Some pictures of Soldier Summit
August 2013 Utah Railway and UPRR at the Summit
Note the Old Searchlight Signals - Anybody want to comment about the size of the targets on the searchlights ? Small on the left, large on the right. Was it just the choice of the company who made the signal, or does the size of the target have a reason ? Also - Note the traffic style road sign warning of the steep grade
Here are the new signals at Soldier Summit. May 2016 No train today at the summit. The signal lamps were lit but there was no train in the block. There were signal crews working at several locations. Looked like they were installing communication masts. Again, note the traffic style road sign warning of steep grade ahead.
About halfway between Soldier Summit and Helper there is a center passing track. Note the dwarf signal that controls the center track.
The bottom lamp looks yellow but it is red - see close up in following photo.
I caught a Westbound UPRR Coal drag coming out of Helper
Steve
I am suprised they replaced the 2 simple mast signals with a cantilevered signal bridge.
Must be a reason for their logic. Just West of Helper where there were 2 Full Signal Bridges across the 2 track, the UP replaced with 2 bi-directional masts. Go figure.
Here are some more pictures of Soldier Summit and Price that I took on July 11.
I stopped at Colton East of Soldier Summit. Here is a picture of the signal that controls the trains from the Scofield branch where they meet the mainline.
My guess would be Yellow/Red over lower Red. The D on the mast is for distant signal ? So - you would see Red over Red, or Yellow over Red ?
Just after I snapped this picture a westbound UP coal drag came by.
With 3 units on the head end, 3 mid-train and 1 on the rear.
I tought she would just blow on by, but slowed down then stopped with the middle of the train at the mainline cantilever signals.
Then they broke the train, the first half of the train pulled forward. Then the 3 mid-train units with 2 coal gons uncoupled and pulled ahead and through the crossover to the other mainline track. Then the forward half of the train backed up and coupled into the remainder of the train. Then the whole train continued on West towards Soldier Summit, leaving the 3 locomotives with the 2 coal gons behind.
In the above picture the lower signalhead was flashing yellow.
They uncoupled the mid-train locomotives, pulled forward, then backed up, then with the 2 coal gons went throught the crossover onto the other mainline track.
So, the rest of the train heads west, leaving the 3 Locos and 2 Gons on the other track. Then after awhile, 10-15 minutes they too took off.
Here is a view of the signals for the Eastbound traffic.
I understand the left signal has 3 lamp lower head for taking the crossover. Why does the right signal not have 2 lamp lower head for diverging onto the branchline ? Would it just be a flashing red ?
Now on to Price. I caught a loaded coal train pulling out of the loadout between Price and Wellington. 2 UP Locomotives on the head end.
6 Utah Railway Locomotives sitting on the East leg of the WYE.
6 units coupled into the middle of the train.
And 2 UP Units on the end.
And here is the clear track West of the train, heading towards Price.
Additional Pictures over Soldier Summit Aug 22, 2016
Caught a Westbound 50 car BNSF mix freight passing the signals at Kyune
Signals show Clear Track
Passing the signals at Colton
Between Colton and Soldier Summit
The signal at the Summit. Clear track ahead !
Glad to see some action there. A year ago we drove from Grand Junction to SLC and did not see anything moving.
I have made the trip from Grand Jct to Salt Lake City once a month this year. I see very few trains between Grand Junction and Price. There are a lot of empty coal trains parked on the passing tracks. Sometimes I catch the Eastbound Zephyr in GJ around 11am. I have seen the uranium tailings train unloading at Crescent Jct, but have never seen a train on the Moab Branch. Between Price and Provo I see maybe 1 or 2 trains, but there have been days I have seen none.
The UP has been upgrading the signals for years now. New signals are in place between Cisco and Price, with the heads turned, but they have been in place for 2-3 years now.
I saw the uranium tailings train being loaded just outside of Moab last month while on vacation. Quite a sight as they load it on a steep downgrade in a high narrow "shelf" along the mountain. Defintely caught my attention. I was surprised at the quality of the Moab branch's track and roadbed given the small amount of traffic it carries.
alphas I saw the uranium tailings train being loaded just outside of Moab last month while on vacation. Quite a sight as they load it on a steep downgrade in a high narrow "shelf" along the mountain. Defintely caught my attention. I was surprised at the quality of the Moab branch's track and roadbed given the small amount of traffic it carries.
I think the railroads, at least the UP from what I see have invested a lot in track work on branch lines. The Scofield Branch looks to be highly maintained with welded rail. Where I live, the North Fork Branch up to the Mines in Somerset is a very well maintained track, all welded rail. I suppose that one train de-railment can cost a lot of money, so put the money into prevention. We used to have 2 trains a day, now we are down to 2-3 trains a week. The Montrose Branch which gets one mixed freight a week is old track with minimal maintaince, Bolted Rail. You can still find ties with no tie plates. The train runs with 2 GP-38 and about 15-20 cars at slow speed, 10 mph.
Speaking of UP branch lines, are the southbound line from Hazen NV and the east bound branch from Hazen to Fallon still in operation? I had family living in Fernley while my son-in-law was flying out of Fallon about 10 years ago. I often saw the local freight from Hazen to Fallon going about 10 mph and the cars rocking so much I thought they should be limited to about 5 mph. And in all my trips to NV over a 3 year time span I think I only saw one freight headed south from Hazen although the track at that time looked a lot better maintained than the Fallon branch.
The branch south of Hazen toward Hawthorne (basicly the old C&C) serves a large military ordinance depot, so I would hope it has good track.
MidlandMikeThe branch south of Hazen toward Hawthorne (basicly the old C&C) serves a large military ordinance depot, so I would hope it has good track.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Great pictures, Steve, but that's not Soldier Summit; Soldier Summit has L-125 Mallets and friends patrolling the D&RGW.
But seriously, the only difference I know of between large and small targets on searchlight signals is a matter of age and railroad preference. I've noticed that newer searchlight signals seem to have smaller targets. As you might guess, I prefer the larger targets; they look right to me.
ChuckAllen, TX
Great bunch of photos and thanks for sharing.
Then you are going there on the wrong days. The Moab local only goes from Crescent Junction to Moab on Sunday. The uranium train goes down the Moab Branch everyday. Most of the action on the Rio Grande is the late evening early morning if you want to see action go to Soldier Summit early evening most of the trains you will see here are Union Pacific and BNSF freights, coal trains mostly Union Pacific, the Utah Railway Oil Train, the dirt train, and the BNSF local taking cars from Martin to Provo or from Martin and Provo to Grand Junction. Number 5 does not arrive on Soldier Summit until after 11:00PM Amtrak 6 does not arrive on Soldier Summit until early morning and most the time is always late. There is always a scheduled maintenance stop at Salt Lake this is why Amtrak 6 is always late. Amtrak 6 uses the Frontrunner tracks from Salt Lake all the way to Provo and then crosses over to the north track to use its station. If Amtrak reinstates the Desert Wind Zephyr will move to the Provo Transportation Center instead of using the old Rio Grande Depot on the north side of the tracks because that one is not wheelchair accessible and if Amtrak wants to reinstate the Desert Wind or allow passengers to get off at Provo they need to move the train to the Provo Transportation Center because that's station has wheelchair accessible platforms.
February Utah Rail did their last run. After 142 years of lugging coal over Soldier Summit Utah Rail has called it quits. All of the mines in Utah are now closed except for Skyline and the Wellington Prep Plant. Utah Rail now hauls oil out of Wellington and also out of Wildcat. Peabody Corporation may be bankrupt but Chevron is not bankrupt they are now Utah Rails main customer. Utah has two of the largest oil fields and both of them are in Carbon County. Since they are still working on a pipeline from Vernal to Price oil is brought from northern Utah by truck to the Wilmington prep plant and loaded into tank cars. Oil from the Wildcat area is loaded into tank cars rides at the old coal loader. All of the oil trains on Soldier Summit are made up at Martin Yard and then they are taken down to Provo where BNSF takes them to Grand Junction or to the Chevron Refinery in Salt Lake.
geomodelrailroader ... All of the oil trains on Soldier Summit are made up at Martin Yard and then they are taken down to Provo where BNSF takes them to Grand Junction or to the Chevron Refinery in Salt Lake.
... All of the oil trains on Soldier Summit are made up at Martin Yard and then they are taken down to Provo where BNSF takes them to Grand Junction or to the Chevron Refinery in Salt Lake.
Do you mean to say that oil trains are hauled from Martin westbound over Soldier Summit to Provo, and then BNSF hauls them eastbound, back over Soldier Summit, past Martin to Grand Junction?
Is Utah Railway using SD70M's?
No, but they do have a few MK5000Cs rebuilt to SD50 specifications that retain their unique M-K wide cab. Four recently went to KYLE, which should leave two on the UTAH.
all of them were sold to Kyle they still have the SD50s
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