Steam Inside The Cab:

UP 3985, the Challenger:

MP154

Westbound Double Stack Through Colfax

Whilst, any more, double-stack traffic over Donner is not quite the stunning rage it was since November of 2009 -- there were two unique aspects of this train worthy of documentation.

To begin, these were the very first photos taken with my new Nikon Coolpix P100. Therefore, antsy to use the camera, I rushed to photograph the first train I found. And this was it. [More about this and other cameras I utilize in a later post.]

Second, I noticed one of the trailing DPUs was occupied. Look at photo # 7, the close-up of UP 7894, and you can see someone sitting in the conductor's position. I have, to this point, never seen an occupied helper/pusher/DPU set in close to ten years. [Click on each photo to enlarge.]

It's also interesting to note that this train had only one unit on point. UP 8421, an EMD SD70ACe with 4,300 hp, powered by Electro Motive Diesel's 16-710G3C-T2 engine. That engine designation indicates 16-cylinders, with each cylinder displacing 710 cubic inches.

Finally, as you can see, there were two DPUs at the end, UP 7894 (GE ES44AC) and UP 6053 (GE C44ACCTE).

Coming soon: notes about cameras, digital photography and shooting philosophies.

MP154