by Steve Eshom on December 21, 2006
Every now and then a vacation away from home, the weather, the kids, hobbies, and everyday things is needed. My wife and I just finished an 8 day eastern Caribbean cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas. Along the way we stopped at several popular eastern Caribbean ports including San Juan, Puerto Rico where I stumbled across a touch of railroad history. After Columbus discovered many of the islands of the Caribbean, the Spaniards, French, Dutch, and others established sugar cane plantations. What’s the best way to move the cane to port and factories? By rail of course!
Today though the transportation infrastructure (err, roads) on most islands is pretty good so the use of rail over such a short distance isn’t practical. The railroad on Puerto Rico ceased operation in 1957, but thanks to the fine people at Bacardi a small bit of it is preserved.
After shooting this photo of railroad remnants we were whisked away to have our two free rum drinks. Nothing like rum and trains! That was it for the railroad content on the cruise, in fact the rest of the trip looked quite similar to this photo from the beach at Phillipsburg, St. Maarten.
The 962′ long, 13 deck, 90,000 gross tons Radiance of the Seas is docked at one of the three cruise ship docks in old San Juan, Puerto Rico.
And now back to your Northwest winter already in progress….
Technorati Tags: trains, railroad, puerto rico, cruise, royal caribbean, radiance of the seas, photos, pictures
by Aaron Hockley on December 15, 2006
This is an actual bulletin about a missing railfan from the Atlanta area.
I want to pass it along in case anyone has any information. Sue’s email address is skampe1021@aol.com. Although this is near Atlanta I want to pass this along to everyone.
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My uncle, Barry Helling, is an avid railroad fan and a member of your site [Trainorders.com]. Last Saturday, 12/9/06 he went out railroading and we have not seen him since. He railroads in the Lawrenceville area, around the CSX tracks and the Norcross area. His appearance is being considered a possible homicide. We need help trying to find either him or his car. He drove a 2001 Gold Jeep Cherokee, license plate WD700D, wildlife plate. He is 61 years old, white hair and close beard. WE NEED HELP. Possible dark color Silverado truck seen with his possessions in the Birmingham area also. Police has not searched areas specifically. Please have anyone finding anything contact me or the Gwynette County Homicide Department ASAP.
Thank you,
Sue Kampe
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I also received this from Gwinnett County Police Department:
One of your fellow train enthusiasts has gone missing under suspicious circumstances. Barry Helling, age 61, has not been seen since 12/09/06. He lives in the Atlanta area and drives a gold Jeep Cherokee with tag # WD700D. If anyone has seen Mr. Helling or heard from him please call 770-513-5100 (Gwinnett County Police Dept) Mr. Helling is known for his white beard and Santa like appearance. He is also known as the “Silver fox” to some conductors on the CSX Line that runs through northeast Atlanta.
Thank You
Detective Brian Ray
by Aaron Hockley on December 13, 2006
Last weekend I was up on Pengra Pass on the ex-SP Cascade Crossing in Southern Oregon. We worked east from Oakridge and ended up as far south as Grass Lake, California. I’d heard rumors they run trains on the line but you sure wouldn’t think much of it based on what we saw. Only one southbound in daylight on Saturday, and only one train at all in daylight on Sunday. Despite the shitty train volume, I managed to get a few decent foamy photos:
Sunrise at Oakridge with a passing auto rack train
Amtrak 14 near Chiloquin
Clean GEVOs and decent lighting at Chiloquin
Further south at McDoel
Passing the old water tower at Grass Lake
Light trails remain after the departure of Amtrak 11 from Chemult
Amtrak 14 in a snowstorm at Mowich
Crossing a bridge at Westfir
I have some other photos that I intend to post as standalones, with more commentary or observations over the next few weeks. In addition, some non-train photos from the trip will end up on my Flickr stream in the next day or so.
Technorati Tags: trains, railroad, amtrak, sp, pengrapass, railfan, railfanning, photos, pictures
by Aaron Hockley on December 12, 2006
Last weekend was the first runs of the ORHF’s Holiday Express train. I wasn’t able to attend since I was out of town railfanning in Southern Oregon (photos to be posted soon) but I understand it was a lot of fun for a lot of people. Last weekend featured the SP&S 700; this weekend it will be the SP 4449 leading the trains. Here’s some links to folks who have been posting pictures of the event:
Technorati Tags: orhf, holidayexpress, sp&s700, steam, trains, railroad
by Steve Eshom on December 6, 2006
As I’ve been scanning and cataloging my older photos I ran across the first railroad photos I took with the Canon AE-1 Program I received for Christmas 1987. Are these photos anything special? At first glance not really, they are just wedgies of BN trains in the snow and gray skies. Going back to my comments in Historic Preservation I can say I’m very happy I did snap these relatively mundane photos.
The first photo of the east siding switch Cunningham (WA) depicts an approach signal to west Cunningham. Big deal right? On December 30, 1987 this former Northern Pacific line is into its first few months of being operated bi-directionally with CTC. During 1986 and 1987 the BN worked on a project that would end with the two lines between Spokane and Pasco narrowed to one. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear they chose to demote the former Spokane Portland & Seattle line and improve the former NP. The improvements to the NP line involved creating 8000+ foot sidings, replacing ABS with CTC, replacing 1920′s era bridges, and installing concrete ties. Cunningham was one of the new sidings guarded by CTC.
All was not well with the new operating plan though. Just two weeks before this photo was taken, the Lakeside sub had plugged up with trains. In fact one night while I was studying at WSU and listing to the scanner I heard the Wishram East dispatcher talking to Amtrak 27 as it entered the Lakeside near Cheney. He told them that they’d have clear blocks all the way to Pasco because he’d already filled all the sidings with trains and wasn’t taking any more from Pasco. At the time I remember not being all that impressed with all the ‘improvements’ that resulted in a plugged railroad. I guess the BN noticed too because by the early 90s construction was underway to add a second track over Providence hill (connecting the Cunningham and Sand sidings) and adding several new sidings.
I’m happy I have these photos of a meet between BN train 1 (now known as the Z-CHCPTL) and an empty grain train because the addition of the second track 6 years after my photo eliminated any chance of regular meets at this location. I caught a short lived piece of history with my first photos.
Approach!
BN Train #1 passes the elevators at Cunningham
Meet at east Cunningham
An empty grain train departs east Cunningham
Technorati Tags: bn, railfan, railfanning, pictures, photos, cunningham, providence, washington, trains, railroad, history
