Due to a fatal automobile accident involving Rio Grande's Midvale Tramp in West Jordan, the D&RGW sought ways to increase the train's visibility. SD9 #5310 was modified to include a oscillating Gy... (more)

Few deserts are truly flat. . .certainly the Rio Grande in eastern Utah isn't--a series of dips up and down from water course to water course brings the railroad across the lunar landscape from He... (more)

Rio Grande Business Car 100, the 'Wilson McCarthy' is spotted on the house track at Castilla on July 16, 1983. This happened to be the first day Amtrak's California Zephyr trains #5 and 6 ran acro... (more)

Although this line is owned by UP, you would never know by the looks of it. Trackage rights trains from BNSF and UTAH out numbered UP trains 2 to 1... literally, only three trains ran all day.

Utah Railway's shop and adjoining offices are the closest thing to a real life model railroad I've ever seen. Not only is the complex perched on a picturesque ridge with a small yard and oversized... (more)

Surrounded by verdant spring greens, Union Pacific's OMIGV travels east along the SP Provo Subdivision with 107 loads of iron ore for Geneva Steel in Vineyard.

A pair of Rio Grande GP9s drag a heavy coal train across the Union Pacific Provo Subdivision at Lakota Crossing. In 1985, these diamonds were removed and switches added to connect UP trains onto t... (more)

Not your typical power set at Rio Grande's Roper Yard in the 1980s! The D&RGW's famous F9 trio were assigned to work ballast trains after the demise of the Rio Grande Zephyr. The 5771, 5762, 5763 ... (more)

By the mid-1980s, most cabooses on the D&RGW were living on borrowed time. Caboose 01489 was spotted in fresh paint near Provo on June 20, 1984. It was originally constructed by the Rio Grande at ... (more)

It looked like all hope for a good railfanning day was lost when a semi slipped down an embankment and onto the tracks right around daybreak. However, UP and DOT crews quickly cleaned up the mess.... (more)

Union Pacific's Yermo, CA to Salt Lake City, UT manifest glides east along the Provo Sub (now the Sharp Sub) in the farming community of Benjamin. The photographer's 1990 VW Corrado G60 waits on U... (more)

On July 4, 1983, the D&RGW opened a new mainline through the Thistle Tunnel, bypassing the old town of Thistle buried beneath a 300 foot natural dam and submerged beneath a new lake. The first thr... (more)

Rio Grande's Tintic Local prepares to depart the mainline at Springville for a journey down the Tintic Branch. Today's duties will include stops at the Keigley dolomite quarry at milepost 16 and a... (more)

Rio Grande's priority piggyback train #101 glides west through Spanish Fork Canyon at Castilla. Train 101 was interchange received from the BN at Denver and delivered to the SP at Ogden.