The Trash Train - May 6, 2000
| The first train we followed
on Saturday was the six-days-a-week Trash Train which originates in Helper,
UT. After a bit of switching, it heads eastbound through Price to
Mounds where it turns onto the Sunnyside Branch and its eventual destination
of Columbia Junction.
It's best to not follow the train on the dirt roads between Wellington and Mounds because you won't be able to keep up. Take the paved road around and back track towards Mounds on the dirt road located a couple miles south of the junction of Highway 6 with State Route 123. |
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The trash train is delivered to Helper in the evenings via the Roper Turn which also removes the previous days flatcars with empty containers. |
| Currently, this loadout at Banning on the Sunnyside Branch is not being used, thus the siding is used to store an unneeded set of coal cars. |
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Once the tracks cross under Highway 6, they begin to parallel State Route 123 towards Columbia Jct. which makes a shot like this easy. It's also nice to just roll along with the train as the Tunnel Motors climb towards their destination. |
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After dropping off the loads for ECDC Environmental, the crew moves to the other end of the small yard to couple onto the empties for the return trip to Helper. Near the end of the train is the crane that is used to transload the containers from the flatcars to trucks for transportation to the dump site a few miles away. |
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There's nothing quite like the silhouette of a Tunnel Motor. |
| With the empty containers in tow, the Trash Train heads back past Banning and towards the mainline at Mounds. Once the train arrives in Helper, the empty train will be left in the yard for the Roper turn to pick up when they drop off their loaded containers in the evening. The SD40T-2s are returned to the engine terminal until needed again. |
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