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While visiting Salt Lake City on Saturday April 10, I took, along with Railroad Net Member Lew Jeppson, a joyride Salt Lake to Ogden and return.
After a day to drive from Cheyenne (this was an auto trip) on Friday and with the constant reminder that people once walked across this moonscape (if you are riding the Zephyr, I really do not think 'you've been robbed" should you catch an Overland Route detour) and a visit to the Golden Spike National Monument (I had not been there since I was at Hill AFB during 1968), I arrived at Salt Lake City and checked in at the Downtown Marriott. Previously, Mr. Jeppson, had e-mailed me to say he would phone me when I got there (even if my auto has a hands-free system, I still avoid "yakkin and drivin"). However, just as I was getting ready to shut off the phone for the evening, it rings. He then asks me what kind of view did I have from the hotel. I said to the South and I was on a high floor with a balcony (thanks Marriott for the clearly upgraded room - I was on a Senior Citizen rate and not with any kind of "precious metal" status in your reward plan). He then asked if I see the Rio Grande station, I said yes, and he said Frontrunner leaves from one block West of there. He suggested a taxicab, or getting my auto back from the Valet, but I saw a nice walk in a town that I have always held in great regard.
In a short phrase, I was indeed impressed.
Saturday April 10 dawned crystal clear (like Denver and LA, there can be noticeable pollution at Salt lake for the same topographical reasons). The RRNET Member Mr. Lew Jeppson (name used with his permission) a Professor of Economics in real life, and I were to meet at 1030 at the Frontrunner station for a 1057A departure. After Breakfast at Marriott (where a waitress thanked me for my service in Viet Nam rather than the figurative 'spit upon" I got when I returned from my tour), I took my Daily walk, which included a 'dry run' to the Frontrunner Intermodal station (others there, Amtrak, Greyhound, and Trax - the Light Rail system - plus Greyhound). 4300ft of altitude is "just slightly" noticeable to one my age. After a quick stop back at the hotel, I got to the Intermodal station in time to meet Mr. Jeppson, buy my ticket (it's honor system; but don;t get caught) and board the train. Consist was three cars F-59, Comet (Horizon) Coach, and two Bombardier bi-levels. All equipment appeared immaculate, but then save the ex-NJT Comets, all is new.
As we departed on-time, Mr. Jeppson pointed out the array of brand new equipment 'just sitting'. This equipment is to be used for the "done deal" of extending Southward to Provo and some limited service North to Brigham City. Hey, if you have funding today, go for it; who knows what tomorrow may bring.
Frontrunner operates on their own right of way laid along that of the UP SLC-Ogden. The former D&RGW has merely become industrial sidings or has been abandoned. Part of "the deal" between the sponsoring transit agency, UTA, and UP is that, in exchange for getting the access UTA got "for a song" is that UP can operate over the single track with sidings at stations UTA right-of-way but not vice versa. Apparently UP was motivated to sell them ROW for a song lest someone impose on them to have the service operated over THEIR lines.
We were not exactly sitting "center car', but the track was exceptionally smooth, and 79mph is easily attained by an F-59 handling three cars.
If I have suggested that "all they did was lay another track along the UP", when arriving at Ogden, one realizes that this is no shoestring operation. The line diverges away from the UP near Roy Jct (the Jct about one mile East of the OUD where the line to SLC and the SP Lucin Cutoff lines diverge) and proceeds on a massive "flyover" track atop the now rather unused yards at Ogden.
The station at Ogden is somewhat North of the OUD, which has now been converted to a museum and a "shoppertainment plaza'.
Mrs. Jeppsen was not feeling well, so we returned on the same train South as we rode North. No one ever asked to see our tickets, but somehow I think farebeating is dealt with severely. Lew gave me a ride back to the Marriott and that was that.
At Salt Lake, I think the service is somewhat hampered by a bad location; as the "intermodal center" is further West than is the D&RGW station, which is now a State office building. Commuters, as distinct from joyriding railfans - especially one who likes to get his two miles a day on the clock in perfect weather, may find the location inconvenient to Salt Lake's 'center' of Temple and Main. It is "too bad" that both the D&RGW station and the OUD have been converted to other uses, but that is simply a "casualty" when an area goes without any meaningful passenger service for almost four decades.
Now, a word on Salt Lake City, this is a growing and vibrant city and becoming a magnet for the young almost to the same extent as is Denver. It is "light years' ahead of Denver in developing mass transportation, and there is a massive office-entertainment-residential project moving forth within sight of Temple Square. It appears a place that the question 'recession, what recession?" can aptly be raised. The performance of Verdi's Requiem I attended at Abravenel Hall that Saturday evening with the Utah Symphony and Chorus was 'World class" in every respect.
Lest one wonder, the city has become far more cosmopolitan than I found it to be forty two years ago. You can walk into a bar and "order up' nowadays. The influence of the LDS Church is still great, but there is nothing in the Church's doctrine forbidding hard work and enterprise. The results clearly show and are favorable
irishchieftain Member # 1473
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IINM, the Frontrunner operation has no "F-59s" (presuming F59PHI variant, 710-powered), but all locomotives are the Wabtec-built MP36PH-3C (645-powered).
The Comets that Frontrunner uses are the original Erie-Lackawanna/NJDOT "Comet I" cars built by Pullman Standard and delivered in 1971, and are rather far away from the Bombardier-built Horizon cars, even with the rebuild by Bombardier they got in 1987. They retain the original doors for low platforms only that they were delivered with; NJ Transit did not rebuild them with high platform doors despite the fact that they were starting to build high platforms on their Hoboken Division in the late 1980s.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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I appreciate and stand corrected with regards to UTA equipment, Mr. Chieftain. F-59's and MP-36 locomotives look about the same to me. I do get to regularly see MP-36's as METRA has several of their fleet assigned to handle BNSF trains. F-59's I only see when one is in consist of Amtrak #3 or 4, Southwest Chief, which is only when such is being moved to Beech Grove IN through Chicago for "heavy" repairs (railroadese for any work requiring an overhead crane).
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