Some time ago, after my wife (of 45 years) died, I decided that I would like to ride the “California Zephyr” West from Denver, through the “Moffat Tunnel”, on West to somewhere, then lay over and ride it back the next day, and do it in the fall, when the Aspens were in their fall colors. Well, late this summer, I decided, “This is the year”! So, I started making plans to do so. Well, when my brother-in-law, who lives in Springfield, Mo, heard of my plans, he ask if it would be OK if he went with me. Of course, I told him that I would love to have him along. So, on Oct. 8th, he drove to my place in Ottawa, Ks, and we left about 3PM, for Hastings, Neb. I had driven through Hastings several years ago, (On a trip to chase UP trains through Neb. on their triple mainline, you are usually passing a train, or, looking ahead, or behind, can see a headlight of one coming, of course, you can see each way for several miles, but that is another story), and checked out the depot, that they have a parking area where you can leave your car in while you are on your trip. I was just planning ahead a little. I did not find that feature in Lincoln, Neb, which would have been a little shorter drive for me.
Well, the CZ was due into Hastings at 1:47 AM, but, of course, was about 1 hour late. So we went through Denver, up through, isn’t it called the ten curves on the East slopes of the Rockies,to gain elevation, through the 6.2 mile Moffat Tunnel, and down the West slope, to Glenwood Springs, Colo. I had reserved a motel there, that was 3-4 blocks (walking distance) from the depot. We stayed there overnight, then caught the East bound CZ, (which was on time, at that point), back East.
We lost some time over the mountains, meeting and passing trains, it is a very busy single track, especially since UP closed the line through Tennessee pass, Salida, the Royal Gorge, and on to Pueblo. A lot of coal trains. Then at Denver, they were removing one of the 3 diesel units, and while re-hooking-up, couldn’t complete the air brake test, so we lost another hour while they worked on the problem! So, we got back to Hastings, about 2 hours late, early on the morning of Thursday, Oct. 11th.
A few comments about the trip, and the pictures, if I can remember which pictures I included. The conductor was on the train intercom quiet a bit over the mountains, with interesting pieces of information, and things to look for. On the East slope, we went through 27 tunnels in 31 miles, before we reached the 6.2 mile Moffat Tunnel, which took about 10 minutes to go through. He requested that no one move from one car to another, ie, don’t open a door, to keep Diesel exhaust out of the cars.
We went through a total of 42 (I think it was) tunnels. I got a picture, (1, I think it was, I was also filming with a digital movie camera) of the canyon just East of Glenwood Springs, called Glenwood Springs Canyon. The RR runs on one side or the Colorado River, and when they put I-70 on the other side, they had to double stack the East bound, and the West bound lanes, into the mountain, and in that area, (I don’t remember that the conductor said how many miles it was), it cost
27 million dollars a mile, to build! One of the most, if not the most expensive roads ever built in the US of A. Also, the picture of the 1 loaded coal train, on the left, and the empty one on the right at the GS’s depot, the loaded one pulled out, away from us,(you are looking to the East,) and had pulled into another siding, a little ways further East. We passed it just a ways out of GS’s.
An interesting sidelight, somewhere still on the Western slope, we pulled into a siding to meet the Westbound CZ, and the conductor said over the intercom that we had pulled into a siding behind a coal train to meet the Westbound CZ, and that after it passed, we would back up, back on to the main line and continue East. Well,we pulled into the siding, in a little while the Westbound CZ came by, an in a couple of minutes, we started backing back onto the mainline. This old guy sitting across from me (in the observation car) looked up, and around, and looked at me, and said, “Are we backing up”? I guess he had not heard the announcement. So I explained to him what was going on. That, in part, could explain why we were some late getting into Denver, when we were on time at GS’s.
The picture of the train coming in was at Glenwood Springs. They do not allow smoking in any of the cars, but they do stop every 3 or so hours for 5-10 minutes, so smokers can get off for a smoke break.. (I do not smoke.) I thought that was thoughtful of them, to accommodate those who do, since they can’t smoke in the cars. On the big picture I took of the train, I walked up to the front and took it on our smoke break at the Fraser-Woodland Park stop, just at the West entrance to the Moffat tunnel.
Some observations; the Railroads did a good job of scheduling the train so the most scenic parts are in the daylight hours, and the less scenic (like Nebraska and Eastern Colo.) are run at night. They smoked along at a pretty good clip at night on the flats, but didn’t go too fast through the mountains, so we could see a lot of the scenery. Of course, that could be a safety factor, also, as a runaway passenger train in the mountains wouldn’t be the best thing to explain. I didn’t know what to expect concerning taking pictures, as I had heard some horror stories of RR and other police confiscating cameras, etc, but my brother-in-law and I both were taking moving and still pictures, as were several others, and were never bothered by anyone. The train crew was friendly, and proficient. The other passengers, for the most part, were friendly. My brother-in-law, who has done a lot of camping, said that they reminded him of a bunch of camper people. Sure different than my experiences flying. My one complaint, when I first started contacting Amtrak about the trip, the round trip fair was around $135, but when I went to purchase the tickets, I paid $208.50 per ticket! I doubt if I will ever take the trip again, (You know, been there, did that) but I would recommend it to others that might be thanking about it. The California Zephyr leaves out of Chicago, that is just “Up the track” a ways from you.
Boy, didn’t know I would be writing a volume when I started, but it just kept coming, so I just kept writing.
Now, to the second set of pictures, and I’ll try to not be as long on them, the following Monday, a friend called me about 7:15 AM, and told me that he had seen on a Kansas City TV channel, that a “Steam engine” would be pulling into Paola, Kansas, about 8:30 AM. Well, Paola is about 30 miles East of where I live, so I grabbed my camera, and headed East. Back in “The good old days”, Frisco, Missouri Pacific, and MK&T all ran through Paola. Of course, now, just BNSF and UP run through.
Well, I got there about 8:15, and I guess a lot of people had seen the report, or, had friends, who had called them. There must have been a good 200 people there. Of course, the train was, like, 45 minutes late, but I doubt if anyone left. It finally rolled in, and stopped, and some crew members got off, and oiled around some, and did some other maintenance work. As you can see, in the pictures, it was No.844, and it had a Diesel helper. It pulled down to a crossover track, and had to wait a few minutes for another train that had gone through, to clear, so they could get a green signal. It headed on South, down the old MK&T tracks, possibly through Okla, an on to Texas, possibly to Dallas/Fort Worth area.
