CASPER, Wyoming - Amtrak's California Zephyr will be detoured away from one of the most scenic passenger rail routes in the country for about a month this summer while repairs are made on the historic Moffat Tunnel.

The 6.2-mile-long tunnel, which opened in 1928, punches through the Continental Divide in the mountains 50 miles west of Denver. Amtrak will detour north from Denver to Cheyenne, Wyo., and then west across Wyoming to Salt Lake City.

Normally, the Zephyr winds through numerous shorter tunnels in the foothills west of Denver, climbs to the Moffat Tunnel at 9,242 feet above sea level and then follows the Colorado River west through steep, narrow canyons until crossing into Utah and heading north to Salt Lake City.

Railroad officials have not set the exact dates of the closure. Some coal trains might use the tunnel at night during the rail repair work.

The Ski Train, an excursion train that runs between Denver and the Winter Park ski resort in winter and summer months, will be suspended during the repairs.

Winter Park lies just on the west side of the Moffat Tunnel. Residents of Winter Park, Glenwood Springs and other resort towns along the route say the closure will be hard on the travel business.

The Moffat Tunnel is named for David Moffat Jr., the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad president who pushed its construction. The tunnel saved about 150 miles and at least four hours of rail travel time.

from Casper Star-Tribune http://www.casperstartribune.net/news/wyoming/

Wow!

The scenery is supposed to be very comparable - different, but equally spectacular in a different way.

Federal Hog Laws (aka hours of service laws) mean UP will have to do SOMETHING about crew changes on the Denver-SLC run. I can see a short shift to Green River, WY, or even a crew change in Denver and another in Cheyenne.

John

I won't complain, though. At least there will be service, instead of a complete embargo.

Another note: In the future, it may be wise just to simply post a link to copyrighted material, and not post the article verbatim. To post the article verbatim is a violation of the copyright. Just post the link, with a brief comment or two. That way, you won't be violating the copyright.

Not sure how you would get to the Pass from Union Depot - probably involve a backup move or two.

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Residents of Winter Park, Glenwood Springs and other resort towns along the route say the closure will be hard on the travel business.

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I sympathize with that. But this may be an opportunity for those resorts to show Congress first-hand what a permanant shut-down might mean for such communities. If business falls off substantially for that month, they can show their Congresscritters in no uncertain terms that Amtrak does indeed have economic value.

On the Wyoming route, in December 1962, when I was 3, we rode the California Zephyr from end to end. I seem to recall it went through Cheyenne. I remember getting off at a stop somewhere (which my parents later informed me was in Wyoming) where I got a little red plastic toy car at the gift shop. I also remember some very interesting canyons with lots of tunnels which I thought were tremendously fun. But the canyon walls were smooth-sided and tan colored like sandstone, unlike the rough craggy rocky canyons in the Rockies. Does that mean anything to anyone?

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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy

The Del Monte Club Car

RRRich - only going by other people's travelogues, who say that Wyoming is spectacular but different to Colorado.

Mr. Toy - apparently Amtrak is bypassing Cheyenne on the detour. Also, old Pioneer timetables list that station as "West Cheyenne-Borie", ie probably nowhere near either city.

The line from Denver converges with the Overland route at Borie which is some five miles West of Cheyenne.

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Originally posted by CG96:

Another note: In the future, it may be wise just to simply post a link to copyrighted material, and not post the article verbatim.

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Yeah, that's why the info posted is not verbatim, CG. I learned that enroute to my first degree in journalism. Thanks, though.

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Originally posted by Ira Slotkin:
I seem to recall an Amtrak route that ran as recently as ten years ago perhaps, that headed Northwest out of Denver and terminated in Seattle. I don't know if it was like the Lake Shore Limited with it's section that pulls off and head for Boston, or if it was a separate train with it's own name. Was it the Overland mentioned earlier in this thread? Anyway, sounds like it didn't go to Cheyenne. I think it headed west before that. Anyone else recall that train? Might be that this CZ reroute follows some of that line, although a lot changes in 10-12 years.

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I always like to see some routes I have never seen before, so I'm gonna take the ride. Anyone else?

Last summer a local in Colorado told me there was a cave-in or landslide or something on Tennessee Pass that UP decided was to expensive to fix. That route was spectacular.
From Pueblo through Royal Gorge and up the Arkansas River valley with awesome views of the highest mountains in Colorado. Those D&RGW freights used to really move fast so the track was evidently in good shape.

Having now done what I should have done prior to that posting, I find that trains (as distinct from busses) served Cheyenne from A-Day until October 1979.

There is of course agreement that a lengthy backup move of some three miles was involved between Cheyenne and Borie Jct, which Amtrak simply decided to rename as West Cheyenne.

Instead of rolling west from Denver through Winter Park-Fraser, Granby, Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction en route to Salt Lake City, Amtrak's California Zephyr will head north to Wyoming, bypassing Cheyenne and crossing southern Wyoming to Salt Lake City during the track work.

Moffat Tunnel is expected to be closed for several weeks to permit major track repairs.
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E1950721,00.html?search=filter

...Interestingly, article notes that coal trains may be allowed during Tunnel at night...

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The Pioneer took 11 hours 20 minutes to do the 563 miles from Denver to Ogden (north of Salt Lake City).

I read somewhere else that there will be a long layover at Salt Lake (or Denver presumably, for eastbound trains), to take into account the faster route. Either that or the padding will be soaked up by delays!

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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy

With the competition between the SP/UP/CMStP&P and the CB&Q/D&RGW/WP, the major reason for rerouting the CZ to the Overland Route would be a derailment somewhere in TOUGH single track country, blocking the line.

John

The line from Denver converges with the Overland route at Borie which is some five miles West of Cheyenne.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that Amtrak's San Francisco Zephyr did call on the UP Cheyenne station until the mid to late 1970's. The Cheyenne stop was moved to Borie in order to eliminate a 'long-distance' backup move between Cheyenne and Denver. Seems like I remember an article in Trains Magazine in like August 1974 by a guy who was traveling on the original USA Rail Pass who talked about the engines moving to the opposite end of the train and pulling it backwards for a couple of hours up to the original Overland route at Cheyenne.

Anyone else remember this?

Anyone else remember this?

[/B][/QUOTE]

Sorry for the redundant question. If I had read the rest of the posts in the forum before I replied, I would have seen that what I had to contribute was already posted.

I will add though that I a really want to get out this summer and ride the California Zephyr on it's Wyoming detour. I would like to experience this bit of the Overland Route firsthand rather than just read about it in the pages of Trains.

Enjoy,

Then in 1983 DRGW and Amtrak agreed to re-route the train via Grand Junction. This was delayed until (IIRC) sometime in 1984 by the Thistle slide. That left the UP through Wyoming without service. The Pioneer and Desert Wind equipment were both switched out of #5/6 in SLC.

Agter the trip, it was amusing to read this discussion, which manages to add an air of mystery to route of the old Pioneer. If you want to preserve that, don't read any further. Just wait 'til it's your turn to ride. But if you, like me, read these pages for the enjoyment of vicarious travel, here's a brief description of the alternate route, with only a fraction of its glorious emptiness.

Leaving Denver's Union Station: for all its vacant spaces and shabbiness, this is still a train station. Much more inviting than the grubby AmShack where we're to be dropped beneath the viaducts of Salt Lake. In a few minutes, we fail to turn left over the wooden bridge that crosses the mighty Platte Creek (officially, a river). Now our course is set northbound. First comes a long drive-by factory tour of Commerce City, so aptly named. Refineries and scrapyards galore, with Rocky Mountain National Park's peaks drawing the horizion the horizon 20 miles westward. That's about as close as we'll see any mountains today. In about a half hour-- sorry, I'm not a timekeeper, that's how I can enjoy Amtrak!-- we're in Greeley, after past new acres of new subdivision homes packed two-story & wall-to-wall. If we were on the Zephyr's usual route, we'd be basket-weaving through the inclined rock slabs of the Flatironsby now, turning west into Eldorado Canyon just south of Boulder. Instead, our westward heading comes just across the Wyoming border. This point turns out to be fairly scenic. There's a big wind power farm on the train's right, and a picturesque herd of ranch buffalo on the left who total far more than the scant number of cows we see on the rest of the route.

Experiencing the westbound UP route really drives home the point of how heroic were the efforts of David Moffat's D&RG as they carved out the Colorado route. Wyoming is a cakewalk! I've seen much tougher grades along I-70 in eastern Kansas. Here, the sights include row upon row of snow fences, bare except for white remnants in the shadows. For a short while, distant peaks of the Medicine Bow Mountains punctuate the horizon. But the most dramatic sights are the passing eastbound freight trains, roaring by with no warning in an a blurred rush. Each time, I silently thank the signal system and dispatchers for doing their job. Our combined passing velocity must be over 150 mph. We meet several freights like this every hour. On the return through Colorado, we made only two or three slow passes.

There are a few signs that we're riding on unfamiliar rails. A yellow UP locomotive heads our train, probably only to carry the locally experienced engineers. Some old Amwaitingrooms are shuttered, even less inviting than the tough little towns they used to serve. Sunset, on this gray winter day, we see in Rock Springs. I have proof of this: a sequence of through-the-window shots of the UP office building in Rock Springs. Notice how the light changes as the clouds almost part, and then as day dims. Study the unusual slickrock formations that seem to flow down to the back doors of main street, behind its little skyline of red neon bar signs. Linger with me, one hour I'd guess, while we wait for a fresh engine crew to show up for work. An hour late, to meet a train already hours late! Part of the answer why this route, officially 4 hours shorter, took us 15 1/2 hours. But oddly enough, the snafu has shown me arguably the most scenic view of the trip at the prettiest time of day.

If Rock Springs is the most scenic part of a 500-mile journey, you might be on the wrong route. Your results may differ, though. A woman I met in Colorado on the return was "so glad" she got to see it all," she said. She spent her time watching for animals, and was thrilled to see a red fox. History buffs, if armed with a copy of the old book Rail Ventures, can spot a once-inhabited heap of wood where Butch and Sundance planned their train robberies nearby. (Doesn't seem like much of a hideout, does it?) The final leg of the trip, through the Wasatch through Echo Canyon, probably is quite scenic in the daylight. For me, it was a dream of flying through black space, oriented only by subtle hints of gravity and momentum. Out the window, red and white lights arced past in opposite directions, sometimes beside us, sometimes quite far below, so I know we followed I-80 through some steep country here. This summer, eastbounders would get a much better look. Unfortunatley, no one except a few plutocrats in some private car at the tail would see much of the Great Salt Lake behind the train, I'd guess.

Fans of rail history.....Yeah........this would be me.

I love riding the D&RGW route but have been hungry to ride the UP across Wyoming since a visit to Promontory Summit early one cold April morning several years ago.

Thanks to your post I think I'll fly to Sacramento, visit the California Railroad Museum, and then cash in some guest reward points to ride the Zephyr EASTWARD. The Donner Pass portion will make up for missing the Moffat Tunnel route.