A town called...Helper

I was lucky enough in the early 2000's to have the time and money to spend time visiting the last stand of D&RGW SD40T-2 locomotives working out of Helper, Utah. For several years, I made the trip every 3 months, right before the upcoming 91 day inspection for the D&RGW units. I've probably railfanned this line more than any other, and over time it grew on me.

Let's start our discussion of the line in Helper. Helper is a small town at east end of the line that marks the transition from desert to mountain railroading. Its name of course is due to the helper engines that were added here for the climb to Soldier Summit. To the east of Helper, are several small towns with switching opportunities: Spring Glen, Carbonville, Price and Wellington. Just west of Wellington is a major coal loadout, the Castle Valley (CV) Spur. To the east of Wellington, is Mounds, where the Sunnyside Branch departs to several old coal mines. More recently, this branch is the destination for the "trash train" which was often powered by the SD40T-2s in their final years.

Helper is a stop for Amtrak, and boasts a small yard. In many ways, the yard is perfect to model. I count 14 tracks, plus the double track main. Helper originates trains to the local towns mentioned above, and as far east as Green River. In addition, trains to the Sunnyside Branch, CV Spur, and the Pleasant Valley Branch. There is not a lot of industry along this part of the line, but there is also a coal loadout along the main at Royal. Also of interest is the neighboring railroad, the Utah Railway.

The Utah Railway operates out of Martin Yard and serves a number of mines along its route. The Utah Railway joins the Soldier Summit line at Utah Junction, just west of Helper, and sometimes its helper sets ply the rails of Helper Yard, and trains also can serve industries along the line trough Wellington.

To the west, the double track main climbs Price River Canyon, past the fabled Castle Gate bluff (see the photo above), up through the canyon to the Nolan and Kyune Tunnels, before breaking out of the canyon at Kyune siding. The grade on this stretch is a pretty constant 2.2%, and the line closely follows US Highway 6, making railfanning a joy. Kyune itself is a siding between the mains along a sweeping curve making it an outstanding spot for train watching. One of my favorites in fact. Continuing up the hill, the line arrives in Colton, where there is a junction to the Pleasant Valley Branch. This branch is fairly isolated for much of the run, but ends up at several coal mines. Helpers are often cut off at Colton, but may run as far as Soldier Summit.

The last part of the line to Soldier Summit is very uneventful, and the summit itself is almost easy to miss. But a few miles to the west of the summit, things get very interesting again, as the trains descend the 2.2% grade of the Gilluly loops. Again, a perfect model railroading scenario, where the train descends down the valley to the west, loops around 180 degrees, and descends back up the valley, before looping again to descend down the far side of the valley, passing through the scene three times. Plus, there is a passing siding between the mains.

From Gilluly, the line passes through several short scenic canyons (again great modeling opportunities), before reaching the the former site of Thistle. Thistle was the junction to the D&RGW's Marysville Branch until April 1983, when a landslide wiped out the town. The railroad was relocated, and a pair of tunnels were constructed. The Thistle tunnels are the longest tunnels on the line, at 3009' and 3180' respectively. During the closure, the D&RGW had to route trains over the UP through Wyoming, and this closure helped end the Rio Grande Zephyr.

After Thistle, te line runs out of Spanish Fork Canyon, and into Springville and Provo. In Provo, both the D&RGW and Utah have yard facilities, and there is an interchange with the Union Pacific. A little north of Provo is the Geneva Steel Mill, which added some major industry to this end of the line. The Provo Industrial Lead and Tintic Industrial Leads branch off the line at Geneva and Springville respectively, and a few more miles up the line at Midvale is the Bingham and Garfield industrial leads. Ultimately, the line runs into Salt Lake City.

So, what are the operational LDEs I see on the line:

• Helper
• Spring Glen/Carbonville/Price/Wellington
• CV Spur
• Mounds/Sunnyside Branch
• Utah Junction/Utah Railway
• Castle Gate Loadout
• Colton/Pleasant Valley Branch
• Soldier Summit
• Thistle (if revived and perhaps as a junction to the resurrected Marysville Branch)
• Springville/Provo
• Tintic Branch/Provo Branch
• Geneva Steel

The scenic LDEs include:

• Willow Creek Power Station (not served by rail - but maybe could be)
• Castle Gate
• Lynn Crossover
• Nolan Tunnels
• Kyune Tunnels
• Kyune Siding
• Gilluly Siding
• Canyons between Gilluly and Thistle (siding of Detour, crossovers of Narrows and Rio)
• Thistle Tunnels
• Spanish Fork Canyon

Perhaps the best way of looking at this line is that at each end are a number of branches, of which you would like to at least model the junctions to each, as well as industrial concentrations. The branches themselves may simply be staging. On the east end the branches include Castle Valley Spur, Sunnyside Branch and the Utah Railway is at least schematically a branch. On the west end is the Tintic and Provo Branches, and possibly the Garfield and Bingham Branches, with the possibility of recreating the Marysville Branch. Between the two ends is a double track main climbing a summit both ways. Near the top is yet another branch, the Pleasant Valley Branch. Coal loads and empties may move both directions on this stretch, depending on the customer. Plus, the Utah Railway adds a lot of interest as a secondary line. It isn't even inconceivable that the Carbon County Railway (which served mines up the Sunnyside Branch) could even still be running with a little modelers license.

Again, there have been plans to model some or all of this line. Bernie Kempenski proposed some of them, ironically, just as I was in my early years railfanning the route. Also given the all the D&RGW through traffic from both the Mofffat Line, and the Tennessee Pass Line came through here, the traffic density is high. Add to that the locally mined coal, and the Utah Railway traffic, and this appears to be a very busy stretch of line to model. Hence, the double track. Interestingly enough, even with the double track reducing the need for planning meets at limited sidings, I have observed many fascinating hours of operations on this line, including uphill and downhill passes by east and westbound trains.