Denver Blizzard: Part II

Listening to Denver radio station KOA at the moment:

http://www.850koa.com/pages/listen.html

The situation is getting rough there again...I-70 is again closed from Denver to the Kansas State Line. Many flights were already canceled at Denver International.

So that leaves Trains 6&7 in and out of Denver.

Any Denver area posters here? How are you coping with the weather?

Here's an update:

I-70 is closed from Denver to the Kansas line. I-70 is open west into the mountains but with chains required.

DIA is still open but with many flights canceled, its not very crowded.

Greyhound has canceled its runs into and out of Denver.

All this comes from KOA radio.

Here is what BNSF is saying:

BNSF Railway wrote: To: All Impacted BNSF Customers
12/29/2006
Winter Weather - Colorado

As an update to the winter weather Service Advisory issued on Friday, December 22, 2006, BNSF customers will continue to incur delays due to the severe weather conditions throughout Colorado.

This inclement weather has been forecasted to continue into Saturday, December 30, 2006. Denver’s Intermodal Facility is fluid and operational, however, BNSF may hold Denver traffic at origin or stage online until conditions throughout the area improve.

Customers may experience 48 to 72 hours delay on traffic moving through this region.

That does not bode well for 5(29)(30) and perhaps (31) as they come westward from Omaha. It equally does not bode well for 6 (28)(29) and perhaps (30) when they transit out of Denver.

UP had not put up a service bulletin as I write this (1033 CST on the 29th) so the situation for 6(28)(29) and perhaps (30) inbound into Denver is just plain unknown.

While this snow event appears not to have been nearly as bad in scope as what happened last week, it nevertheless packed a punch. I-70 remains closed eastbound to the Kansas State line. In fact the closure extends all the way to Oakley, Kansas. In the meanwhile, I-25 is closed from Trinidad south to the New Mexico line.

Lets hope that 5 & 6 and 3 & 4 are continuing to move along albeit with some weather-related delays.

From a different railroad board, it's possible 3/4 are being rerouted Belen NM - Wellington, KS. Ho Hum, the route of the San Francisco Chief!

UP's last service notice for the High Plains and Rockies was Dec 21.

In fact, the most recent notice is the 230PM update on the Amtrak homepage for Cascades service in Washington State.

Update on the blizzard situation:

I-70 is now closed as far east as Russell, Kansas.

I-25 is now closed as far south as Albuquerque, NM

They have to keep them coal train moving on the Moffat and Joint Lines to keep the utility plants primed and ready. Any status on coal movements?

BlockLine_4111 wrote:They have to keep them coal train moving on the Moffat and Joint Lines to keep the utility plants primed and ready. Any status on coal movements?

Generating stations typically keep 30 to 90 days of coal inventory on hand for reliability. More when mining or transportation strikes are threatened. A few days of interruption should not be an issue, though there is a need to make up supplies once the tracks are clear.

BNSF has a service bulletin up for the Nebraska Racetrack (Denver to Omaha).

There is no parallel bulletin on UP for the ex D&RGW line (Moffatt Tunnel Route), and there is no report of delay on Amtrak.com.

I heard we (Union Pacific) went in the ditch somewhere out there in the Nebraska area on December 31st. Throw in the ice and snow and holiday, heard theres well over 100 trains tied down between Green River and Omaha.

Dec. 29, 2006
New UPOnline issue every Monday, Wednesday and Friday


Preparations Under Way for Winter Storm


With another round of heavy snow forecast for Colorado, Wyoming and western Nebraska, Union Pacific began blizzard preparations Wednesday. Another one to two feet of snow is forecast to fall in some of the same areas paralyzed by a severe winter storm before Christmas.

Forecasts called for heavy snow to begin falling across portions of New Mexico and Colorado Thursday night into Friday evening before spreading northeast into southeastern Wyoming, western Nebraska, northwestern Kansas and southwestern South Dakota. The storm is expected to continue moving to the northeast on Saturday afternoon into Monday.

UP's winter weather plans for the affected areas:

Extra personnel are on duty at the Harriman Dispatching Center to coordinate storm response.
North Platte is on elevated status, with all managers on standby.
"Blizzard buses" – specially outfitted cabooses – are in position at South Morrill, North Platte, Cheyenne and Green River to help transport crews. All sets will have double-ended power.
The diner car is available at Denver for crew transport.
Trains will be operated over the Yoder Subdivision every four hours to plow snow and keep the route open.
Maintenance of Way crews are stationed at Egbert to assist with lining trains to the Yoder.
No trains are being drug out or held in the storm-affected areas.
A jet engine is in place at the Denver yard to blow snow from switches.
Equipment has been stationed at various locations to handle snow removal.
Systemwide, Union Pacific's operating plan for the New Year's holiday weekend calls for thru-freight trains to operate normally through the holiday period. Reduced yard and local assignments will occur based on customer needs, coupled with traffic demand and availability. Union Pacific will continue normal delivery and acceptance of interchange trains.

How's about moving this topic to the Western Railfan Forum?

Why, because you sent it off topic?

Yep, according to Johns PM, i guess because i didnt use the word Amtrak on my first post and the news i posted from the UP Employee site didnt mention Amtrak that it has nothing to do with passenger operations in Denver. Mine as well move it.... Maybe ill ask Otto.

UPRR engineer wrote:Yep, according to Johns PM, i guess because i didnt use the word Amtrak on my first post and the news i posted from the UP Employee site didnt mention Amtrak that it has nothing to do with passenger operations in Denver. Mine as well move it.... Maybe ill ask Otto.

How 'bout we just split it and we can have the best of both worlds?