From the monthly archives:
Here are a few images shot this year at GorgeRail:
Eastbound at Ruthton Point, approaching Hood River
Eastbound manifest at Goodnoe (east of Towal)
A pair of CSX SD40-2s leads a westbound at East Bates
Crooked road, crooked tree…. crooked railfan? Nah… just Steve
Technorati Tags: gorgerail, railroad, trains, photos, pictures, columbiarivergorge, bnsf, up, csx
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With all the excitement around the double header and the UP 844 it has taken me a while to get to work on my GorgeRail 2007 photos. Tonight I finally finished cataloging them and I thought I’d post a few here and and on railroadforums.
I travelled with Aaron the whole weekend and he had the idea of photographing east of Maryhill since we rarely venture that far east on our day trips. We landed at Bates which proved to be quite an interesting location with opportunities for eastbound and westbound photos. Being mid day and quite overcast, the lighting was uninspiring so I decided to try something a bit different and I set up to photograph a nasty smelling garbage train with something that smells much better.
Spring in the Gorge
On Sunday GorgeRail again held a roundhouse tour at Brooklyn. As usual, the tour was wonderful and the PRPA folks who hosted us did a great job. As we wandered around I caught Aaron admiring Doyle’s handy work on the 190.
NKP 190
Technorati Tags: gorgerail, columbiarivergorge, bnsf, trains, railroad, railfanning, photos, photography
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Every year as I evaluate options for GorgeRail, one question that comes up is that of location: do we remain in The Dalles, where we have an excellent theater and great railfanning literally out our front door, or do we pull the event into the Portland area, where it’s more accessible and we might get more folks at the show, but we lose the “Gorge” aspect of GorgeRail.
Every year, I come to the same conclusion… GorgeRail just wouldn’t be GorgeRail if we didn’t hold it in the Gorge. Trains are part of the picture, but the scenery and environment of the Columbia River Gorge just couldn’t be matched in Portland or Gresham or Vancouver. As you look at this photo (taken on Friday of GorgeRail weekend), the Empire Builder and eastbound BNSF train are just a small part of the picture, in both the literal and figurative sense:
Technorati Tags: gorgerail, columbiarivergorge, amtrak, bnsf, trains, railroad, railfanning
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I continued to chase the UP 884 east of Portland. The weather on Wednesday was on the dull side due to a high overcast that moved in. With the overcast in place everything from the sky to the dirt appeared in the same dull gray-brown color. I wasn’t impressed enough with the results to take the time to edit the images to post.
Thursday’s weather was much better and when I left my hotel in Hermiston the sun was shining in my eyes! After a couple of photos of the passenger special running about an hour ahead of the 844 I photographed the 844 at Nolin. It was sure a nice touch that the UP assigned the UP 8444 as a helper diesel. What a better combo? I then moved up to a gentle curve between Homly and Milam. East of this location the 844 would enter the Meacham Creek canyon and would be inaccessible to the general public for the hour of transit time between Gibbon and Meacham.
Gliding around a curve between Homly and Milam
The special ran around a freight at Ross and met a westbound at Motanic. The dozen or so railfans chasing were all gathered there so I moved on to my next planned photo between Hilgard and Perry. This turned out to be a perfect location to catch the specials short train.
UP 844 leads its tidy little train around a curve between Hilgard and Perry
For a parting shot of the 844 steam special I’ll end with a going away photo as the train works upgrade between Ross and Kamela. Thanks to this being a quiet (no freeway) location I could hear the engine barking upgrade for nearly 10 minutes. Since she was working hard Jack Wheelihan was forcing the fire and making lots of smoke. Even 5 minutes after the train passed the smell of an oil burning steam engine lingered in the air. Barking exhaust, smoke, and echos off the mountains, you can’t beat it!
Steam and Smoke at Kamela
Technorati Tags: up844, 844, steam, railfan, photography, train, railroad, upsteam, hinkle, hermiston, oregon, lagrande
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Looks like everything went smoothly with the upgrades. If you run into problems, please leave a comment.
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