Well guys and gals the trains are running through Castle Rock again but not the 55 to 70 a day that normally run through. There is an article in todays Post of the delays and work that's being done on the BNSF, and UP. I'm sure that the local short lines are affected (the Denver Terminal and Omni Tracks) also. Anyway heres the Post article:
Amtrak, freight trains in flood zones likely out through month
By Alison Noon
The Denver Post
Posted: 09/18/2013 06:19:04 PM MDT2 comments
Updated: 09/19/2013 08:31:37 AM MDT
1/5
LONGMONT, CO - September 18 : Weston Marlatt removes debris from his friend Dan Williams' garage that was damaged by flooding water in Longmont, Colorado. September 18, 2013. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
LONGMONT, CO - September 18 : Weston Marlatt removes debris from his friend Dan Williams' garage that was damaged by flooding water in Longmont, Colorado. September 18, 2013. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
BOULDER, CO - September 18 : From left, Jamestown evacuees Jan Reed, Ben Perry and Javayne Jenkins comfort each other at Boulder County Commissioners building during a meeting for evacuated Jamestown residents. Boulder, Colorado. September 18, 2013. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
BOULDER, CO - September 18 : Mayor Tara Schoedinger speaks during a meeting of Jamestown evacuees at the Boulder County Commissioners building in Boulder, Colorado. September 18, 2013. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
LYONS, CO. - SEPTEMBER 18: (l-r) A woman takes in the view from the banks of the North St. Vrain River in was washed away by flooding in Lyons, CO September 18, 2013. Business owners were allowed to return to town today and residents will be allowed to their homes tomorrow. As emergency personnel methodically make their way from door-to-door of flooded and damaged homes this week, the number of unaccounted-for Coloradans is dropping. The number in Boulder County has fallen to four. (Photo By Craig F. Walker / The Denver Post)
BOULDER, CO - SEPTEMBER 18: Boulder resident, Mark Taylor, helps neighbors unload belongings that were destroyed in the flood at a dump in Boulder, September 18, 2013. Residents start to clean up after a massive flood hit the area. (Photo By RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
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Sep 19:
•Colorado Springs flood victim who struggled in life mourned by family in Texas
•Flood victim in Colorado Springs identified
•South Platte River still rising in Western Neb.
•Moving mountains of Colorado flood debris the crux of recovery
•Colorado floods: Millions in aid will barely begin to fix roads, dams
•Flooding brings fear and devastation to Colorado immigrants
Sep 18:
•Flooded out Jamestown residents may wait a year for a good road home
Freight and passenger trains will be diverted across Colorado at least through the end of the month to avoid submerged and gaping stretches of railroad tracks left by floods.
One 20-mile span of eroded tracks in Jefferson County halted Amtrak's signature train service last Wednesday at the cusp of Union Pacific's scenic Moffat line, which takes travelers to and from California through Colorado's mountains.
Amtrak is busing riders more than 240 miles between Denver and Grand Junction through Oct. 1 on Interstate 70, a far cry from the California Zephyr's secluded railroad tracks that were washed out last Wednesday.
Spencer Jessee, an Amtrak conductor based in Denver, drove north of Coal Creek Canyon with a friend on
A fiber optics subcontractor crew walks underneath a section of Union Pacific railroad track, close to a large platform that washed out near Eldorado Springs. The freight train company is hauling rocks from Cheyenne into Colorado to fill gaps and shore up tracks. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)
Saturday, his day off, to see first-hand the destroyed tracks he'd been hearing about at work.
"We found those tracks between Tunnel 2 and Tunnel 3 just dangling above the torrent," Jessee said. Rocks, dirt and the whole ballast underneath the century-old tracks, he said, had been washed away.
Cavernous trenches 10-70 feet deep along and underneath train tracks such as those Jessee saw will keep the line closed while repairs are underway, Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said. He said he was confident the route would re-open in two weeks.
"Moffat's just literally a matter of getting the rock and filling up the gaps in the holes," Davis said.
The freight company's Greeley Subdivision, a line that runs from Denver up to Cheyenne, re-opened Wednesday, expediting Wyoming rocks to Colorado for repairs.
"We're lucky that that's fairly close by so we can get the size of rock we need," Davis said. "All resources are going to be stretched pretty thin on the local level."
With the Greeley Subdivision open, 38 trains on Union Pacific lines are diverted from their destinations in Colorado every day. Two of those are Amtrak passenger trains.
Three other lines owned by Union Pacific and BNSF Railway are submerged in varying locations from the Western Slope to the plains.
"We can't see some of our track because it's under water," BNSF Railway spokesman Andy Williams said.
Amtrak's motorcoaches are packed to the brim with 55 people each and travel four buses to a trip, yet complete the drive in four hours one way, Jessee said. That's half the time it takes a train to travel through the mountains, he said, but people don't ride the train for it's speed.
"What's really the bummer is the folks who come out here to see the Rockies and because of the train restructuring they don't get to do that," Jessee said.
He helped transfer luggage between buses and trains in Denver Tuesday and Wednesday, and said passengers were understanding.
"Mostly it's just an inconvenience," Jessee said.