthralled crowd that included several European tourists. This was the sole reason why I packed my car on Friday on a whim and drove out to Ely on Highway 50, the loneliest road in America, with practically no planning. Work schedules had changed, freeing up the weekend, and at the last minute I found out about the crane and had to go.

Lonely? That's an understatement. This was the view that greeted me after an hour of driving since the last exit with services and another hour ahead of me to the next.

First night was spent camped just off the road south of Lynndyl, Utah, on the Union Pacific's Sharp Subdivision. Dozens of trains pass on this track between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City at night, so I only got a few hours of fitful sleep between the departure of the LUL58 from the Intermountain Power plant nearby and the passing of fast intermodal stack trains. The next morning, forgetting the existence of time zones, I arrived in Ely in time to catch and chase an early-morning light run of locomotive 40 to the Keystone mine and back. The bad news: my first battery died five minutes into the chase, and I didn't take my charger.

Steel paths, converging at the sunrise. The Lynndyl Subdivision was built as the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad ("the Arrowhead Route"). A few miles to the north it converges with the Sharp Sub, a remnant of the Utah Southern Railroad that later merged with the Oregon Short Line.

The number 40 emerges from the tunnel on her way back to Ely. The locomotive ran light from Ely to Keystone Wye as part of the NN's "engineer for the day" locomotive rental.

I spent the remainder of Saturday and Sunday trying to conserve battery to be able to film the crane demonstration. Luckily it worked out, but it was stressful watching that blinking battery icon Sunday morning. Regardless, a tour of the enginehouse was in line, I met the roundhouse cat affectionately named Dirt (ever self-respecting engine facility needs a cat, even Golden Spike National Historic Site has one!), saw the other Alco under restoration (rumored to be operational this December) and inquired about the replica 1960s hirailer that the railroad is building (it was in Reno stripped down to the frame). Then to get my envelope stamped; Mark Bassett, the railroad's director, was in line with me with an armful of papers, postcards and letters to be cancelled in the car.

This old mail truck is usually stored out of sight, but was displayed at the depot to represent the transfer of mail from Cobre (the Southern Pacific interchange) and Shafter (the Western Pacific interchange) from train to truck to be delivered in town. After the RPO left on the Steptoe Valley Flyer the truck was put away again.

The Steptoe Valley Flyer turning on the wye at Keystone. The stark beauty of this empty high-desert environment makes the perfect backdrop for the historic train.

 

After chasing the Steptoe Valley Flyer, night two was spent at Garnet Hill, in the mountains between Ely and Keystone. I wasn't able to find any garnet despite what the tourist guide I picked up in Ely told me, but it did offer an excellent view of the Keystone mine. Then, driving into Ely early in the morning, I watched the first train of the day head out, then set up to record the crane while one of the NN's two Alco diesels rambled around the yard. To add to the wonderful historical ambience, the 40 wandered around a bit too making up the afternoon train, its whistling and chuffing making the Nevada Northern a true immersive experience (it helped that I happened to be wearing my 1915 getup; every once in a while it's necessary to railfan in style, especially when style means a vest and bowler hat).

The crane itself was surprisingly quiet. Boiling water doesn't make much noise, and without a constantly idling internal combustion engine, the machine only made noise when moving, and even then not very much. It was loudest when raising and lowering the boom. Wrecker A was built by Industrial Works in 1907 as construction number 1789. Steam is provided by a vertical boiler situated to the rear of the cab, which in itself acts as part of the counterweight. I have often looked at the nearly identical crane on display at the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden (120-tons, construction number 2125) and wondered what it would have sounded like in operation. Now I know!

Long story short, I got my video, 16 of the 35 minutes that I watched the crane before heading out to make it back home before nightfall. The railway put on a show, the staff was friendly, and I was already planning my next trip before I even left Ely city limits Sunday afternoon. A few years ago the railroad had a publicity campaign announcing that "This Place Matters," and they were right.