Took an extra day off work last week after coming back from vacation to see some local action here in Denver. This was my first time railfanning and I had a blast! I really enjoyed watching the crews pull cars and swap them and got a good understanding of just how slow and long the process takes. There are a bunch more photos on my photobucket site if you enjoy these.
http://s1151.photobucket.com/user/dmidkiff/library/Denver%20Railfanning%2020140922?sort=3&page=1Myself and a buddy starting early in the morning and drove up to the industrial area just north of I-70. The first stop was near the old stockyards to try and find the shops for the Denver and Rock Island shortline. We got there about 9am and watched the engineer and mechanic prep a single SW1500 for the days work. The conductor came out and hassled us for a few minutes, but we introduced ourselves and told him we were there to watch, so he lightened up and told us just to stay off the tracks. They finally rolled the locomotive north at 10am to grab the first cut of cars.
Sitting at the shops at the Stockyards.
Pulling the first string of cars south, there were a few hoppers in this cut that they started their day with.
Switching hoppers, we watched them here for about an hour pull 4 cars and spot 6, not sure what was in them or what the industry was.
It was then off to lunch and we decided to try and hit another DRIR yard, Silver Yard, which is a transload facility. As we wandered up the street to the entrance of the facility we saw a brakeman unlocking the gate with a train ready to push out. We followed this short train around a few streets and found where they were actually switching some industries. We hung out there for a couple of hours watching them pull boxcars and centerbeams, push them up the hill, and bring back down loaded cars.
Pushing out of Silver Yard.
Switching at two local industries. A lady came out from the building behind us concerned that we were standing around for so long watching trains.
It was incredible to see how tight the switch was into the drywall supply.
After we watched the DRIR crew finish those two industries, we headed to the other side of I-70 to try and catch a UP local that my buddy really wanted to see. As luck would have it, the first grade crossing we came to on the other side of I-70 had the exact train we were looking for. The crew was busy switching out chemical tank cars and would not let anybody cross, there were some upset folks, but we were happy to have front row seats to watch for about 20 minutes. We caught the crew at the next crossing and they had just set out the tanks and were running light to the next industry. We decided to go one more block and found a nice parking lot and open field to watch them again, this time pulling a long string of boxcars.
Pulling a string of boxcars. My buddy said that 1211 is a rare GP39-2, so he was excited to get photos from all sides.
Looking back towards the area where we first saw this crew switching the tank cars.
Doug
