June 20, 1999

Joel, Pete and I hiked up to Tunnel 1 on the Moffat line today. We sat there for over three hours without seeing anything or hearing any activity over the scanner. Primarily we were waiting to catch Amtrak as it was heading West out of Denver. It turned out later that a freight train derailment on the system east of Denver likely caused Amtrak to never make it to Denver today. But I caught a couple of interesting items:

Tunnel One

This is the curve in Clear Creek Canyon that goes over Highway 72. As you can see the curve is just a little sharp. Just this side of the signals was a detector of some type. (Click on picture for a larger view).

Some kind of detector, best guess is a dragging equipment detector. For better views Click on picture.

The rail on the curve over Highway 72 in Clear Creek Canyon was badly worn. In the picture above the railhead side should be nearly vertical. The two arrows point to the top and bottom edges of the railhead, the slope if nearly a half inch. Note all the metal filings. (Click on picture for a larger view).

The rail is literally coming apart. That is a piece of the rail laying on the ties. (Click on picture for a larger view).

Interesting and easy scene to model. Five gallon metal drums of spikes and burlap bags of rail clips. (Click on picture for a larger view).

Speed Limit sign, 28mph for Passenger, 25 for freight. As if any freight is going to do 25 up the 2% grade here. (Click on picture for a larger view).

A flange greaser. For more pictures click on the picture above.