Our Last Trip on Amtrak’s Pioneer

As you may or may not know, this train was slated to be discontinued in November, 1996, but has since been extended to May 1997. UPDATE: The train was finally discontinued May 10, 1997. There have been discussions about reviving this train along a slightly different routing between Chicago and Cheyenne. The best estimate we have about this new train is either the Fall of 1997, or never....

During our vacation to Colorado in 1996, it was decided to take a couple of days out to travel on Amtrak's Pioneer on a round trip Denver to Ogden.

Dawn and I have ridden the other portions of this route previously, so we wanted to ride this portion while we could. Here are a few pictures of our trip.

We left Denver pretty close to on time, and were delayed between Greeley and Borie because a passenger was experiencing medical problems. The train stopped just short of the crossing in the town of Nunn, CO, and we waited for an ambulance. The ambulance showed up in about 10 minutes, and we were on our way.

We stopped at Borie, and continued on to Laramie. About half way to Laramie, the crew was asking on the intercom, is there a doctor on the train? If so, please come to the lounge car" We found out later our chef was experiencing a heart attack, and another ambulance met us at the Laramie station stop. The Coach attendant filled as a Chef. He did an excellent job.

Laramie is also a Smoking stop for passengers. This gave Dawn and I enough time to get a picture or two of the train at the station

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and the scenery interesting. Somewhere in western Wyoming, the train stopped very quickly. I knew we were in emergency, as the brakes made the characteristic "Sphew" sound of dumping the air. We could also tell that we had hit something, as pieces of something went flying by our window. It turns out that we had hit an elk, and an air hose had separated. We were on our way in a few minutes. We arrived at Ogden close to on time (less than 1 hour late) and got a taxi to our motel.

Our return train was scheduled to arrive at o-dark-thirty in the morning, so we set our alarm and went to sleep. When the alarm sounded, I called Amtrak's 1-800 number and found out the train was only 1 hour late. We decided to go to the station. Our cab driver didn't know where it was! Good thing I brought a map, and directed her to the station.

When we got settled in the station, the agent said the locomotives were experiencing tracking problems (too much lateral motion at high speeds) and were now 2 hours late. He also said that the locomotives were equipped with some sort of satellite tracking and since the locomotives were not going to run at track speed, they would probably be 3 hours late into Ogden. The agent went and got complimentary coffee, juice, donuts and rolls when the bakery opened, and the waiting crowd (about a dozen or so by now) had breakfast.

We finally boarded our train, and took a spot in the ex-Santa Fe transition car. We watched as the crews exchanged pleasantries.

As soon as the conductor took our tickets, we took our maps, timetables, scanners and cameras to the Lounge. It was not actually a lounge, but a 2nd dining car attached to the train pressed into lounge service. Dawn and I had a great time hanging around the crew doing their work.

Just outside of Ogden, the scenery is great! Just the kind of thing one would expect from the western United States.

Then you enter Weber Canyon. Cliffs straight up on one side, and a river, freeway and more cliffs on the other side.

By now, the new crew had been able to carefully test the locomotives at high speed. They had no problems, so we made pretty good time for a while in Wyoming.

Granger, WY is the junction of the Union Pacific's line to Portland, OR. After seeing many soda ash trains and 100 ton cylindrical hoppers, it was neat to see these loads waiting at the junction.

We arrived at Green River about 3 hours down. Here is a photo of the minimilist Amtrak station. The large building in the background is the Union Pacific crew hotel.

Our train at Green River

Somewhere west of Green River, an automatic defect detector stabs our train with "integrity failure". The crew radios the dispatcher who advises "restricted speed to next detector". We linp along at 35 MPH or so for 40 miles. We also pass a work crew replacing a crossing while at this speed, and we pass them very very slowly. The remains of a coal and water facility are seen while traveling at this very low speed.

Just as on the westbound trip, Laramie is a smoking stop. The platforms get pretty busy at these stops.

We also went up front to photograph the Locomotive. As you may have guessed, it had been snowing during the trip.

The stop at West Cheyenne / Borie was about 3.5 hours late. It was cold, wet and dark for those passengers detraining there. We finally pulled into Denver almost 4 hours late, but we still beat the CZ into the station.

We also came back to Borie a few days later to show friends what Borie looked like in the daylight.

Again, the train was late

The train finally showed about 2 hours late.

The passengers bound for Cheyenne boarded the Ambus.

To go to the Amtrak office in Cheyenne.

Avoiding a long (10 mile) backup move to the Union Pacific Railroad station in Cheyenne.

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Our Last Trip on Amtrak's Pioneer