Westbound California Zephyr climbs up Big Ten Curves and through Tunnels 1 through 18
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2017
- Amtrak train 5 makes the climb up Big Ten Curves, through Tunnels 1 & 2 before passing through Rainbow Cut, and continues all the way up past Tunnel 18.
Brad The Conductor gives more narrative throughout this stretch of the trip. He is also the Conductor behind the popular Winter Park Express.
Just did this for our. 50th. What a wonderful time we had. Great sights.
Rare glimpse at this line, as most of it cannot be accessed with any roads. Awesome ride. Thank you for sharing.
4:27 you'll notice off to the left in the picture a line of ore cars full of rock and dirt next to the mainline.
Beginning in 1970 I worked for the D&RG RR on a Signal Gang. The Big 10 curve was notorious for causing derailments due to hurricane velocity 100 mph + winds coming out of the mouth of Coal Creek Canyon. In fact the winds there are so powerful they can actually blow over a loaded freight train. Our Signal gang was called in to a wreck on the Big 10 curve late one afternoon in about 1972. It was a massive wreck and one of the biggest derailments I went to in my years with the D&RG. It was an east bound train hauling over 100 new cars (mostly Cadillacs and some Army Jeeps)..there were also boxcars and boxcars full of 5lb bags of GW Sugar, Coors beer, misc frieght and several flat cars loaded with lumber. There were over 60 cars derailed in all. There was enough lumber to build a small town in splinters strewn everywhere among the twisted steel and upside down boxcars. The new Cadillacs and jeeps mangled up and you have no idea how many 5lb bags of sugar just one boxcar can hold! It was a sight to behold for sure and took days to get the mainline back up...but I digress.
Those old ore cars you see in the video beginning at the 4:27 mark were brought in to act as a wind break for trains rounding the Big 10 curve amd they were placed there at the most vulnerable spot where the wind caused most of the derailments. They built a crude track and pulled those old ore cars out on it..then they welded the wheels to the rail and filled those ore cars with rock and dirt...there are trees and brush growing in them now..theyve been there a long time. Anyway that windbreak worked like a charm! ..and has been for the last 50 years now. Our Signal gang also installed a makeshift wind monitor that turned the mainline signals red to stop trains from entering the Big 10 curve when the winds reached hurricane speed.
Thanx for listening!!
MK
Always wondered what it looks like from inside the train on that stretch of railroad. I lived in Arvada, went to Oberon Junior High and used to watch the trains on that RR going by literally 50 feet from my classroom.
Thanks for the video.
I don't remember seeing another that's continuous from the Little 10/Big 10 and through that many of the Moffat Tunnel District tunnels east of the Moffat Tunnel itself. I'll be riding the California Zephyr again, and shooting video, March '18.
Love rear end view of train videos!
Amtrak's OK, but there's nothing that beats riding this stretch of track on a flat car or a boxcar. Thanks for posting this. Back in my foolish youth, in the 1970s, some buddies and I hopped many a freight train, usually from the Plainview siding. Once we went all the way to Grand Junction and back. A little stinky going through the Moffat Tunnel, but not as bad as we feared. Every young man should hop a freight at least once in his life, and there's no better place than this.
I hope that's still possible
@Eragor the Kindhearted Wow, Eragor, I bet you wore a bicycle helmet everytime you walked out your front door when you were a kid, didn't you? Did you ever do anything exciting as a young man, even if it was "illegal"? What a boring life you must lead. I bet you're a Democrat, aren't you?
@Eragor the Kindhearted Hey, Mr. Goody Two Shoes, did you ever read Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer? You must be a quite depressing person, not to mention boring.
@@explorepikespeak : u R sUcH a ReB3l eDGelorD nOboDy iz cOolUr thN U
@Enmity the Kindhearted I agree with your comment, but even more important, think of the road crew that has to pick up your bloody body parts if something goes wrong. They could suffer from PTSD for years after heaving your parts into a black bag.
Spectacular!! In 2017 I took The Silver Meteor to DC, then The Cardinal to Chicago, from there the Southwest Chief to LA and finally the Sunset Limited to Dallas. I flew home from there.
You can't get the Sunset Limited at Dallas. Your train probably got split in half at San Antonio to form train 22 to Chicago, which was the Texas Eagle which does serve Dallas
Thank you so much for making and posting this video. We are booked to do the California Zephyr trip from Chicago to Emeryville in late April 2020 and we have, as a result, done a lot of youtube browsing. I know it is not easy to sit at the back of the train for 30 minutes with your camersa (or iPhone?) pressed against the glass to get this footage. I have done it myself on various trips in Europe and for shorter periods. You have very well recorded a really great part of the trip and it is much appreciated! It is an iconic recording of an amazing part of the journey. PS - I bet there were times when you were silently hoping the people behind you would stop talking :-)
i live where i see this train all the time every day
Such a splendid video--you held the camera steady when you must have been tempted to pan it around at the various scenes, but it's best this way.
4:25 The cars on the curve serve as a windbreaker. The winds can get pretty gusty coming down from the Rockies, and I think the winds one time were so strong it caused a derailment.
I noticed those and wondered what they were for. Is this in California or Colorado, or???
@@robertramsay5963 Colorado, Our conductor on my train explained that they were put there back in the 60's in the Denver and Rio Grande Western days. This section is just west of Denver, Colorado
Wasnt that train the actual derailment or did they purposely put those there bc they look like their still connected, knuckles and air hose.
Great video. I appreciate you didnt make annoying clicking sounds with the camera like other videos of this nature seem to do. My only complaint is that you should have done all the way through Moffat Tunnel. Other than that you did real good. I believe Brad the conductor was on my train through there as the voice and commentary are exact. My trip was May 8 throug 11 Cleveland all the way to Emeryville.
I Loooove the California Zephyr.
This route is still in operation mainly because of what lies underneath, a very valuable fiber optic communication line. This is why Anschutz bought the D&RGW in the first place.
See the fiber access marker at 19:56
I’m amazed that so many of those tunnels are just rough hewn from solid rock and unlined. That must be some pretty solid and stable geology through there. I’m assuming from the apparent size of these tunnels that this section isn’t cleared for container double stacking. Great video. Thanks for posting. I’ll be doing this run in May ‘18, but west to east.
I looked and Superliners are 16'2'' and double stack on a AAR Plat H are 18'2'' up to 20'3''. Thus you only need to dig the floors 4 feet deeper. The real question is the Moffet tunnel which I think required lining and that would make it harder to fix.
@@Dr_Reason Actually, I think I read somewhere that the Moffat Tunnel does have clearance for double stacks and that the problem tunnels are those east of Moffat, but I could be wrong there.
Beautiful video. Is there another that will take me through Crescent and beyond?
Went from New York city to San Francisco.
I enjoyed your video immensely. My wife and I are thinking of travel options for our 50th anniversary and travelling across the U.S. by train is one of them.
Nice.
Here is another question. Does this line with all these tunnels support the passage of autoracks being that they are high cars?
Almost home!
I loveride amtrak from slc ut to truckee calif or la areai did this pastjune 2o19 slc ut to la.area. yup love it
Where does the track on the left at 0:42 come from? I am a rail fan and am just curious. Thanks, Robert
That's a spur that runs north-south along Highway 93 for a mile or two - see on google maps: 39.861223, -105.238458
Rode the Feb 8th CZ. Chi. to EMY. Awesome trip. ..... my vid online also
Like to know the name of the road at the crossing just before the horseshoe curve before the tunnel district. Anybody know?
A little google mapping tells me it's Blue Mountain Road.
Watched this 4 times. There are 17 tunnels not 18.
I believe Tunnel 9 was daylighted many years ago. There's quite a few tunnels on the Scenic Line of the World that were daylighted over the years.
Nothing beats riding the Berges Bahnen in Norway.
This video just did
@@cammacgregor9354 lol cute
This does!
I've climbed on this track
I only counted 17 tunnels....thought there was 26.
Who has time for this?
Those big ten curves is a thrilling part of the climb outside Denver. The Zephyr is my choice to get to the west coast.
PEOPLE PLEASE SUPPORT AMTRAK AS WE GO THROUGH THIS DIFFICULT TIME WITH THE PANDEMIC. DON’T FLY...TAKE THE TRAIN TO GET THERE IF YOU CAN.
is this in Colorado?
yes