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Railroads in a Giant Landscape


trisonic
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  • 2 weeks later...

The D&RGW built the 35-mile Cane Creek branch in Utah in the early 1960s - it's now operated by Union Pacific. It serves a potash mine along the Colorado River, and also moves tailings from a closed uranium mine near Moab. The branch is quite different north and south of the Bootlegger Tunnel near Moab.
 
Here is a shot of a Moab tailings train in the open spaces on the northern part of the branch:  
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=489006&nseq=8

A couple of pictures of  northbound potash trains climbing from the banks of the Colorado to enter Bootlegger Canyon, leading to the tunnel:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=526890&nseq=1
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=276308&nseq=50
 
And here is a southbound on the way to the potash mine, leaving the massive sandstone cut by which the line enters Bootlegger Canyon:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=275817&nseq=55
 
The scenery in the area is spectacular and, as you can see, dwarfs the railroad and trains. Definitely worth a visit if you're anywhere near, even if trains are not frequent.

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  • 2 weeks later...

An unusual view of the Horseshoe Curve at Altoona:

 

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=528670&nseq=0

 

That is a nice picture (as one would expect of one supplied by NS). The railfan park is on the inside of the curve in the middle of the picture. It's a nice place, but incredibly boring when there are no trains...

 

Adrian

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  • 1 month later...

Great find, pH!

 

Best, Pete.

Pete, that was the last remnant of what had been a network of CP rail barge operations in southern British Columbia. I just missed seeing it - the first time I drove through the area was in 1989. The location shown in the caption (Nelson) is wrong. It's actually on Slocan Lake, I reckon somewhere between Slocan and Silverton. There's a steam engine at the bottom of Slocan Lake - a 2-8-0 fell off one of these barges in the 1940s.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I noticed the switch at the bottom of the picture. I wonder how that works on a cable car network?

 

They are 'grip' cars (continuously moving cable with a gripper on the car), so it would seem fairly easy to release from one cable, take the switch (crossover) on gravity, and pick up the next cable. I don't think it can be used going uphill.

 

Adrian

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • RMweb Gold

Whilst not up to many of the great photos in Railpics, here is one taken of the BNFS line in Washington State from across the Columbia River at cascade Locks, Oregon. Each time I have tried to get a train with the sunlight in the correct position there hasn't been a train.

 

 

post-1557-0-99080600-1441215051_thumb.jpg

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