A Utah Slow BY DOUG HARROP/PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
ON A WARM AFTERNOON in July 1978, a Utah Railway coal train rolled out of Martin, Utah, the railroad’s main yard and headquarters
town, and eased
down to Utah Railway Junction where it was greeted by a green signal. The crew no doubt relished their good for- tune. It was 3:00 p.m. and on this day there would be no long wait for Rio Grande trains to clear the junction. Ahead was a daylight run over Soldier Summit and on down to Provo and, hopefully, an early quit.
The train entered Rio Grande Main
Two and remained there, not crossing to Main One, the normal westbound track. This most likely meant one thing given the time of day —as was the case several times each week in the after- noon or early evening, the dispatcher had a Rio Grande westbound ready to depart Helper, three miles to the east. Sure enough, as the Utah caboose clat- tered over the switch, Rio Grande sym- bol FMS approached the junction on Main One. The FMS was not a “shoot-
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er” and certainly not the Rio Grande Zephyr, but rather a full tonnage train with two SD40T-2s and two GP40-2s up front with two more four axle motors pushing behind the caboose. The Utah train was headed by three recently leased Union Pacific SD40/SD40-2s (which had freed up the usual Alco power for mine runs) with a helper made up of three Alco RSD-15s and an RSD-12. With both trains at maximum tonnage, it would have been an even bet as to which one would reach Kyune, the end of the toughest part of the 2.4 per cent grade, first.
At Lynn, the Rio Grande engine crew exchanged shouted greetings with the Utah helper crew. As the trains ap- proached the Nolan Tunnels, the Utah train was still 20 cars in the lead but was clearly, slowly, losing the race. As the Rio Grande helper passed what had been a pristine summer setting a few minutes earlier, was now a canyon full of smoke.
The snail’s pace race continued as
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