2007 June Trip to Denver Day 3

Trip to the Train Station

     Well today I start heading home. My day started really early actually it started yesterday because I have not gotten any sleep. I had planned to go to sleep around 8:00pm or so and sleep to 4:00am, get dressed, pack and then walk to the Dry Creek Light Rail Station. But as the saying goes the best laid plans…and that was the story of last night. First I couldn’t fall asleep so I watched what is my wife and I favorite show on HGTV House Hunters then one of Rachel Ray’s program on Food Network. I kept trying to fall asleep but no use. Then when I felt that I was finally getting tired the neighbors started making a lot of noise and that kept me up to 1:00am. I tried again to fall asleep to no avail so at 3:30am I started getting ready.

     Since I had to walk to the Light Rail station since there is no bus service in this area on Saturday’s I decided to leave early since I had my luggage and didn’t know how long it would take me. I left at about 4:45am and started walking toward the Light Rail Station. The person working last night told me to leave the key in the room so that is what I did but I decided to call when someone gets in at 7:00AM

      It actually only took me about a twenty minutes to walk to the station and that included frequent stops to change luggage onto the other arm. When I got to the bridge over the freeway I saw a little bunny rabbit hopping around and so I took some pictures of him. He actually let me closer than I thought he would so I got the pictures and walked over to the elevator. I crossed over and made to the station and I still had about 35 minutes to kill before my train was due. I bought my ticket and I actually thought about catching the train down to Lincoln to ride back but I did not have enough ones to do that. Even though it was still early the sun started rising so I got a couple of pictures of the bridge to show what a long walk it is.

      I train came in heading the other way so I knew that the train would be a two car train. However, I wanted to be in the first car since from that one I would have a shorter walk over to the staircase to take me under the tracks of Union Station. At 5:49AM the train returned after a couple of more people showed up and I boarded car number 142 of the “E” line and we started our journey to Union Station.

      Basically I just sat back and relaxed since I had been back and forth on this line a couple of times in the last few days. I did notice as we passed ElitchGardens there was 4 old Neoplan buses sitting there that look like they haven’t seen any use in some time. Before I new it we made the turn to Union Station and I got off. On my way to the Amtrak waiting room I took several pictures of the pictures and the names of the trains they have posted along the tunnel.

Waiting For the Zephyr:

      When I left the hotel “Julie” Amtrak’s automated telephone system said that the Zephyr was running about 38 minutes late, but they have lots of make up time and the station agent, the same one I purchased my tickets from yesterday, said that it should be on time. I put my luggage right by where the conductor collects tickets. I figured it would be like a Southwest Cattle call, one person would start standing there and everyone would follow suite.

       About 7:30AM the one person started standing in line so sure enough here comes the cattle so I got in line even though it was not assigned seating I just wanted to get on the train and into the lounge car. I started talking to a father, mother and grown daughter from Long Island who flew to Denver, toured around the area, are taking the train to Salt Lake City on a relative’s advice, then going to rent a car and head to Yellowstone before driving back to Salt Lake and flying back on Jet Blue. You could tell the daughter was not into the idea of spending all day on this train but hopefully she would enjoy the trip.

       The train did not get in until almost 8:00AM so it was clear we were not going to leave Denver on time. First they told us all to say in the station area although the announcement was not really clear. I tried to explain to people it is a small ramp so they need to allow the people getting off here in Denver to get down the tunnel first. The a large tour group pushed their way to the front and left the waiting room making people wonder what was going on. Finally there was announcement made although no one could here it and so everyone started heading toward the platform.

Run to the Train:

        I was the first to get to our Coach Car which happened to be a Coach-Baggage car and some lady comes out of the car screaming “this is wrong, this can’t be our car there is not seats in this entire car”. You guessed it, she walked in the door saw the open door to the baggage dept, look the other way and saw restrooms and determined that there was not seating in the car. I walk past her as she called me stupid for not listening to her, put my duffle bag and garment bag on the luggage rack and walked up stairs.

       The family I had talked to earlier was right behind me as they decided to follow me. The parents sat in one set of seats and told the girl that I would put my seat check next to her and that she would have both seats to herself most of the trip. I then headed for the lounge car so I would have a good place to do my work and see the scenery. Well once again the best laid plans…I walked into the lounge and realized it did not have the upstairs tables, in fact it was an unrefurbished Superliner I car that still decorated in Brown and Orange. I found a single seat on the right side of the train which turned out to be the last seat available, and I settle in for our journey.

Here was the consist of our train

223                              Locomotive

47                                Locomotive

1735                            Baggage Car (converted from heritage coach)

39029                          Transition Dorm. Sleeper

34006                          Coach

31008                          Coach Baggage

34028                          Coach

33011                          Lounge-Café (Superliner I unrefurbished)

38036                          Diner

32053                          Sleeper

32025                          Sleeper

On the Way:

       There is a pair of Rails-Trails guides that provide a lecture from Denver to Grand Junction during the summer months. They set up two wireless speakers next to the now unused video monitors (glad I don’t have to deal with them any more!). They started their commentary just before we left the station which we did at 8:21PM which put us 13 minutes late.

        We travel past Coors Field where the Colorado Rockies play, then go past yards and slowly make our way onto the former Rio Grande line now owned by the Union Pacific. We where only a couple of miles out of town before we got hit by our first freight train delay right where the line to Golden that will possible be a new commuter rail in leaves from the mainline.

        I saw an old abandoned rail line cross ours somewhere around milepost 8. By the time we hit the big ten curves we had already had three freight train delays but as it turned out we would only have one more in a few miles and that would be it.

        Before you hit the big ten curves you have a nice view of Mount Evans, then once your go through the big ten curves you have a nice view of the Platte River Valley and downtown Denver. The only downside today was there was smog keeping you from having a really good view.   

        The guides gave us some great information about the area and passed out brochures listing all of Colorado’s State Parks in it. They also discussed some of the towns we encountered; the problem the area is having with the Japanese Beetle, and gave us some great geological information. Thanks to our guides we saw a great deal more of the scenery than we would have is they were not calling our attention to it.

        The people we did not here anything from were the conductor and assistant conductor. They did not say anything during the whole trip. The crew will normally make an announcement that we are approaching the Moffat Tunnel and not to move between cars because it will allow diesel smoke to drift in but even that announcement wasn’t made. In fact some poor guy was trying to get back to his sleeping car and the assistant conductor came by and started yelling at him from moving between the cars. Well, if they would have made an announcement!!!

        When we left Denver there were a large number of people waiting to get into the Dining Car from Breakfast. People would go in to the dining car and make a quick exit. Soon announcement was made that no one should enter the dining car unless called and if you wanted breakfast sit in the lounge car and they would come get you. Now that is customer service at its best.

        Before I knew it the said we were about to pass Tolan. Tolan is where the original line over RollinsPass started its dangerous climb. In 1923 bonds were passed to build the Moffat Tunnel actually two of them one for the trains and one to ship water to Denver. The first train through the tunnel was in 1928 but the water tunnel did not get used until 1937. The tunnel also marks the highest spot of any Amtrak train at 9239 feet above sea level. In addition the tunnel cut the mileage from 25 to 6 and saved and cut the time from Hours to 10 minutes. The bonds from the tunnel were finally paid off in 1982.

        After passing through the tunnel we past the Winter Park ski area which is the Destination of the ski train that runs from Denver. The ski train was first started by the Rio Grande railroad and continues to run today but in different hands. In addition to the winter trains they now run trains in the summer so that people can enjoy the many summer activities Winter Park affords.

Frasier:

        Since the last time I was through here on the train it was dark and long before there was a Fraser stop, in fact a few months before it was an Amtrak train, I had thought the Fraser stop was right by Winter Park but I was wrong. We seemed to go some distance before we finally made a stop at the Fraser Depot and then departed about 30 minutes late.

        Several members of the smoking brigade were walking around complaining the Fraser wasn’t a smoking stop and the next one wouldn’t be until Glenwood Springs. I would like a break to but not to smoke but to get out and take pictures of the train and the stations.

        There were two ladies sitting the seats next to me one of them was a school teacher, while the one did watch my stuff so I could go downstairs and get something to eat, they did not want to talk except to themselves. They had a great conversation between the two of them but were unfriendly to everyone else. Across the aisle from me there was an empty area where seats used to be but had been taken out from some reason. A couple sat there for a few hours and later I will have a nice conversation with them.

        We now started along the FrasierRiverCanyon. The only way to see the canyon is on the California Zephyr so few people get to enjoy the beauty of this area. The area was one of the favorite fishing spots of President Eisenhower although fishing is no longer allowed in the area.

Granby:

        After our journey through the Frasier river canyon we approached our last stop from the next couple of hours which is the Granby station. Granby is the gateway station to the Colorado National Park. The ColoradoNational Park is home to the highest altitude continuous road in the United States. We left Granby still running 30-minutes late.

        Just after we left Granby the following announcement was made the Rose the head of the dining car staff.

        “The Dining car will open for lunch at 12:00 Noon. Do not come into the dining car for service before then. When we are ready to open we will make an announcement, once again do not come into the dining car until we make that announcement. Once the dining car is full, you will wait in the lounge car. We do not have time to give numbers to call so if you want to eat stay in the lounge car.”

         The scenery in this section is not overly exciting more like high desert than anything else. We passed Hot springs at 11:16AM and then started into ByersCanyon where the scenery did start to become prettier. We also spotted one bald eagle along this stretch of the trip.

        We did see an accident on Highway 40 where a car went of an embankment. Between Hot Springs and Kremmling we passed a large rifle range that had a large number of people out shooting who turned around and waved at the train. We also passed a state wildlife area and could see a large number of birds. We then passed the town ofPartial at 11:25AM and it was a nice looking town and then passed the city of Kremmling at 11:38AM.

         At 11:44AM we started going through GoreCanyon (no it was not named after Al Gore). On the left side of the steep canyon you could see the trails that the surveyors used to create the route we are now using.

        One historic tidbit about the area was that there was a proposal to put a series of dams along the river along here at one point. However it was discovered that the people pushing the dams where being influenced by rival railroads who did not want the competition. However Theodore Roosevelt having traveled the area and spending time here intervened to stop the dam building and allowed David Moffat to continue building his railroad.

        I also noticed that the Union Pacific is in the process of replacing the target signals that the Rio Grande had put in many years ago and replacing them with their standard issued ones.

        The line in the lounge car started to grow as the appointed time for the diner to open was approaching. I thought one of the reasons for Amtrak’s new dining car program was so the dining car could be open more hours and provide better service but so far it seems to be worst than before. I decided that I would only have dinner in the dinner and get my breakfast and lunch from the café attendant downstairs. About 12:45pm the lounge car attendant announced he was closing for lunch and did not reopen until after 2:15pm.

        As we got closer to Dotsero where we meet the original line to Pueblo and start to parallel I-70, we started seeing more and more farms. We also started to encounter a large number of rafters which is normal for this line and it’s even normal to see many of them moon the train, however there seemed to be large number of woman who were flashing the train also although I did not hear any complaints from the other male passengers!

        Another point of interest on the journey was the Shoshone Dam and Power plant that dates from 1906.

        Now we passed Dotsero and entered the GlenwoodCanyon. GlenwoodCanyon was created by the Colorado River that cut through the rooks over millions of years and also got rerouted by volcanic eruption.

        The stretch of Interstate 70 which we are now paralleling was the most expensive section of the Interstate Highway system. The highway was very controversial because of the beauty and narrowness of the Glenwood Canyon so the engineers tried to plan it so that it would look as much like the natural landscape as was possible. The highway was not completed until the 80’s and as part of the agreement to build it, there was also a bike path built along side the highway so that bikes would not have to use the Interstate.

       As we made our way through the canyon the traffic on I-70 appeared to be traveling very slowly and then came to a complete stop with people out of their cars and talking to each other watching the train go by. Apparently there is some major construction work going on along the highway right now with one lane closed through some tunnels and causing hours of delays through the canyon. Just before Glenwood Springs itself you pass a spot where someone is building a home into the face of the mountain. We also passed exit 119 on Interstate 70 which exits to the city of No Name.

Glenwood Springs:

       We arrived in Glenwood Springs at 2:05pm but I did not want to loose my seat by leaving the lounge car right now so I just stayed where I was. Right across the river is the Glenwood Springs resort and near it a monument to 14 firefighters that died in a bad forest fire in 1994 called the Storm King Fire.

        Just outside of Glenwood Springs I was a rare Crown Intercity Coach along with a couple of school buses (non-Crown) at a church just west of Glenwood Springs. I tried to figure out where the motel was that I stayed at in 1984 but could not figure out which one it was or the 7-Eleven that was next to it.

        The scenery becomes a little less interesting after leaving Glenwood Springs but I find that there are always sights to be seen. We passed New Castle at 2:28pm.

        Our guides mentioned that the state is working to develop new ways to stop coal seam fires that are burning in the area. We briefly loss Head End Power that powers the lights and climate control but it was restored pretty quickly. I do not think any one really noticed that it has gone out except the train a/c stop blowing for a couple of minutes.

        Next we passed Silk which was founded in 1877 and incorporated in 1915 at 2:35pm. Just after that at 2:42pm we passed the former stop of Rifle and I was surprised to see that the station was still standing many years after Amtrak abandoned the stop. Then we passed Ruleson at 2:51pm.

        We started to slow and finally came to a stop and speculation was that train 6 was about to pass us. Sure enough at 2:59pm train 6 running about 4 hours late flash by us and after they left we started moving again.   

        Next we passed the Rhome? Cliffs at 3:13pm which include the Wasatch Formation, Green River Formation and Mahogany Ridge which includes oil shale. The tour guides said that oil shale is “the fuel source of the future and continuing to be” because of the high cost of extracting and refining it. Part of the mountain looks at though it had a giant landslide that caused half of the mountain to move but apparently that’s how it was formed.

        I then passed a MCI MC7 intercity coach sitting near a building out in the middle of no where.

        The next point of interest we passed was the Grand Valley Rolling Diversion Dam. The Dam was built from 1913 to 1918 and it was designed by German Immigrants however they did not get any credit because of anti-German hostilities during and following the WWI. It was also noted that until 1921 the Colorado River was actually called the Grand River but the name was changed because Colorado was upset not having a river named after the state.

        We then passed Palaside at 3:53pm and once again I surprised to see that there is still a train station standing here. Our guides get off in Grand Junction so they started packing up, and as they did I thank them for their wonderful commentary and headed back to my coach car in order to get some fresh air while we where stopped. I did see a Grand Junction transit bus before we stopped and it appears they use the Thomas low floor buses.

Grand Junction:

         We passed the former station that is fenced off then arrived at the small station served by Amtrak. I wanted to do a quick check of the station but our car attendant didn’t show up for a couple of minutes to open the door. In fact he was not inside our car but showed up to open the door from the outside.

          Once I was outside I took a few pictures of the train and was going to go get the numbers of the transition car, baggage and locomotives but they said to get back on board. I walked upstairs, walked two cars down to the lounge car, sat in my seat and the train was still sitting. However, after a couple of minutes we started to move and departed Grand Junction at 4:18pm.

         I noticed upon leaving Grand Junction that the city appears to be doing a lot of road work near the tracks. There are currently two overpasses being built just west of the train station. For the first few miles out of Grand Junction we followed US Highway 6. We passed the town of Fruita at 4:30pm and entered RubyCanyon at 4:38pm.

          A new conductor and assistant conductor boarded the train at Grand Junction and you could immediately notice a difference. They got on the PA and announced the times of all the remaining stops to SaltLake, announced there would be no smoking breaks until SaltLake, and said where they could be found throughout the rest of the night.

More Joys from Rose in the Dining Car:

        Next Rose got on the PA, “In a little while I will be coming through the train to give you reservations from Dinner. I will announce we I will come through, if you come to the Diner you will not get a reservation and you will not eat. I will start with the sleeping cars then go through the coaches. If you are in the lounge car you will get the last available times.” While she may have absolutely no customer relation skills at least she did mention what the entrée’s were and how much they would cost.

        When Rose announced that she was going to start going through the train I went and sat at my coach seat so I would get a decent time. I sat and talked for a few minutes to the daughter of the family that I met at the Denver station earlier in the day. While I was waiting we stopped at the Green River Station. Green River is interesting as you are going through desert then all of a sudden you hit a patch of agricultural land, a golf course then desert again.

         Rose came through and even though we were the first coach car she hit (since the first coach on the train was empty) the earliest she had a reservation for was 8:15pm. It turned out the mother of the family I had been talking to was diabetic but Rose didn’t seem to care. The daughter asked me lots of questions about what they should see in Salt Lake City and I gave them pointers for traveling in the Grand Teton/Yellowstone area. Funny, I had an easier time telling them about Yellowstone than the city I live in!

        After talking to the, I headed back to the lounge car and into my familiar seat. I then started talking to the couple that was sitting in the area missing the seat earlier in the day. The guy lives in Emeryville currently and the woman lives in Atlanta I believe and currently they are having a long distance relationship. He had downloaded the early 90’s travel guide from Trainweb.com as I had done before leaving on the trip. The guy actually had lived in SaltLake and they have been enjoying the trip so far. They are traveling all the way from Chicago to Emeryville.

        We also joked about Attila the Hun in the dining car. Apparently the first time available was 6:15pm and they proceeded to tell people with that number to come to the dining car. However, the person across the way had 6:45pm and so far no announcement by 6:50pm. He said that he would go in and find out. We wished him luck and he said to call his wife if he didn’t survive. Sorry but there is something wrong when people are making jokes like this about your customer service.

        One thing I did notice was the tracks from Grand Junction until about Price were rougher than any other leg in the journey.

Dinner in the Diner:

        The couple I was talking to and I all had 8:15pm dinner reservations. They are in a sleeper, so there were not a lot of early reservations to be had. By the time we were called in at 8:20pm I was getting pretty hungry. The couple also warned me not to touch the menu until given permission by Rose because the guy had marked it last night and she got very angry.

         We were given menus and I decided on the roast chicken. We actually had a different waitress than Rose who actually was friendly and efficient. Along with the couple I had been talking to for a couple of hours there was a lady sitting next to me that had driven back east and was now taking the train home.

         Along with the chicken my meal also came with rice and vegetable which was green beans and corn. I was surprised because the chicken was large and was well cooked despite being pre-packaged. The only downside was there was a lot of bone in the chicken but still plenty of meat. I also decided to live it up and get a chocolate cake for desert. While we were eating the train passed the location of the Thistle slide that took out the town of Thistle and the Rio Grande tracks in 1983.

        After dinner I sat in the lounge car for a few more minutes. When we passed the town of Mapleton I called my wife and let her know that we would be into the SaltLake station early. My wife has a very close friend that lives in Mapleton so I told her that we were passing Becky’s house so I would be there soon.

         We left Provo on time and when I saw us pass the large new subsidized IKEA store in Draper I moved back to the coach and prepared for arrival. It took us 30-minutes because of slow speeds compared to a car that would do it in 15. The daughter of the one couple I had been talking to before mentioned that she thought SaltLake was just a tiny town and was in shock when I told her the population of the Wasatch Front.

         We stopped for about 5 minutes 3 blocks from the station waiting for the UP to clear a switcher and then we pulled into the station. The family asked if they could walk to their hotel since I told them it was only 5 blocks away but said I would take a taxi since you go through a bad homeless area.

Arrival in Salt Lake City:

         When I got off the train I got the car numbers of the two sleepers but did not see my wife. I walked passed the Amshack trailers and finally saw her in the Intermodal hub parking lot. I wrote down the numbers of the baggage car and engines then we headed home ending an interesting trip.