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ROAD TRIP
DAY 2
Day 2, Tuesday, 04/10/01
Wake up at 0415 and decide to get up and see what was happening. Head to the Chevron for coffee, ice and gas. Check out CV Spur and Wildcat. Nothing going on so head for Helper Yard to listen to the sleeping T-2's. At 0515 the detector at West Helper goes off. I wonder what is coming into town. Around the corner comes the MRODV-9 with two T-2's on the point followed be a SP AC unit. They cut out the SP unit and that leaves just the two T-2's on the train.
They depart at 0615 and I head to Price to pick up Dave at 0630. He hops in the Train Chaser and I ask him if he wants to chase an east bound. I get the usual who, what, when and where. I tell him the MDRODV with all Grande power. Guess what he said?? Talk about getting lucky. If I had gotten up at 0530 we would have missed it.
Drop be the local greasy spoon in Wellington for a fast B&G and head east for the chase. We caught up with it at Cedar due to the under power on the train and wet rails. We stop at Woodside and the gates are closed. Darn. Head on down the road for a setup west of Desert where the road crosses the tracks.
Hop back in the Train Chaser and head for Green River. Normally I get off of I 70 and run through town. Not this time. Head for the west exit, pull off and head up to the bridge that crosses the tracks to set up.
Head out east again on the old Hwy. About that time the scanner goes off telling the "M" to go in the hole at Solitude for the ZRODV and the #6. Time to make tracks to get set up there. The nice adobe clay roads were just dry enough not to get stuck but wet enough to pick up mud in the tires and on the shoes if you were not careful.
There was a T-2 on the "Z" so that made Dave happy. Head on out to Sagers and Dave gets a few shots. The weather has not really been in our favor all day. The sun is hit and miss with miss most of the time. The "M" is easy to chase today. The engineer has been fighting every small hill due to lack of power. Not only that, the units were starting to over heat. A lot of the time is spent at run 8 making less that 10 MPH. I get some long shots on the way to Cisco.
We finally leave the MRODV at Cisco. There was chatter on the scanner about a meet in Ruby canyon with the MRODV and a BNSF "M". There were a few minutes to kill so ran down to the Colorado River SW of Cisco where I got this color shot. Not train related.
Get back to Cisco in time for the MDVRO to pass. All the units were yellow so decided to wait for the BNSF "M". Heard over the scanner that the MDVRO was going in the hole to let the BNSF pass down the line. Grabbed these shots at Cisco.
Time to head on down the road back to Helper. The weather is not getting better. Dave grabs a few shots as we head west on the old Hwy. By the time we get to the bypass east of Green River, it has been blowing and snowing. Decide to grab some gas in town in case we run into real bad weather. Just as we were pulling onto the bypass the scanner goes off. "Drag detector at mile post 552.2". Big change of plans.
Burn a "U" and head back east. Just around the corner the BNSF "M" that we had been chasing was stopped. The Conductor hopped off for the rollby. There was a dragging tiedown near the end of the train. The Conductor got it taken care of and checked the last of the cars. The end of the train had stopped at an old road crossing where we were parked. We hollered at the Conductor if he wanted a ride. As it was still foul weather out, he was glad for the offer. He got in touch with the Engineer to meet us at the next road crossing. Everyone was happy and it saved them a lot of time. There would be no passing of the MDVRO after this.
Got some gas in Green River and headed on down the road. On the way back it was everything from sun to snow and wind. Pulled into the Helper yard after getting a bite to eat. There we caught a west bound coal MT heading for CV Spur with a CNW unit on the point.
Headed up the hill out of Helper to see what we could find. There was a west bound Utah coal that Dave got pictures of. We decided to wait at Nolan Tunnels for the BNSF "M" and what ever else we could find. It has been a busy day.
At this time were waiting to complete the Helper Grand Slam. We had caught both "M"'s and were waiting for the ZDVRO. We didn't have to wait long.
There was only one train we had not seen today. That was the #5. It is not due in until 2030 if on time. Headed to Grogg's as the sun was setting in the west. At 2030 the #5 was on time and we watched it out of the window. It was the only one we didn't get pictures of. It is a rare day when you can chase or see all the trains that run through the area in one day and see a couple of meets between them.
It has been a long day. It has been a fun day and a lot of miles. Head for the motel, put in a 0530 wake up and crash for some well earned sleep.
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