CitiRail
Return of the Sulfur Train and Some Leasers
On April 7, BNSF ran a Denver, CO, to Great Falls, MT, manifest up the Front Range Sub with a nice consist: CREX 1346, BNSF 928, and CEFX 3184. The train had to wait for two others in Broomfield, so I didn’t bother doing anything with them until they got closer.
While I was waiting, I heard the dispatcher talking to BNSF 5613 south. Southbound in the afternoon this time of year? I’ll take that. So I waited until they got close and headed out.
I went to Trilby Road between Loveland and Fort Collins where the defect detector is as well as the start of Loveland Hill. I only waited about 3 minutes before I saw the headlight to see it was the Bonneville, WY, to Galveston, TX, sulfur train, which had been running on the Brush Subdivision to save crews on the FRS.
Power for this train was 5613 and BNSF 7849 up front and BNSF 4485 on the rear.
Nice Power Meets Nice Power in Fort Collins
On February 17, as many people were in Denver searching for the Pennsylvania heritage unit, BNSF snuck a Denver to Tacoma stack train up the Front Range Sub with a Citirail gevo leading a repainted C40-8W. I heard it on the scanner and headed to a spot near my house at 57th street.
As the train was approaching, they got a track warrant from where they were currently at to the south siding switch North Yard, meaning they were going to meet one in Fort Collins.
A New Year’s Eve CitiRail
On New Year’s Eve morning there was a post saying a CitiRail gevo, CREX 1318, was leading the Denver, CO, to Great Falls, MT, manifest up the Front Range Sub. With plenty of headsup time, I was able to plan my chase. The first spot I would get it would be downtown Loveland, then highball to Trilby Road between Loveland and Fort Collins, then again at North Yard where the tracks are going straight east-west.
As I got downtown, I wondered how it would be around the corner where the tracks cross the Big Thompson River. Railroad Avenue, the road that parallels the tracks, is closed indefinitely, and isn’t expected to open until summer of 2014. The signs say the road is closed to through traffic. “Through traffic” is the key words that made my decision. I parked north of where the “closed” signs are and waited there. After about 20 minutes it showed up.
CitiRail Lease Unit shows up in Fort Collins
We got a call from JLH (highgreengraphics) at around 7:00 Saturday morning (11/30) that a CREX locomotive had been set off overnight in Fort Collins by the Denver to Great Falls along with CP 8840. Not knowing if there was a plan for it, my dad and I took off in hopes of getting it with a train on the Great Western.
When we got there the locomotives were just idling on a team track, so we didn’t expect them to move but we hung around anyway. The CitiRail unit (CREX 1211) was facing east, making the morning light perfect for pictures.
KO Trains 