The last hold out for DRGW Tunnel Motors was Helper, UT. With Tennessee Pass closed, there was perhaps no better setting for these monsters last breath, than the steep 2.4% climb over Solider Summ... (more)

A very mixed consist leads a BNSF trackage rights train up Solider Summit...

UP7183 is the second westbound coal load in an hour. Shoving hard in the middle of this load is a manned 3 unit helper with UP4799 in the consist.

UP7183 is the second westbound coal load in an hour. Screaming against gravity on the 2.4% grade no other mainline in America sees bulk trains assaulting grades this steep....

Engineer Mel Baughman looks over the shoulders of Machinist Gordon Olson as he performs some last minute repairs to Rio Grande “Tunnel Motor” No. 5390 at Helper, Utah, on the morning of May 21, 20... (more)

Subtle colors and textures are revealed on the center axle of Electro-Motive Division’s popular HT-C truck beneath Rio Grande SD40T-2 “Tunnel Motor” No. 5390 at Helper, Utah, on October 6, 2004.

UP5874 and 6 other locomotives slug it out on the climb for Solider Summit. This mountain desert has originated countless trains much like this one. To witness it, never gets old!

Three GE AC4400CWs lead a Utah Railway coal empty east through Spring Canyon at Jacob's Bridge.

Amtrak's California Zephyr train #6 departs Helper Yard for Denver, Colorado.

On New Year's Eve '94, an 84 car Utah Railway coal empty crosses Jacob's Bridge in Spring Canyon. Prior to the early 1970s, a Rio Grande branch from West Helper passed beneath this girder bridge p... (more)

A Utah Railway coal empty rambles east through rugged desert scenery approaching the Wildcat loadout near Helper, Utah.

In May of 1995, a former Santa Fe F45 (blt. June 1968) was rebuilt by MK in Boise and leased to the Utah Railway Company for six years. Here the 9013 basks in the warm morning sunlight at Martin, ... (more)

A westbound coal train led by GE AC4400CW No. 7277 awaits a new crew at Helper, Utah, on the icy night of December 2, 2004. Exhaust from an idling AC6000CW swirls over the front of the train from ... (more)

A crew has finished cutting in a three-locomotive manned helper set into a westbound coal train bound for the grades of Soldier Summit at Helper, Utah, on the frigid night of December 2, 2004. Wit... (more)

A pair of Motive Power Industries MK5000Cs bracket two Australian SD50s on a Utah Railway Moapa (Nevada Power) to Wildcat coal empty emerging from tunnel #2.