Archive for December, 2005

Don’t let the title of this post overwhelm you. In this time of the year sunrise to sunset really isn’t all that long. At any rate, one of our country’s fine soldiers recently said “why didn’t any shots from the Gorge make it onto your blog?” and I just can’t be letting down all my faithful readers, so here’s some shots from Sunday 12/4.

I headed up the Oregon side of the river after a fuel stop in Troutdale and as I got to the east side of the mountains where the weather became better I started figuring out where I might catch a train. The morning Z was stopped in the hole at North Dalles so I crossed the bridge, parked my truck, and walked out onto the bridge for whatever was coming westbound. The air temperature was probably around 30 degrees with a nice gorge wind blowing. As I stood there I pondered why the hell I hadn’t worn any gloves or a hat on this trip? Fortunately even being dumb enough to be cold I was still smart enough to take a picture and got this shot of the Empire Builder passing under the service road to The Dalles Dam. I thought about cropping out the transmission lines, but it’s appropriate environment.

We all know that a mediocre shot of the westbound Builder wasn’t my motivation for freezing fingers. A couple minutes after #27 cleared the eastbound intermediate signal went green and I was able to nab the Z-PTLCHC with Mount Hood in the distance.

You’ll never guess where I went next…

Unfortunately the Wishram yard didn’t yield anything of significance other than a friendly chat with the Bureau of Indian Affairs police. I drove up out of the yard about the time an eastbound grain empty was coming into town so I took this telephoto grab shot from the highway overlook. I’d like to explore this angle a bit in the future, I suspect there’s a good shot lurking here if I were to walk up or down the highway a bit to find a better composition.

I headed across the river, screwed around with some UP trains around Rowena which turned out to be just shitty photos in the shadows of the Gorge. I then headed back up to The Dalles and sat for a while waiting to hear something on the scanner. Finally I caught word of a westbound with a new ES44DC on the point. I headed to Doug’s Beach. Unlike the madhouse and full parking areas during windsurfing season, today I was able to park right next to the crossing, get out my ladder, climb on up, get laughed at by the public, and take this shot. I thought about a tighter crop but hey, you can do a tight crop anywhere, but you only get towering cliffs in places like the gorge.

Aw hell, why not chase it west. I even beat it through Bingen which can be quite a feat. I was able to get to Hood and managed to pull off this grab shot as it came under the highway.

I drove back east, searching for a train, a shot, or some amusement. I ended up exploring a few angles above Rowland Lake and took an artsy-fartsy into the sun shot. It’s over on RailroadPhotoEssays.com being critiqued so you can head over there, or be patient and I’ll eventually post a nice finished version of the shot here.

There was one more train coming, and I misjudged the speed. I should have driven farther east on the other side of Lyle. Instead I set up on the west side of the fill around MP 81 trying to get a broadside shot in the golden sunlight. Now mind you this is December, so my golden sunlight disappeared around 15:30. And of course, about 5 minutes later, along comes my train… with a sole GP60M on the point.

So there you go Mike, that wraps up a short winter day in the Gorge. Thanks for all you’re doing over in the desert.

• Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation
  Nonprofit organization dedicated to building a permanent home and museum showcasing Portland’s three steam locomotives and other railroad history
  (tags: railroad history museum orhf)
• BYCX Home Page
  Chelatichie Prarie Railroad located outside Battle Ground, WA
  (tags: railroad shortlines)
• Philadelphia Trolley Tracks
  A collection of photos, maps, and rosters showing Philadelphia’s streetcar system as it was twenty five years ago and what remains today.
  (tags: philadelphia trolley transit history photos)
• Portola Railroad Museum webcam
  (tags: railroad railcams portola)

Excellent News! Due to many hours of work by volunteers on both the track and equipment, the ORHF has announced that the Holiday Express trains scheduled for the 16th-18th will operate as planned.

More information at the ORHF website.

Today our family had tickets to ride the 2:00 departure of the Holiday Express, a benefit put on by the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation offering 40 minute rides behind the SP 4449 in Portland. We got lucky, because today the SP&S 700 was double-heading on the trip since it was under steam for its duties as the BNSF Santa train tomorrow.

Unfortunately, as I picked up my will-call tickets at OMSI I found out that the train had derailed. The OMSI employees didn’t really know any details so we headed out to see what we could find. As I drove south on McLoughlin and took the Milwaukee Blvd. exit, I saw the steam column from the train. We parked at the Oaks Bottom parking lot and hiked in about a mile.

It was a sad sight. Both locomotives as well as the tender for the 4449 were on the ground. I hung around for about an hour and took some pictures as the crews figured out what to do next. Resources from the Friends of 4449, PRPA, Dick Samuels, and the Portland and Western RR were arriving and offering help. It’s an unfortunate occurrance. It’s not the end of the world but a setback.

Here are some assorted photos taken. Just a reminder that these photos may not be reproduced or republished without my permission. Please contact Aaron Hockley before reproducing these photos.

Overview of the Scene:

Photos of the SP 4449:

Photos of the SP&S 700:

Doyle Smiling & Putting the Heads Together:

I was quite pleasantly suprised today that the U-EVEROO had a couple of warbonnet GP60Ms on the point, elephant style. This means pictures!

Approaching the yard office:

At 8th Street:

• Rick Newton Photography
  Quality Railroad Imagery
  (tags: railroad photographers photos)
• Walkway Over the Hudson - Saving the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge
  Efforts to save the historic bridge and convert it into a public park
  (tags: railroad bridges history)

There’s days when my lunchtime railfanning results in a train or two. And then there’s days like today, which was crazy. I think I might have seen more movements and trains in 45 minutes today then I’ve ever seen in a similar period in Vancouver. I also think I saw more different locomotive models in this period than I’ve ever seen in one 45 minute period. Here’s a rundown of what I saw. I only shot pictures of one of the trains, with photos to be posted later. In the order of sighting:

• Right as I arrived at the depot, a northbound UP manifest (UP 3153, UP 3229 - both SD40-2s)
• Coming into the yard, the U-EVEROO (BNSF 158, BNSF 131, BNSF 3130 - 2 GP60Ms and a GP50)
• Sitting at 8th street, a westbound manifest (BNSF 7148, NREX 4279, BNSF 7861 - three SD40-2s, the NREX was an ex-UP unit)
• On the radio, another westbound pulling up to Eavan
• Coming around the corner to the depot, the Z-CHCPTL (BNSF 4981, BNSF 4998, BNSF 4697 - three Dash 9s)
• At the Port of Vancouver, an X-VAWsomething getting ready to leave (BNSF 4539, BNSF 4838, NS 9490 - three Dash 9s)
• A coal empty E-CECSCM at 39th Street (BNSF 8218, BNSF 5828, BNSF 8962, BNSF 7303 - SD75M, ES44AC, SD70MAC, and SD40-2)
• The M-LYDINB at 39th Street (FURX 7286, BNSF 2878, BNSF 8004, BNSF 8629 - a couple SD40-2s, a GP39M, and a B40-8)

After all this, could there be anything interesting at the shops? Just one unit… but definitely interesting. It was NS 7146, a GP60.

What a day! All in 45 minutes…

• Railroad Photo Gallery by Keith Burgess
  A lot of great railroad photos from across the country, including many featuring nighttime or creative lighting.
  (tags: railroad photographers photos)
• Article about B&H Photo
  An interesting news article providing a glimpse at B&H photo, which is (from what I’ve seen) the most reliable, affordable place to buy photography gear online.
  (tags: photography articles)

A gray-haired yardmaster gives the plan to a junior conductor.

Must be some new railroading term that I haven’t yet learned:

I got home last night, took my 512mb compact flash card out of my EOS-300D and put it on our kitchen counter while I moved a few things around. In the process of moving Brooklyn’s sippy cup, I managed to knock the memory card off the counter, and it landed directly into a dog’s water dish.

Shit.

I got the card out of the water in about 2 or 3 seconds. I shook it several times to get drops to stop coming out, then placed it in the office which tends to be the warmest room in our house.

Tonight I took the card, popped it into my reader and was able to copy all of the images off of the card, and I’m able to open them in Photoshop.

Whew.

I took a couple-hour drive around the Portland/Vancouver area today. Here’s a couple shots:

First, the QPDNP eases to a stop at east switch Kenton:

I found another new powerbar, this time leading an eastbound stack train at Chelsea Ave, please excuse the day-glo white sky:

• Port Kelsey Railway
  A blog-style website featuring photos and descriptive text of a model railroad.
  (tags: railroad model blog)
• Freadman’s Fog Charts
  Railroad track charts and information for the Union Pacific around Portland
  (tags: railroad fogcharts unionpacific)

No photos today since I couldn’t find any actual moving trains (heard one right as I got back to work, of course). There was quite a bit of interesting power sitting at the shops today though. The “odd couple” pairing was MRL 352 (SD45-2XR) coupled up to BNSF 139 (GP60M). There were a few C44-9W units and SD40-2s sitting around in assorted orange and green schemes, and the rarest catch to find sitting at Vancouver: BNSF 6137, a green/black SD9.

Man put hands under train for money