Rick Steele has handled this job. It's a UP local; I think he said it was 2 or 3 days a week. I visited in 1991 and the power was a snoot-nose SD40-2. At one time I heard the Forest Service was going to end logging in the Medicine Bow range, but I guess that didn't happen since the LP mill is still running.
It Used to be a UP local. The Local still interchanges at Walcott, WY on the UP main line. When the line from Laramie to Walden (the one with the coal that Tim mentions) was sold to the WyCo Railroad, the Saratoga Branch went with it. It is not, to my knowledge, a subsidiary of LP. Logging activities have been cut down in MB National Forest (pardon the pun) but logs are being brought in from other areas. Both these railroads started as independent lines. The Walden branch was the Laramie, Hahn's Peak and Pacific (also the Laramie, North Park Western; Colorado, Wyoming & Eastern, etc.) It was originally plotted as a 3' gauge line and converted to standard gauge with little thought to re-engineering the right-of-way. When UP ran the line, a unit was assigned for a maximum of 3 weeks before it was rotated out due to the flange wear.
The line to Saratoga was part of the Saratoga and Encampment Valley Railroad. This line was originally built from Walcott to Encampment, Wyoming during the time that Encampment was mining copper. The line from Encampment to Saratoga was abandoned in 1978 due to floods washing out the North Platte River Bridge.
There's coal in them thar hills too. If you cross the MB range eastwards from Saratoga you end up on the other branchline, south from Laramie, that tapped the same area for coal and timber. That line became the Colorado Wyoming and I heard it's been abandoned .. do you know its status?
The line from Laramie to Walden has been abandoned and the rail has been pulled up from most of it. I notice that the rail is still in place under I-80 heading toward Centennisl but if it still goes all the way there is unknown to me. Last summer they were pulling up the yard in Walden, Colorado. This is where Coal and Lumber were loaded after the final 10 miles was abandoned and torn up (LaRand to Coalmont) and the next 10 miles was abandoned in place (Walden to LaRand). Years ago, it was really interesting as the rail on the line went from UP 133 lb. main line relay to the original 60 lb just beyond the Kerr-McGee Coal tipple.
This past summer we took an excursion on WyColo's "Restored Streamliner" from Laramie to Foxpark, WY. At that time, 2 F units were used, and were the same colors as original (orange), but with WyColo's lettering. The train was nearly full, perhaps several hundred passengers. The line had advertised heavily in Denver newspapers, and I heard they did quite well with the excursions. The train was made up of ex-Santa Fe cars, supposedly from the all-coach "El Capitan" train. If you are interested, I know that they are listed in the phone directory, and the number can be obtained from Directory assistance for Laramie. They may even have an 800 number you can call. I take a personal interest in this line for several reasons. My Grandfather operated a pile driver for Union Pacific. In the middle/late 50's he worked on several bridges on this line (It is ex-UP Coalmont branch.) and I have several pictures of his equipment working on bridges. I have some roots at the Southern end of the line, Walden, Colorado, too. If you are interested, there are several books that cover the history of this line, from it's inception as the "Laramie, Hahn's Peak and Pacific" through the years as the "Laramie, North Park and Western" and then the UP years.
In the late 1970's, the UP re-laid all the rail with 133 pound joint rail that was removed from some main-line trackage somewhere. The energy crunch was on, and North Park Coal was being moved east at perhaps 80 cars a day. My dad was agent for UP in Ft. Collins at the time, and many track workers were working on the track. I believe they were running the coal out in three or four trains because they had to limit length of trains due to the tight curves. Of course the mid-1980's brought cheaper oil prices, and this cut into the coal demand and coupled with the cost of operation of this line (12 foot snow drifts near Foxpark are not uncommon this time of year) they decided to sell the line. UP has sold many branchlines, and the same company operates what's left of the "Saratoga and Encampment Valley RR" that runs from Walcott to Saratoga, the latter being perhaps the one of Wyoming's best kept secrets. Anyway, it is my understanding that the 1991 passenger excursion season was a good one for the WyColo, and they will continue to operate next year. Kalmbach Publishing has on it's 1992 calendar "Those magnificent Trains" a picture of the WyColo Streamliner. Perhaps someone else knows the month, but I remember seeing it in a bookstore. It gives a good head-on picture of one of the F units taken above a cut somewhere on the line.
