Personal Projects, Photography, and Pointless Pontifications
UP 1989 at Milliken Madness Day
So, the Rio Grande Heritage SD70ACe had been unveiled for nearly a
month, and due to other commitments keeping me away from home, I still
hadn’t gotten the chance to photograph it. When I heard it had been
moved north to La Salle, CO, on 11-Jul-2006, and would be used as part
of an Operation Lifesaver
run, I figured I’d miss that as well, since they tend to be during the
week. Eventually, however, the truth came out – it wasn’t to be an Operation Lifesaver
run, but rather a display at Milliken Madness Day, a town celebration
on Saturday, 15-Jul-2006. As part of the display, 1989 would be open to
the general public for tours. This was an opportunity I just couldn’t
pass up.
I headed north a little later than expected, due to last minute
maintenance at home. The trace indicated that 1989 was expected to
leave La Salle at 1030h, and since I didn’t leave Colorado Springs until
around 1100h, I figured the best I’d be able to do would be some static
shots in Milliken. When I arrived at La Salle, though, the unit was
sitting sitting around the yard, and was paired with UP “snoot” SD40-2
3246. I snapped off a few photos, and then, seeing no sign of action
and hearing nothing on the radio, headed up to Greeley to grab some
lunch.
Just as I came into Greeley, I started hearing chatter that sounded a
lot like a crew starting to switch cars. Having sat out in 100+ degree
heat for the entire morning anyway had quashed any appetite I might
have had anyway. So, upon purchasing yet another 44oz “bucket-o-cola”
from a convenience store, I headed back to the yard. Sure enough, a
crew had taken the two units and was coupling onto a set of cars in the
yard. As I watched, they pulled forward with a string of about 20 cars,
stuck a flag on the back, and started up towards the junction with the
Fort Collins Branch.
The local went up to Milliken, as was expected, but much to my
surprise didn’t stop. It didn’t even slow down, for that matter. The
crew, having two or so hours before they’d need to be back with the
motor, was moving a cut of cars to somewhere north. At Kelim, they
dropped well over half of the train on the Great Western interchange.
However, as Nathan Zachman found out from the crew, they’d be hauling
the first half of the train yet further north.
Most of us just stuck around a closed crossing at the west end of
Kelim, awaiting their return. By that point, there were at least five
fans following the train – Nathan Zachman, Rob Beyers, Bob Sobol, a
gentleman from Denver whose name I missed, and myself. We never did
figure out exactly where the cars went, but some 40 minutes later the
light power returned. Nathan Z. had gone north to find them, but by the
time he located the power, they were on the west side of I-25 and
returning, sans cars. Once back into Kelim, we all followed and caught
the units a few times on its way into Milliken.
Once there, the crew tied the handbrakes on the two units and shut down the prime movers. At that point, things were handed over to Steven Bates, an ex-Grande man, UP engineer, and representative of Colorado Operation Lifesaver that afternoon. He talked for a moment about the units and about safety while around them, and then, two or three people at a time, lead a decent line of fans and locals alike through the cab and down the rear. In addition to the main attraction (UP 1989), a few OLS folks had parked themselves in the shade nearby with material about grade crossing safety and the usual life-sized reminder of what can happen – a car, wrecked and mangled in a car/train collision, sitting up on a trailer for all to see.
I arrived in La Salle, CO, around 1300h, only to find UP 1989 still sitting around the yard. The trace had shown a call time of 1030h, so this was a surprise and a relief.
Just a different shot of the nose at La Salle.
Not seeing signs of anything about to move, I drove up to Greeley to grab a bite to eat, listening to the scanner the whole way. When I got back, I found that the local crew had grabbed a cut of cars and was pulling toward the branch.
Here’s the local slipping out of La Salle under US Hwy 85.
The first car on the local was MP 15512, an unusual scale test car.
About a mile east of the Milliken wye, just before crossing Colorado Hwy 60.
As UP 3246 approaches Milliken, they began to accelerate, not stop as I had expected. Confusion sets in as I wonder where the Heritage unit is going now…
Is this in Colorado or is it an ex-CNW branch in Iowa? Kelim sure doesn’t look like what you usually think of as Colorado railroading.
At Kelim, they stopped for quite some time and dropped about better than half of their cars, presumably for interchange with the Great Western RR.
The rest of cars were hauled further north and dropped in some unknown siding. Nathan Z. saw them further up west of I-25, but none of us know how far they went or what track was used for storage.
After about 40 minutes spent shooting the bull with the other four fans out chasing on Saturday, the light power returned from whereever they went. Note the unusual crossing protection system for US Hwy 34 in the background – the crossing has normal traffic lights, and rail traffic has a signal to indicate that it’s protected.
Crossing a low bridge, just west of CO Hwy 257 and just outside Milliken.
Only a few hundred yards from the bridge is this private grade crossing.
Right around 1700h, the light power arrives in Milliken for the Colorado Operation Lifesaver presentation. The OLS event is part of Milliken Madness Day, a town celebration running from 1600-2100h on Saturday, 15-Jun-2006.
Upon arriving, the crew ties everything down with the handbrakes, shuts down the prime movers, and climbs down.
At that point, this guy takes over. This is Steve Bates, UP locomotive engineer and representative for Colorado Operation Lifesaver. He’ll be handling tours of UP 1989 for the public.
While of course the railfans are thrilled to be able to tour the unit, it’s important to remember that the real message here – . Hopefully everybody who tours the unit will remember just how big these things are the next time they come up to a grade crossing.
A shot with the door closed while they were still shutting down the units. Note the event recording camera on the conductor’s side, looking out through the windshield.
Yours truly in the engineer’s seat. So I’m not the very model of fashion or, say, shaving… It’s been a rough week, and add to that eight hours of riding around in a convertible with 100+ degree temperatures, and this is what you get.
The back wall of 1989’s cab
Just inside the nose are all of these electrical goodies. The large black box is for cab signalling. The orange bits on the bottom appear to be the unit’s event recorder.
A view of the conductor’s work area, looking out through the windshield.
The engineer’s console, with the status displays up front and a standard control stand to the left. Currently, 1989 has 3,258 miles on it. Handy tip – when backing up for a photo, don’t let your rear end push the train brake lever…
A view of the back end of 1989, on the engineer’s side.
1989’s builder’s “plate”, now just a sticker on the engineer’s side of the nose.
Looking down the engineer’s side walkway from under the gigantic radiator flare.
The front end of this very unique paint job, with the four black stripes running into the black mountain outline. Also note the very odd-sounding electronic bell, located on the underside of the walkway just above the GM logo on the truck.
A final shot of the two motors sitting in Milliken. I couldn’t stay for the trip back to La Salle – I needed to get going for Denver for other things.
By the time I left, there was quite a few people who had come over for a tour of the unit. The general process was 2-3 at a time into the 1989, then they’d slowly work back and either climb off the rear, or walk down to tour the old SD40-2 as well.
All photographs in this trip report were taken with a Canon EOS 20D using either a Canon 24-105mm F4 L IS/USM or a Canon 75-300mm f4-5.3 IS/USM.
This work is copyright 2024 by Nathan D. Holmes, but all text and images are licensed and reusable under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Basically you’re welcome to use any of this as long as it’s not for commercial purposes, you credit me as the source, and you share any derivative works under the same license. I’d encourage others to consider similar licenses for their works.
