Helper - Part 3

14th Sept – Goodbye Helper

With a heavy heart I left Helper on the 14th. Had seen a nine loco BNSF train come roaring into town earlier with an SD70ACe on the front and a very loud horn. We stopped in at Price to do some shopping and meanwhile they completed their recrewing or whatever and departed. As we sped across the desert (yup, more desert!) I spied them in the distance and soon we were slowly overtaking them. Shortly after we went our different routes.

 
Typical Utah desert scenery. Note the storm building in the distance.

A while later I pulled over to get a breather and by a fluke (honest!) we were right next to a little access road to the Vista siding. I spied a train of hoppers being stored there and so went to have a look. While poking around I saw a tiny black line speeding across the desert and in mere minutes the very same train I'd seen in Helper was speeding past me.

  
8 locos speed past, number 9 is on the tail end pushing. Pretty much every BNSF paint scheme is in here: H1, H2, warbonnet, and H1 & H2 swooshes.

Sprinted back to car and went into chase mode; was a good 5 minutes before we caught him again and even then took another few minutes to overtake him! Which means he must've been doing a healthy 60mph (95kmh) – trains out here move fast!

 
Speeding past me / Rear pusher bringing up the rear.

Train pulled into Green River where we stopped for fuel.

Drove the short distance to Moab. The drive in is amazing, full of massive stone walls and valleys. Passed the Moab UMTRA project which is a project to remove all the mine tailings from the uranium mine there and transport them to a safer storage at Green River. Scheduled to take 19 years at two full trains every day. BIG project!

Found a "primitive" campsite along the Colorado River; $12 here buys you a patch of dirt, picnic table, and an open roofed long drop! Luxury. Went to a very popular restaurant for dinner, had Chicken Fried Steak which is actually very nice. I hear it's the staple diet of 50% of Texas (the male half presumably). That night there was a massive thunder & lightening storm. We were amazed at how warm and humid it was outside; thunderstorms here are usually quite wet & cold.

 
The amazing lightening show as seen from Moab park / View from our campsite.

The storm lasted well into the night, with flashes and rumbles every few minutes. Pretty cool and unlike anything back home. Funny thing was, on the drive down the radio kept getting interrupted by a robotic weather warning, mentioning all sorts of dire expectations and to seek shelter immediately. I could see the storm out the rear view mirror so wasn't too worried. What amazed me though is that they have the systems in place to interrupt regular radio transmissions with these automated weather warnings.

And so that is it for Helper. I'm sure I'll be back though.