Helper – Part 1

This is why I love Helper; view from the motel :-)

I'm in Colorado now, but first I'll write about Helper. We spent three nights here, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Our motel is just off the highway, US-6, nestled between the Price River and the ex D&RGW railroad mainline. We arrived here and had a little trouble finding the owner, but once we found him he was pretty helpful. He put us in the corner room, which though rough was good enough. The pillows were a little tired looking so we used our own. But we had a kitchen, a fridge, toilet, shower, TV, and a bed, obviously. I could only get internet if I put my laptop on the TV, which was a bit annoying. The next morning I talked to Mark, the owner, and it was absolutely no problem at all to move us. Our new room was really nice; we had a little couch, a dining table, a microwave, a radio/kitchen light (handy), and so on. Best of all, I could sit outside the room and watch the trains go by.

Mark is a funny character; the second morning I walked out the front door munching a plum and he was there, glasses cocked on his forehead at a drunken angle, daily paper held out in front of him, wandering round his little kingdom reading the news and sipping his coffee. We had a bit of a chat, discussed the wireless some more, then next time I saw him he was sitting facing a door giving it a good scrub. A really nice guy, in his own little way.

We had dinner the first night at the Balance Rock Pub & Eatery. The waitress had a bit of trouble with Angela's accent, took quite a bit of effort to order a Pepsi! We had a nice, cheap but very filling meal in the end though. Here in Helper when we explain we're from Helper we always get that surprised "Noo Zeeland? We haven't had anyone from Noo Zeeland come to Helper for years" response. Apparently Helper isn't on most Kiwi tourists agendas!

The main street of Helper is very quaint, full of old buildings. Most of now art galleries, but there are also a few cafes, a State Liquor Outlet (12pm-7pm only), a bowling alley, and a couple of clubs. For the curious, Helper got its name from the helper locos that the Rio Grande stationed there to help uphill trains over Soldier Summit; a fairly taxing climb for a train. Today the Union Pacific still have a set or two of helper locos there; one set of SD60s and 70s and another with a couple of AC6000s and a AC4400. Most trains stop at Helper to change crews, and sometimes add in mid-train helpers for the climb.

 
Main street of Helper. A lot of old advertising and store signs still exist, like the "Piggly Wiggly, all over the world" sign.

There are a lot of interesting sights in Helper. Things like the bright yellow Hummer parked outside the Catholic church, or the giant miner outside the library. Local families have "adopted" flower pots up and down the main street, so you'll be walking along and there is a pot with a little plaque saying "This pot adopted by Mr and Mrs Chuck Smith".

12th Sept – Spring Canyon

We started off the 12th going for a drive up Spring Canyon. I was actually looking for trains but got the wrong valley. What I found was a valley absolutely chocco full of old mining relics. Apparently the valley was very rich in coal deposits and mining towns sprang up all over the place to cater for the miners. Towns like Standardville (named because it was considered he 'standard' of mining towns), Rains, Latuda, Peerless and so on. The scenery up here is amazing, as is the heat!

Rocks at the side of the road. Note the park bench under the tree in the left hand photo. These are big rocks!

Old general store of Standardville / Tipple at Standardville

All around the valley can be seen old bridges, houses, stone foundations, bits of steel, piles of coal and so forth. Carved into many of the towering cliffs are the ledges that the various tramways ran on. The stone work is amazing; apparently Italian stonemasons are responsible for the many walls and foundations still standing.

The towering Book Cliffs that surround Helper.

Balance Rock, visible from much of Helper.

After this we drove up to the Utah Railway's workshops but all was quiet, so we drove up Hardscrabble Canyon (great name!) a bit. More amazing rock formations. I liked the sign "beware of falling rocks" for all up and down the (barely sealed) road were massive car-sized boulders that have obviously come down with one mighty thud!

Car sized boulders next to Hardscrabble Road

Scenery along Hardscrabble Road.

Utah Railway workshops and yard at Martin (Helper by any other name)

Next we set up towards Castle Gate where I scoped out a few photo spots. The Castle Gate Coal Mine is just up the road here and apparently employs approx 200 people; no doubt where half of Helper works.

Rock cutting at the side of US-6 highway / Power station at Castle Gate

Signal gantry near Castle Gate / Typical secondary road in Utah (actually… most are worse)

Then I rounded a corner and noticed a couple of guys aiming expensive looking cameras towards the tracks. I slammed on the breaks and joined them; moments later I got lucky with a 4-loco-2-wagon Utah Railway fright train. (No one would believe me if I did that on my railway!)

Utah Railways and Castle Gate; it's hard to get more Helper than this!

 

Followed him down the hill and up to the Martin Yard where I got some great video of them shunting. Watched them shunting for a while. While waiting saw a couple of wind turbine blades drive by on the highway.

Utah Railway shunting on the hillside

Spent most of the afternoon watching the four locos shunt. Four locos to shove a few wagons around seemed like an overkill. Had dinner at the Balance Rock Eatery again, then settled into our new rooms.