 During the week of June 13-19, Union Pacific and Operation Lifesaver ran specials all over Colorado to
promote grade crossing safety. The first sets of these trips were scheduled for the Western
Slope, running over both the old Rio Grande mainline as well as on the North
Fork Branch from Delta eastward. The train itself consisted of UP 1989 (the
Rio Grande Heritage SD70ACe), UP E9B 963B, several UP passenger cars for the
public, and UP AC4400 7250 on the rear.
On Saturday, 13-Jun-2009, the train made three runs from Grand Junction out west to Westwater, UT, leaving the
Grand Junction depot at 0900h, 1200h, and 1500h. After the day's runs were
complete, the trainset was moved southward to Delta, CO, for Sunday's North
Fork Branch runs. Sunday's operations basically mirrored Saturday's - out
and back trips at 0900h, 1200h, and 1500h, but this time running up the
North Fork.
As the line is usually the exclusive domain of coal trains
coming out of the mines near Somerset, the chance to shoot a passenger train
was too good to pass up. So, I headed on my first real mainline railfan
trip of 2009, and what follows are the results. I caught both the final
Saturday run out of Grand Junction, as well as the first two trips between
Delta and Paonia. I decided to skip the third and final run, given
diminishing light, but there are more than enough decent shots from the
first two to cover the branch well. Enjo... (Continued)
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