The Deseret Power Trip

Consciously or not, everybody has a bucket list. Usually experiences, like seeing certain bands live, or visiting a special place, or even just meeting artists or actors - they vary a lot, essentially. Everyone's list is different from another person. For myself, I've managed to cross off a lot of items on my list - seeing my favourite band live, traveling to various places, collecting certain items, the works. The bulk of my bucket list, though, is made up of mostly things or places I want to photograph. Getting to shoot the UP Big Boy? Check. Shoot every set of ex-Wabash signals on the Bloomington District? Check. Plenty of RoadRailer photo spots - yep, check. Plenty of signals - Trilights, Semaphores, CPLs and PLs, R2/P5s - checked most of those off. There's always just been this one thing that always felt just out of reach though, and that was a proper electrified freight train.

Well, after a last minute surprise roadtrip, I've finally checked another big ticket item off of my bucket list thanks to the Deseret Power Railway.

So, why Deseret? What's special about electric freight?

Now, for me, I'm not terribly interested in passenger trains, so while there's plenty of electric trains to shoot in the northeast - and even a few in my home state of Illinois - I'm not exactly drawn to them. I wouldn't go out of my way for them, though I'd take a photo if I happened through the area with my camera, but nothing more. I'm not sure I can really explain why this difference exists for passenger and freight for me, but it does. Maybe it's mostly due to the greater variety of stuff you can see with freight, generally. Also possibly due to the fact I don't actually like riding passenger trains - so much less convenient than just driving, and I get motion sick on them very easily too, because of course I do. Give me a car any day of the week.

At any rate, electrically powered trains in North America are significantly less numerous than their diesel-electric counterparts. This is for several reasons, but ultimately, the biggest one is that's incredibly expensive. Electrics require overhead wire over all tracks they operate on, which adds up to be a ton of copper - plus the poles that hold them up, as well as insulators, substations, feed wires, and more. Upfront cost is gigantic and your maintenance bill has dramatically risen, if not doubled or more. Plus, with thousands of volts of electricity in those wires, it's a hell of a lot more dangerous - you don't get to come back after grabbing a catenary! Electric locomotives also suffer from a lack of versatility - yes they can do anything a diesel can do, but they can't go everywhere a diesel can go. If there's no wire, there's no train. There's a ton of rail lines in the US where electrification will never make economic sense - yes, electrify the mainline with 40 intermodal trains a day, but the line that only sees one piddly local a week or month - that isn't worth it. Formerly electric railroads in the past dealt with this issue a lot, especially ones like the long-gone Milwaukee Road and its multiple electric districts. You can see the challenge here, certainly.

So why bother electrifying trains at all then? Several reasons. Electric locomotives are by and large more powerful, and so you can likely replace diesels with fewer electrics yet still move the same amount of stuff. Modern US diesels top out at 4400hp reliably, but 6000 and 10,000hp electrics were built in the 1970s as demos - hell, we even had 5000hp electrics built in the late 1940s! Not to mention, it's generally cheaper to maintain those electrics. There's far fewer parts in those things, and you don't have to maintain a whole engine - think about the size of these diesel engines in modern diesel locomotives, think about all the parts and work it takes to keep them pumping. Electrics don't have that! Plus, they're better for the environment. Trains in general are better for the environment than mass trucking, but electrics are just a bit better still.

So, what if your whole railroad is electrified?

Deseret Power is a prime example of American electrification done right. The Deseret is a privately owned, isolated rail line. It does not connect with the national grid - when they got their locomotives delivered, they had to be taken in by truck! Deseret is essentially a rail conveyor belt, built to take coal from mine to power plant. Incredibly, they exist solely because the state of Colorado wouldn't let them build a new coal power plant at the mine. Somehow, they got the rights to mine, but not to burn... But Utah was friendly to a power plant! Consider for a moment that Deseret is hauling coal to a power plant, it's extremely, extremely isolated, and they aren't a terribly long line... Well, why not electrify it? They make their own fuel and power. It's a perfect closed loop!

Deseret was the last in this niche of electrified coal conveyor belt railroads. The Muskingum Electric Railroad in Ohio was the first that really fit the bill, followed by the Black Mesa & Lake Powell of Arizona, the Navajo Mining Railroad of New Mexico, and the little-known Texas Utilities of... Texas. All of these railroads share three things: they existed solely to haul coal, were electrified, and then de-electrified. Or in the case of the Muskingum and BM&LP, they just completely died outright and do not exist anymore. Navajo de-electrified about a decade ago, and Texas Utilities dropped its wires five or ten years before they did. BMLP survived until 2019 until the coal power plant was shut down, meanwhile the Muskingum was closed by 2002. Muskingum, also, was notable in that it hauled coal that was mined by way of the Big Muskie, the largest walking dragline ever built - it also experimented with entirely crewless autonomous trains! Literally a conveyor belt.

Today, only the Deseret Power survives under wires. Originally named Deseret Western, the DPR changed its identity about twenty years ago but continued providing the same service as always. They started with just two factory-fresh General Electric E60C-2s and hauled short strings of coal overnight, until eventually becoming a daytime operation. Extremely remote, the DPR is one of the most easily forgotten railroads in the nation - very few people get out there to shoot it because of how far away it is from, well, everything. Dinosaur and Rangely, CO are the nearest towns. Cell service is spotty, and some of the roads are, well, less than stellar. Little info exists on how the Deseret operates its trains, adding yet another layer to shroud them in mystery.

I'm far from the only person who remembers them and wants to shoot them, though. A couple of my buddies have been there or expressed interest, though planning trips out there is tricky because of distance. A few months ago however, one of my friends brought up that he was planning to go out and get them finally, if he could line everything up. He'd be driving all the way from the east coast and would pass within spitting distance of me, so I joked that he should pick me up on the way. Turns out, that would be more possible than we expected.

As time passed, trip plans continued to change, but eventually they did just include me coming along anyway, if things worked out. His original partner in this trip was forced to back out due to work and scheduling. It didn't take long for the plans to start mirroring the past two years of Virginia / N&W CPL trips where myself and two friends would meet in Roanoke and go after the aging N&W signals in the region. Somehow, the three of us wound up planning to go to Deseret this year. Happy accidents, yeah?

We started locking in plans as the dates quickly approached. All three of us live in different places - myself in Illinois, Jack in Delaware, and Audie in North Carolina. The plan became Audie flying up to Jack and the two of them driving out to Illinois. We'd shoot some RoadRailers, then speed off to the west, shoot Deseret, make some stops along the way home, and they'd continue back to the east coast after returning through Illinois. It'd be tight, but everything seemed good to go! In fact, I even have a map of what our route wound up (mostly) being:

And then the news broke the night before his flight, Audie had covid. How's that for a kick in the teeth? Realistically, we knew even if we were all sick, we'd all be okay, but that still wouldn't be ideal - nor would flying while sick. We had to make a last minute change and decided that Jack would still drive out to me and we'd drive west as normal, and then if Audie was good enough by the time we reached Denver, he'd fly out to us there, and we'd continue the trip as normal. We were comfortable enough with that, and so that was the plan.

A day and a half later and Jack was at my doorstep. My little car was going to be put to its ultimate test this trip, but I'd used the first half of the week to make sure it was in good running shape, even getting a fresh set of tires for this trip - I needed them pretty bad, anyway. Already half a day ahead of schedule, we decided to go ahead and head down to the NS after loading up my car and chase the RoadRailer as far west as we could, hoping to make Hannibal at the MO-IL border by nightfall.

We were very successful in our RoadRailer efforts. 255 made for a great chase from Rumple all the way to Hannibal itself, with shots coming out well at Decatur, Illiopolis and Lanesville, Valley City, Griggsville, and Banks. This was the farthest I'd ever chased a 255 - and as the RoadRailer is now gone, this will remain my record.

Finally getting RoadRailers at searchlights was a wonderful feeling - that was a big ticket item on my RoadRailer photo bucket list! The timing on this train was excellent, and we were in Hannibal before 8pm. Of course, 255 stopped there because of air line issues, so our chances at one last shot were dashed there. Still, we were making excellent time. A little bit of thinking and we realized we could easily make it to Kansas City that night which would put us in a fantastic position in our schedule. We decided to go for it! Things worked out even better when along the way, while messaging some friends, one of them in KC offered us a place to stay for the night for free. An incredibly kind gesture that we certainly took up - big ups Parker for that!

The next morning, we were up bright and early. It was time to tackle Kansas itself, making this the first time I'd ever been to the state. I knew it was not going to be a terribly exciting drive, but I still wasn't prepared for it. Probably didn't help that I hadn't gotten all that much sleep the night before, but safe to say, Kansas was a real long bloody day. One bright spot in it was a pitstop in Salina, where we checked out the UP and some interesting tracklaying choices (there's a railroad diamond just in the middle of a road crossing... funky!). We had just gotten back on I-70 when our scanner lit up and announced the arrival of UTAH5005. Now, if that number doesn't turn your head... well, that's understandable. However, we knew what that was - one of the extremely elusive MK5000Cs (now MK50-3s) assigned to the KYLE Railroad.

Some on the fly research confirmed KYLE ran into Salina, so we spun around and went to look and see. Amazingly, we did find it. It's one of the G&W painted units, but still a unique catch. The cab and nose design is certainly an... acquired taste, shall we say. Still, with only six of these things in existence, actually getting to see one was a pleasant surprise. I think it's the only time I've shot something in G&W paint and not felt bad about it.

We weren't terribly thrilled with the lighting situation, but as we saw the conductor coming back from tying some handbrakes, we just asked what the plan was for the train. Friendly guy, basically said they would be wying the power then looking to see what cars for them UP had - if they were all there and ready to go, they'd get moving fairly quick. If not, they'd be tying down and sitting. So, figuring that if nothing else we could get roster shots, we decided to stay for a little while. Of course, we did set an arbitrary time limit to keep us from getting behind.

Wying the power didn't take terribly long and allowed us to get a better look at that unique cab design. Just... strange, isn't it?

Unfortunately for us, UP hadn't yet gotten all the cars for the KYLE into the yard yet, so they'd be tying down after finishing up wying. So we got our last photos and got back on the road. Still, we were happy to have seen one of these rare locomotives and get some good light on the nose, even if it was just light power. The CORP tunnel motor was a neat little bonus behind it, too.

As we progressed farther west, we made the decision to hop off of the interstate and take state highways the rest of the way, with the hope of running across BNSF or K&O along the way. We saw a lot of tracks, plenty of dusty little towns, and some freight cars, but little else. Talk about a long damn drive, too. We passed through Garden City and took routes 400 and 50 farther west, with the goal of getting to Pueblo that night. Suffice to say, it was a lot of damn driving. By the time we got into Colorado, I was definitely wilting.

As we got farther along, we got some information from a friend of Jacks in the area about some train movements. Despite my inner desire to just keep going, we did stop for some quick grabs of BNSF trains. Some PRB coal south of Las Animas, then some high-and-wides at Manzanola.

As we neared Pueblo, Jack said that if we met up with his buddy, we had a good photo opportunity or two to get. I was really exhausted at this point with little sleep and having done the whole days drive, so I was more than ready to veto this, but then he said there were some old Searchlights involved, so, naturally, I went along with it. As it turned out, we couldn't have timed it better. We pulled up, met with his friend, drove around Pueblo for a minute before learning our train was on the move, then zipped right back to the signals just in time to get a nice evening light photo.

As tired as I was, I couldn't complain about that. Pretty sure that's the first time I've shot GRS signals, or at least knowingly shot them, which was neat. We followed our man for another shot, but clouds off of the Rockies were taking out our light pretty quick.

With that though, we finally agreed to call it a day. I can't tell you how relieving that was! We booked a last minute hotel nearby, got food, and then hit the hay damn quick. I slept exceptionally well that night.

Of course, as much as I would have loved to sleep in, that wasn't in the cards - it wouldn't be in the cards the whole trip, as it happens - and we were up early the next day. I did have the energy to drive again though, so hey, that was good.

We spent the morning searching and waiting for some BNSF trains, but holdups for whatever reason didn't quite allow for that. We did eventually find a stack train heading out of town, so we grabbed a very simple photo of it just for the sake of it. The mountains in the background were really the highlight, at least for me. Far from fancy, but it's something a little different from home anyway.

One thing we knew about the day before and were hoping to see that morning was the BN duo in town. BNSFs yard in Pueblo hosted two Burlington Northern locomotives recently, and we were crossing our fingers they were still there and would come out enough to snap a few photos of. Happily, they were still there, and we found our way over to them eventually. They didn't play ball with us though and stayed pretty tucked into the yard, but we were able to sneak a decent view of them from the road.

We decided to get going out of Pueblo after we had enough of waiting for those motors. Today would hopefully be the day we'd pick up Audie if he gave us the all-clear, so we wanted to be ready for that. Plus, maybe snatch a few more photos along the way. We saw some and heard others on our way north - even seeing one that had broken in half, and based on radio chatter, the crew wasn't aware of it either. Didn't get any photos of it unfortunately, but that made for a fun memory.

As we neared Denver, we veered off the highway to sneak a quick look at an H1 Dash 9 tied down on an MOW siding in Sedalia. We had the time, so why not? All about that view, once again.

This is, of course, where the car developed a check engine light. Because of course it did. A little research suggested that this was potentially due to the altitude, the lower oxygen causing the gas to not burn as efficiently, and upsetting the cars computer due to less clean exhaust. Seeing as everything continued to handle fine, we carried on, but we would be paying close attention to the car the rest of the day, and trip.

On the way to Sedalia, we got great news though: Audie was clear to fly and had a negative covid test, feeling far better. That was a relief. So, we pushed on into Denver, though naturally, we went looking for more train stuff, once again with info from Jacks friend. If there's one thing you learn with hanging out with Jack, it's that you are constantly hunting for another train to shoot. I tend to opt for just going for a sure thing, only what I've planned for. Each option has its ups and downs, though, neither is perfect. We did snatch a UP train coming into the northeast side of Denver, by Commerce City. Had to kill some time waiting for Audie's flight anyways.

Eventually though, we got moving to the airport after confirming Audie had landed. A much needed stop for gas later, and I finally gave up the drivers seat. It was both pretty nice to take a break from it, but also anxiety inducing not being in control of my own car. Feels weird to be a passenger, and by god I could so easily be the worst backseat driver if I didn't know how to bite my tongue. Safe to say we have different driving styles, one faster than the other. Personally, I like to reserve my speed for when its most necessary, like during a good chase. But that's just me, anyway.

At any rate, we were able to quickly locate Audie, pick him up, and get on our merry way once again. With a six hour drive to Rangely to go, we set off. I-70 sure was quite the test for my little Kia Rio... I wasn't prepared for how crazy of a road that was!

It was interesting to see just how different and similar the drives through the Rockies are. I had previously gotten a taste for it during my 2019 Big Boy trip, chasing into Utah and then visiting some Milwaukee Road electrification remnants in Montana. It's fascinating to see how the landscape changes. I-70 was definitely the more challenging road compared to I-80 or I-90, and it really put my car to the test. The sheets of rain we encountered from time to time didn't help, either, but despite the struggle, we pressed on.

You'll forgive me for the less than beautiful phone photos from inside the car, but you can definitely see a change in the terrain as we got farther west. More rocky, potentially drier as well. It was a definite surprise, but very interesting to see. This terrain is so unlike anything back home, so it was definitely nice to be in the passengers seat and just sit back and marvel at it. Of course, eventually we started to see the mothballed tracks of the old Tennessee Pass, and eventually the other tracks that were in service and following the highway and river. As you'd expect, somebody was fiending for the opportunity to get a shot, but we did need to get to Rangely, and light was far from favourable anyway.

We stopped in Rifle for gas and food, then I called our hotel in Rangely to make sure we could check in as we would definitely be coming after the normal check in window ended. Thankfully, there was a solution, which was they would leave out the key cards and sign in sheet in an envelope for us to find, so we were set. Just had to get there first.

By the time we got out of Rifle, it was starting to get dark. Silhouettes of the mountains and ridges that followed our road were all we got as we continued on. Route 13 and then 64 led us to Rangely, but that was, for me, an intensely anxiety inducing drive. I had no cell service at all between Rifle and Rangely, only a smidge when we near to Meeker, and it was dark. Proper dark, no light pollution to speak of. The thought of hitting a deer or pronghorn out there was a little more than just unsettling. At least the physical condition of the road was good. Distant storms with vibrant lightning didn't make things any more comfortable, though... I just crossed my fingers they were indeed very distant.

Thankfully they were, and we also arrived in Rangely without incident. We found our envelope with key cards, found our room, and crashed pretty much immediately. We had an early morning the next day - we were really here, with Deseret within our grasp. It was an exhilarating feeling, and also a bit nerve wracking too. We wouldn't have much margin for error with this trip - every photo counted!

After an all too short night, we were up just before dawn and out of town just as the first glimmers of light were cropping up over the ridges. Finally getting to see some of the terrain we'd driven through the night before as light reached us was a real breathtaker. Safe to say, we were finally in the desert. Although plant life was around, things were definitely dry, with sand and sandstone making up some of this awesome terrain. Of course, there wasn't yet time to gawk at that, as we had to get into position to check out the railroad.

If you take a road towards the Desarado coal mine, you'll eventually be high up on a ridge that overlooks the mine loadout, and where the railroad keeps its equipment. We finally located this, hitting our first of many gravel roads, and looked down from high above. What an incredible view that was, overlooking the mine as the sun began to climb.

The mine loadout is faintly visible down there... look closely!

As is often the case in this hobby, it was time to hurry up and wait. You do a lot of this with railroad photography, I've come to find. So, wait we did, idly watching the loadout from above. The typical trio of locomotives sat just under the loadout, coal hoppers behind them, plus a few of the former NdeM locomotives were visible in a storage track. All were quiet, of course. We heard some interesting noises, coming to realize that was probably the huge conveyor belt between the actual mine and the loadout kicking online. Then, one of our routine checks with our telephoto lenses showed the lead locomotive of the three suddenly had its running lights on. That was a good sign.

Eventually, the other two locomotives had their running lights come on, and pantographs were raised to the catenary. Our info was definitely good - they were getting ready to load up a train. Of course, once we had confirmation of this, we decided to go ahead and go to our first photo spot of the day. Jacks friend who had originally been part of this trip, but had to cancel due to scheduling, had given him a list of locations we could realistically access given what car we were using. Evidently, he'd done a trip here with something not too dissimilar, so that was good information. That info, paired with our own observations, would come in very handy for sure.

It was probably a fifteen or twenty minute drive to our photo spot, just south of Dinosaur, CO. There really is a little town called Dinosaur, and yes, most of the street names are named after different dinosaurs. My wife cannot wait to visit this place. As it happens, the Dinosaur National Moment is nearby, hence the town. The highway south out of Dinosaur leads back to Rangely, but just before the junction with a road we would later learn to kind of fear, there's a turnoff to a remote crossing at a dirt road flanked by ridges on the far side of the tracks. I'm sure you can see where this is going.

After parking in the least dodgy spot I could find, we made our first little hike into the desert. Of course, it's not like we're walking miles in sandy nothingness like you'd see in a movie. Rather, we're talking like 500 feet from the car. Of course, it's not only dry as fuck out, but also we're nearly 6,000ft above sea level. Plus, climbing a bit. I'm far from in shape, and although it wasn't exactly a tough climb, I was surprised by just how fast I was out of breath. Elevation really, really does matter.

At any rate, our short little climb was worth the view for certain.

I think, for a sense of scale, you need to see the car.

I'm sure natives to the region or the Rockies and a myriad of other places would scoff and say this is nothing. But, considering I live, essentially, in the middle of a cornfield where the biggest hill is like twenty feet, this is pretty huge. I mean, there really aren't even hills to climb in my neck of the woods. Just like gentle slopes, or maybe a steep embankment at best. This was, as a whole, a very new thing for me - particularly venturing so far from the car!

At any rate, we expected to see our train within an hour, hour and a half or so. This of course was not the case. In the end, this actually was a good thing, as you'll note the sheets of clouds in the two photos above. Oh, man, were they frustrating. The morning sun was yet to burn them off, and a bank of them from the west was coming in at the perfect angle to keep blocking our light. Windows would appear, but they weren't enough, and if the train had shown up, we'd have been cloudfucked. Imagine driving well over 20 hours just to come get cloudfucked. This, friends, is what we call foreshadowing.

Thankfully for us, the trains morning delays - who knows what they were - worked out well. Finally, the sun did its duty of burning up the clouds, and although we certainly started feeling more heat, the light was only getting better and better for our shot. Still, we waited, and waited, and waited...

I heard it first, the distant chime of a Nathan P5. Faint, but I heard it for sure. After the mornings long wait - easily crossing the three hour mark - I nearly doubted myself, maybe I was just hearing what I wanted to hear. The others hadn't heard it, after all. But, a minute later, we all heard it again. A glance back at the sun confirmed we were good to go on light, no clouds incoming. Finally, it was showtime.

The howl of traction motors announced the presence of the Deseret Power E60C-2s as they rounded the curve behind the next ridge. These locomotives, built between 1982 and 1983, are the last of their kind in operation anywhere. They're also unique in that they operate at 50kvAC, rather than the typical 25kvAC most electric railroads adopted in the 1950s and beyond. Deseret is one of only two railroads in the world to operate at this insane voltage, with a total of only four ever operating at this voltage in history. These locomotives have a look and sound just unlike anything I'm used to back home.

Between the three of us, suffice to say a lot of shutters were firing off...

With a wave from the crew and some blasts of the horn, DPR 1 / 3 / 4 had passed us by. It was so quick, especially after the long wait, but oh-so worth it. This was exactly what we had been waiting for, and we were beyond pleased to finally have our first photos of electric freight in the US. These 45 year old machines look and sound damn good doing it. We felt almost vindicated after this. There was a lot of doubt leading up to and during the trip, plenty of unknowns, but to finally get it was such an incredible relief.

We were positively buzzing on our way back to the car. We were all happy with our shots and we still had more to go. Starting up the car again, that check engine light from earlier had even decided to turn off - everything was really going well! Surely, nothing could ruin this.

The Deseret is a railroad that really can't be chased. If you're really bold, you might be able to squeak something out, but we didn't have any plans to even attempt such a feat. The notion of doing so seemed even worse after we started down the road to Bonanza, Colorado 21 / Utah 3460. It's an alright road on the Colorado side, but that's the shorter side. The Utah side, however... I am going to have to get work done on my suspension a little sooner than planned, suffice to say. This road was in deplorable condition, to the point traveling at 40mph felt downright dangerous. If I wasn't awake earlier, I was now, and lots of swerving and eyes locked on the road was all too necessary. Yeesh.

Eventually, though, the Bonanza Power Plant came into view. Deseret owns this plant, as mentioned earlier, and this was where the coal would be going. There's a dirt road off of the much nicer Utah 65 highway that we were able to take to get a little closer and have a view of the plant and tracks. There's a classic shot to be had here of the train departing the plant, which we eagerly hoped to get.

There is a bit of a theme here, which is taking photos of my car in places it so absolutely does not belong. Bonanza is definitely one of them.

Well, we pulled up, got to watching from afar, and waited. And of course, this is where our luck for the day took a sharp turn. We saw a pickup truck parked nearby, with someone walking the tracks near it. Then, we saw probably the last thing we could have possibly wanted to see. Observe:

If you're not too familiar with trains and railroading, you may be asking what that little yellow creature is, and why it's a bad omen. That is a ballast tamper, which is a piece of maintenance of way equipment. It was joined by a ballast spreader, too. See, when maintenance equipment rolls out, that means the rail line is shut down to rail traffic. Do you see the issue here? I see the issue here.

Maintenance window. Now, the train still had to unload all its coal, and being that these coal hoppers are bottom-discharge, this would take a while - about two hours to be exact. We hoped against all hope that was as long as maintenance would last, but alas... it was not to be.

Our train should have left by noon or so, given its time of arrival. This of course did not happen. It was closer to 2:30pm by the time the E60s got to our position, the maintenance equipment having gone back to the plant about a half hour prior. Our light for the shot had died, the nose cast in shadow and the power plant equally dark. We all tried to make do with what we could, but we were all very frustrated to say the least. We still shot it, because we'd be fools not to, but it just wasn't what we wanted.

However, in our frustration, a new plan was formulated. We decided to actually try and race the thing back to the mine, where there was still one spot with suitable light. This would be a bold plan, especially considering that nasty ass road 3460, but it was our best chance at salvaging our shot. If you go to a maps view and follow the Deseret tracks, you'll note that 3460 / 21 and the Colorado highways really are not favourable for a chase. Pythagoras problem and all that - we have to go a lot farther than the train does.

After a very tiring run back to the car, we were quickly in motion. This would really put my driving and the car to the test. Deseret trains don't go terribly fast, but they have a direct path compared to us. It was a white knuckled drive, and excessive speed, where physically possible and safe, was definitely utilized.

We raced through Dinosaur, spotting the train in the distance. Ahead, but not by much. Clear of town, the road was nice and wide open...

By the time we were pulling up on the gravel road to our shot, we were not far ahead of our empty train. I gave it best possible speed, parked, and we scurried up the side of the hill. I was only just starting to set up for my shot when that distinctive traction motor whine came up around the curve. We had beaten them by no more than about one minute.

It was a close call, but it had actually worked out in our favour. We managed to get ahead and get something without a backlit nose, so we definitely all felt a bit better by now. Still, a proper break was all too necessary. Even more so after I lost my footing and slid down the hill - nice healthy coating of sand all over me and my camera, but no damage happily.

After spinning around and heading back towards real roads again, we met a pickup truck on the gravel road. He stopped and rolled down his window, and we did likewise. It turns out he actually worked for Deseret and was able to give us a little information, saying that the next crew to load the next train would be on soon and that they'd start loading at 4pm. That was handy! He also said they were likely to do more maintenance the next day, but wasn't sure if they would be holding up the train again or not. We were happy to have the information either way, and we thanked him before deciding to head back to Rangely.

In Rangely, we took some time to gas up, get food, and just take a break for a little bit. The day had been a bit all over the place, so decompressing was certainly welcome. Once we reconvened, we had to decide where to shoot the westbound loads coming up, and eventually we decided on Mormon Gap.

Foreshadowing! Remember that? Yeah, I'm not gonna dress it up, Mormon Gap was kind of a mess. Not only had light swung over to the wrong side of the tracks, but a surprise desert storm had cropped up, shooting clouds in every which direction. In one day, we'd managed to get screwed by a MOW window, and also cloudfucked. Geez. Talk about a rollercoaster.

Well, we just had to make do with what we had. I had hoped for the clouds to at least finish covering the rest of the sky, but not quite so. Rather, this shot turned into more of just a going away shot, which, eh. Still, gotta try and milk every spot for what you can...

The storm off in the distance did make for a good backdrop. The shot was better than nothing, but certainly not ideal. It did provide another prime example of places the car shouldn't be​, though, which is always fun.

I don't really know what we expected to get by going back to Bonanza, yet we still went back. Thankfully we didn't cross paths with the storm, but given the time of day, it seemed so unlikely we'd be able to get any kind of shot at all. Dramatic light and skies were neat, at least.

Continuing the trend...

Putting the emphasis on dramatic. It was well before this point that I knew this shot was a total bust - there was literally nothing to see after this, yet someone insisted on staying and trying to shoot it by using our pair of hi-power flashlights for illumination... 

Listen, when coyote howls reached us once the sun was totally down, I was absolutely done. There was no shot left to get, and even though it was (hopefully) not likely for us to encounter the local wildlife, I was not interested in finding out for myself. You hear coyotes in central Illinois from time to time, but there's enough civilization around to not have to worry too much, even in the most remote regions. Out here, where cell data barely exists, there's no margin for error here. No fucking around to be had.

Finally, we agreed to leave, though it was clearly a bit begrudgingly for the others. We were spinning around pretty much as the train was finally getting out of the plant, and we ran alongside it on our way out of the Bonanza plant road there. Getting back to Rangely in one piece is what counted though, and now we had to take that godforsaken 3460 back for the third time that day, and at night after it had rained. I don't think I've ever white knuckled a drive so hard in my entire life. It was slow going, brights on, yet still low visibility. Frankly, awful drive. Horrible road. Also, check engine light came back. Classic.

We eventually did get back to Rangely and hit the bed pretty quick. It was a day of mixed bags, suffice to say. We had gotten a couple of good or otherwise solid shots, but we'd also been kind of screwed, too. We just hoped that we could accomplish something good tomorrow at any rate.

Night came and went entirely too fast, as usual, but we were up early once again, and headed back to our mine loadout lookout post. We were still blinking away the remnants of sleep when we looked down and realized the train was not there. That was a heart stopper. We didn't wait long, debating what the hell was going on, and then we decided to just follow the tracks, head back to Bonanza again, and see if we could find it somewhere.

Incredibly, as we approached Dinosaur, a faint glimmer in the distance shone from the direction of the tracks. Somehow, our train was there. We couldn't have been more than five or ten minutes behind its departure time. The question became, could we actually catch up to the train? This early in the day, the westbound run with an easterly sun meant that there was no shot to be had, everything was backlit - our first shot the day before is really the best option for the morning westbound, and usually the nose is still a little shadowed in too.

Thanks to a rather... liberal application of speed after getting out of Dinosaur, we actually did get ahead of them. Of course, there was nowhere to really get a good shot, but Colorado 21 did follow the tracks through Mormon Gap, and they were relatively level... Pacing. Pacing is what we decided to do.

Typically, I am stuck as the driver in these scenarios, and I can never get off more than a passing, blurry grab of a shot, but for once, I actually got to snap a proper couple photos thanks to having a passenger willing to grab the wheel for me. It was an empty road ahead, we made sure of that before doing anything so risky, but I got about thirty, forty five seconds at the absolute most of shooting. Most of which was a total blurry mess, but just a handful of photos came out usable... Shit, I'll take anything I can get. You don't get a lot of pacing opportunities with a railroad like this, so hey.

Once we drove through the metal culvert below the tracks, they were guaranteed to beat us to Bonanza. Yes, of course, we would be taking this godforsaken fucking road... again. You just gotta deal with it sometimes, I guess.

Arriving at the plant, we watched them start to unload, but we were really looking to see if any more maintenance would come up and foil our photo opportunities. Well, as it happened, some maintenance trucks showed up after a little while. How to deflate the excitement in one quick move, hm? Well, rather than just sitting and waiting around and hoping, it seemed prudent to just ask them what the plan was. Jack headed down to try and do just that, so Audie and I hung back at the car and crossed our fingers.

Some ten or fifteen minutes later, we got our answer: they were doing some work, but would clear up well before the train would leave, so no delay. We had a shot opportunity ahead of us. At this point, it had probably been about forty five minutes since the train had pulled up to the unloader, so we estimated we had another hour and change at least until they possibly got moving again. Now, while we could have stayed there and gotten redemption for the previous days shot, we had a better idea.

See, there's not terribly many photos of Deseret online, including Flickr. We had all seen a certain set of photos where one Mr. Mike Danneman had climbed up some crazy hill and gotten an astonishing landscape view of the train with Bonanza in the background. None of us knew really where this was, but we did have some time to figure it out. Some digging and Jack felt confident he knew roughly where the spot was. The warning was that it would take a bit of a hike to get to the area, but it was within reach - if we left right then.

Off we drove, hopping on Utah 65 and then jumping on Old Bonanza Highway. This road was better than 3460 by a longshot, but was clearly less traveled. Now, we wouldn't be there for long, as we turned onto what was essentially just a dirt track. Maps claims this "road" is creatively titled 150734. We weren't sure how far we could take the little Kia down this, but we moved on anyway. This is where we discovered the road went down more of a hill than expected, but the car handled it fabulously. We reached the tracks, turned around and parked up the hill a little ways, then began the hike.

It's hard to say if there was a better way to go about it. Desperado Road follows the tracks closely for lots of the run of the railroad, but it is also very clearly a maintenance access road, and later on our way back, we followed this and found it definitely didn't offer the most space to drive on. It may have been possible, but with such limited clearance, plus needing to kind of offroad it for parking, it just didn't seem wise. So, it was time for a little hike.

Lots of ups and downs as we scoured the dry and sandy landscape of the Uinta Basin. We climbed one hill, only to immediately find it wasn't the one we wanted, climb back down, get around one ridge, and climb up another... It was definitely hotter out that morning than the previous one, but we weren't total fools, so we had water with us to help stave off of the heat. Not much of any shade to be had out there though, so we just pressed on.

Eventually, Jack had gotten up one ridge and called down to us that it was definitely the place to be. It wasn't the exact spot from the photos, but it was close, and it was a good view. Well, Audie and I then worked our way up there. I was much slower, being the most out of shape by a longshot, and by god that heat and the elevation was definitely getting to me. By the time I crested the hill, I was pretty well spent. But, once I got to where they stood and turned back to see the view, I was more than happy to have made the hike. I did, of course, promptly sit my ass down and didn't move a muscle until it was time to shoot. Audie ran his drone and it showed that in a perfectly straight line from the car, we were only about 3200 feet or so away. Call it a mile considering the meandering path required, then the bit of climbing to be done... Considering just how completely out of my element we were, I was impressed I'd made it here really.

​Anyway, take a look at that view. Just incredible.

Incredibly, the train wasn't far behind us as it turned out. We'd only been up on the ridge for five or ten minutes when we noticed it was pulling all the way around the plant already. A check on the clock confirmed it was about 15 minutes early in its unloading. It kept going, not stopping for long after it had cleared the unloader. We realized we had timed things about as good as we could have.

While Jack was hoping between the ridges behind us and looking for the perfect angle, Audie and I were perfectly happy where we were, and started prepping our shots. Unfortunately, when he had flown his drone over to my car to see how far we had gone, he had set it down there to make the car the drones new home point - which immediately lost the connection to his phone. It was safely at the car, but no photos from the sky. Jack did return to where we were after a few minutes, deciding that the original spot was still the best of the bunch. Hard to disagree, really.

A few short minutes later and our trio of E60s was back once again. This time, in perfect lighting, and from a stunning viewpoint. You already know we were all firing off as many frames as we possibly could.

With the Bonanza Power Station visible about five miles away, DPR 1 / 3 / 4 haul 45 empty coal cars into Coyote Basin. Distant sandstone ridges, steeped with bands of varying yellows and oranges, make the location simply that much more impressive. The sheer scale of the American west is simply unparalleled, and an awesome sight to behold. We were very lucky to be able to have the opportunity to view the Deseret snaking its way through the Utah desert that morning.

We were all in firm agreement once the train had passed - this shot had more than made up for the troubles of the previous day. We could all go home happy, even if we didn't shoot a single frame after this. Cough.

With the train disappearing into Coyote Basin, we were now left with the task of climbing back down and returning to the car. We opted to head straight for the tracks and follow them back to the tiny crossing where our dirt track could be found once again. On the way, Jack told us that on one of the other ridges behind the one we had shot at, he had actually heard a rattlesnake, so we definitely had our eyes peeled for the rest of our walk back. We knew they were in this region and had been watching every step we took the whole time, but this was the closest encounter we had - and thankfully it stayed that way, but it was a stark reminder that we were really far out there.

Getting back to the car, driving back up that dirt track, and retreating to Dinosaur felt damn good after all that morning. It was a good morning, and we were rather pleased, but boy were we just as tired, too. Another gas stop in Dinosaur later, we returned to our lookout near the mine and settled in to wait again.

So, this is where things take another turn. Several things were coming into play here, and long story short, that day was when we had to start driving towards home. Now, we had some time for sure, but our plans had us hoping to be basically up in Wyoming that night. So, we were now debating when the best time to leave would be. As we continued waiting and waiting, we quickly came to the realization that in order to get as far east as we were hoping to, we needed to go sooner rather than later. The early morning departure also had us very confused about the train schedule. We knew there was supposed to be another train that day, but part of us was left wondering if they had ran it overnight, and so perhaps our morning train may have been that second train. The loadout was looking rather quiet at this point, anyway. Realistically, it probably was just going to run at 4pm the way it had yesterday, but we just plain didn't know.

By the time it reached early afternoon, we had a decision to make. It would take two hours for them to load a train, so any potential shot would be at minimum 2 hours away, probably closer to 3 or 3.5. Now, pair this with the roughly 6 hour drive to Cheyenne, Wyoming we were hoping to make. And, for added fun, clouds were building to our west, and so getting cloudfucked like the day prior seemed more likely by the minute.

It was an incredibly hard decision to make, even though it was in reality quite simple. We had to leave Deseret early. None of us wanted to, but it was the right call. Later, as we neared Laramie, a check of the weather back in the Deseret area confirmed our cloud suspicions were right, so we definitely did make the right move. Yet still, it was not an easy thing to do.

Without any trouble, we did successfully reach Cheyenne that evening. I have to say that I was pretty spent by the time we passed Laramie, so while the others were really fixing for some more trains to shoot, I was once again very ready to crash in the hotel. I had given up the wheel earlier though - I held it during the entirety of our Deseret shoot, as I knew the car and its limits best - so I was sort of along for the ride as we rolled around Cheyenne hunting for stuff to shoot. Deseret itself had been a success, and while I was very pleased with that, I think I had unconsciously flipped a switch in my head that said no more trains. The long drives and constant hunt for trains to shoot had absolutely burnt me out. I think part of it was probably also knowing that nothing I shot for the next few days or really weeks would be topping or coming close to our Coyote Basin shot.

We did snap a pair of trains in Cheyenne that evening, though I can't say I'm really quite pleased with either of the shots. Far from ideal lighting conditions to say the least. It didn't help I was once again just on autopilot. This very much became a theme on this trip, as you've no doubt noticed. Regardless, we did finally get to the hotel, and I could slam my face into a pillow, which I was so very pleased with. One nice thing was that this trip had totally fixed my sleep schedule at least. Beforehand, I was getting to bed, ahem, late, often times a good few hours past midnight. Suddenly I was fast asleep by 9:30pm. Talk about a shift. I've already manage do undo some of that since arriving home, but, details, details.

Once again, it was an early morning. We had a long, long drive to cover with a few stops to make in between, so we were off once again. On the way out, we wound up shooting Archer Hill as we had seen an eastbound stack train heading past our hotel that morning. Only barely managed to get there in time, surprisingly enough. Not the finest light, early in the morning and a spot of clouds will do that, but hey, it's something. Yes, the superelevation really is that steep - they really lean in to the curve here.

Several hours later, we rolled into North Platte. Audie was looking to gain more reference material for a certain double-engined locomotive, so we had two stops planned for just that. At the Cody Park museum, home to UP Challenger #3977 and DDA40X 6922, we got a chance to get some nice reference photos, and also had a wonderful talk with the caretaker of the depot and locomotives there. Incredibly nice, talked about the park, railroad preservation, UP as a whole, local history - it was really lovely. He even gave us a few souvenirs in the form of some UP steam pins and an authentic old UP baggage tag - how cool is that? If you ever get the chance to stop by Cody Park in North Platte, Nebraska, definitely do. It's a wonderful little spot to see a bit of railroad history that is well-kept.

We had planned to take a peek at the Golden Spike Tower and all that as well, but we had to get moving. Our goal was to stop in Omaha for the UP 6900, plus the UP 4023 Big Boy, then once again cross Missouri to reach Quincy by nightfall. We had grand plans for the following day. Thankfully, we were indeed able to accomplish all this, but boy was it a long, long day.

Omaha was a more brief pitstop, but it was cool to revisit. Both Omaha and North Platte were second-time visits, as when my dad and I drove out to Wyoming in 2019 for the UP 4014s inaugural excursion, we had stopped at both of these parks. It was nice to see them both again, as while I'm not exactly favourable to the modern day Union Pacific, the classic UP of yesterday is really something special, and locomotives like Big Boy, Challenger, and the Centennials really made them stand out.

We broke the day up into three legs, Jack handling Cheyenne to North Platte, Audie there to Omaha, and finally I would take us into Quincy. It went pretty well, and we naturally ended up stopping once for a train. Nothing special, but at least this was an actually quick pitstop.

We made Quincy after dark and got to our hotel in time for another entirely too short round of sleep. Still, any sleep is better than none at all, so I'll take it.

Now I'm sure you're asking why Quincy was such an important target to make. Essentially, this is because we were going to end this trip how we started it: RoadRailers. With just a handful of days of service left for the RoadRailers, this would be the last opportunity for both Jack and Audie alike to ever see them. Audie had missed out on our 255 at the start of the trip due to the unfortunate covid timing, so we definitely needed to squeeze in a last go at it. One final time, it was time to lock in.

Up at 6am sharp, it was my turn at last to be the one with contacts and information. I put out the call for information on eastbound 256, and shortly got word it was nearby - closer than expected, really. We hurriedly got to the car and got a move on, Hannibal-bound. The 256 had been reported at Huntington when we woke up, so it was anyones race at this point. We pulled up to Hannibal just as they were finishing clearing the bridge, so we whipped around and raced over to CP Banks - now we were back in my element!

I'll spare you the extreme details of our day out with RoadRailers, but things went fairly well for us. We were able to reach Valley City next, and I secured my best shot of them there by far.

We had success beating them from there to New Berlin, Dawson, Lanesville, and Wabic (Decatur). In all, our chase of 256 was a rousing success, and finally granted me several photos on the west end I'd been hunting for. Very well timed too, as it was just a handful of days left of RoadRailer operations left.

You'll note the friendly waves from the engineer in several photos of 256 - the legendary Jim "The Emoji Man" Mangram was in charge of the Triple Crown. Seemingly always in great spirits and more than happy to help provide people with train information, we're all big fans of Jim around here. This would be one of if not the last run he could get with the RoadRailer, so I'm sure he was loving the attention from us and the other photographers out there!

While 256 recrewed in Decatur, we went out to seek out the 255. This worked out very well for us, as 255 rolled into the Sidney-Unity siding and stopped at Unity. Of course, this only worked well for a bit - we were able to get up close and get great detail photos of the unique Bi-Modal technology that is RoadRailer, and Audie got the drone airborne and 3D scanned the last couple trailers for good measure, too. Of course, NS 148 would shortly be pulling up and blocking the 255 into the siding, as D91 worked the chip factory back by Sidney. This lasted for longer than we wished...

As afternoon light began to creep in, getting anything further out of 255 was going to be troublesome at best. So, that paired with some last minute changes to the couch-crashing that we had planned for that night, the best course of action ultimately became to get one last shot of the 255, then we'd go back to my place, clear out the car, and Jack and Audie would get a head start on the drive back to the east coast. In the end, this was probably for the best, as the schedule was super tight had they left from my house the next morning, so this gave them some much needed leeway, though at the cost of additional RoadRailer photos. If that damn D91 and 148 hadn't shown up when they did...

Before I knew it, that was it. We had our last shots for the day, got back up to my place, did the swap as needed, and the trip had finally come to a close as they headed for Ohio for the night. It felt almost abridged in a way, but that was just how this whole thing had been - last minute curves and changes almost every single day.

In all, this was a very successful trip. We accomplished several shots of Deseret Power, snapped some nice extra stuff on the way to and from the electric railroad, and bookended the trip quite nicely with some of the very last sets of RoadRailers. It's hard to believe we actually pulled it off, especially given that it was kind of short notice and we really were flying by the seat of our pants for most of the trip. No hotels were booked until pretty much the day or even the night of, as things just kept on changing. Despite the curveballs thrown at us, we all got what we wanted, and we all made it home safe and sound.

Hey, even the car made it home alright. Even got that CEL off without visiting a shop! A happy ending for everyone.

In the days that followed, I focused heavily on documenting the final few RoadRailers. I was beyond burnt out at this point, but there was no way I could miss out on the last of them. As a result, I didn't get to work on any of my photos until almost two weeks after the trip had concluded. Eventually, I mustered the courage to start working through them, and I was pleased to see many of them come out as well as they had.

Deseret Power was one of the most interesting and difficult railroads I've ever photographed. I'll certainly be returning in the future, but hopefully with a vehicle more suited toward that kind of terrain, and definitely with more knowledge. And also my wife. I think she'll like visiting Dinosaur.

That concludes Deseret 2024! Soon, I'll be back with a lengthy look at RoadRailers and the grand finale, so look out for that in the next month or two. If you've managed to get this far, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed hearing about the adventures and misadventures of this utterly insane photo trip!

Cheers,
​SM