Archive for February, 2008

I’m lucky my family history includes railroading.  In fact that history is probably one of the reasons I enjoy the railfan hobby as much as I do.  While visiting with my parents a couple of weeks ago I came across one part of my family railroad history that I knew about but had never looked at too closely. 

In the early 1960s after a stint in the Air Force my Uncle Dale landed himself a telegraphers job with the Southern Pacific at Surf, CA.  He and his new bride moved themselves to nearby Lompoc and started their life.  With the arrival of their first daughter in 1963 the family from Washington had to come for a visit.  It is photographs from this visit that survive today and document my uncle’s history in southern California.

Uncle Dale and wife on the platform

Trains ran an article in the March 2008 issue on the last years of operations at Surf.  At the time I read it I didn’t realize that Surf was where my uncle worked.  It was only during the later discussion with my parents and reviewing these photos that I put the pieces together about Uncle Dale’s work location. 

With these pictures in hand I poured back through the article looking for things I recognized.  By the 1970s and 1980s era of the article Surf had moved to the ’new’ depot and of course looked much different than what is shown in these photos.  Despite that I did pick out one common thing though.   Pictured on the top of page 50 is the ’new’ Surf operators desk and just above it is the same model board as pictured below.

Uncle Dale listens intently on the dispatcher’s phone.

By 1968 on the job injury and other illnesses ended my uncle’s SP career.   It would be really cool to say that he had a long career with the SP and that I fondly remember depot visits.  Alas, the realities of life have prevented that but I am still happy that I do have these photos that I can look back on to remember this bit of my family railroad history.

A quick break

Last week on my way home from my weekly tour of Vancouver railfan hangouts I noticed the Vancouver Land Bridge was open and folks were wandering all around it.   I’ve been watching this project and keeping an eye out for how it might be used to see to never before photographed areas of the Fallbridge sub. 

Before I dive into the trains, what the heck is the land bridge all about?  The Vancouver Land Bridge is “a 40-foot wide, earth covered arch over Washington State Highway 14 providing pedestrians, bicyclists and non-motorized vehicles with scenic vistas and safe passage from the Vancouver National Historic Reserve to the Columbia River waterfront”.   Unfortunately the berm that the railroad rides on from Eighth Street to east of Eavan cuts off the bulk of eastern downtown from the Columbia River water front.  The land bridge combined with the existing underpass for Old Apple Tree Park are one of the many steps planned to break down this barrier and reconnect Vancouver with the Columbia.   

What is the Vancouver Land Bridge?

When I arrived at the park this morning two trains were imminent, Amtrak 27 and an eastbound Tacoma stack train.  I expected 27 to be the full 7/27 consist today so shooting it from the land bridge seemed like a good plan to get all or most all of the train in the photo.  I climbed up the bridge to the “River” rotunda and scoped out the situation.  The views are quite good from here though since the land bridge is on the north side of the tracks caution will have to be used with the lighting.  In the summers when the sun rises and sets quite far north I’m expecting early morning and late evening photos will be fairly decent.  The tracks are on a WNW-ESE orientation so only time will tell how this will work out.  I did laugh to myself when I thought about 200 railfans lining the fence the next time the 4449 heads east! 

Amtrak 27 has a full 7/27 consist thanks to the snow in the Cascades

With 27 by the S TCPLPC departed Vancouver and headed for the land bridge.  With eastbound trains you can incorporate parts of the bridge to give a context to the scene.  For the first photo of the stacker I included the curvy walkway along with some folks getting some exercise.   The fence along the track side is easily photographed over even for the most “height challenged” railfans. 

S TCPLPC passes the Vancouver Land Bridge

For the railfan purist there are other views of eastbounds including this unobstructed view from the “River” rotunda.

S TCPLPC departs Vancouver with the iconic I-5 bridge as a backdrop

The land bridge is adorned with signage to help the visitor to Vancouver’s National Historic Reserve understand the significant history of this area.  All sorts of topics are covered including transportation.  Though I have to say I think the transportation sign missed a significant use of the Columbia River that is…well…right under its nose. 

This sign celebrates the Columbia River as transportation corridor though some
obvious usages of the river canyon are left out despite their relative closeness.

As a link between Vancouver and the River the land bridge gets high marks.  It seems folks are using it since in the hour I was there 15 or 20 people passed by.  It is very comfortable with wide open spaces and natural, small to moderate landscaping.  Other than the constant noise from SR-14 the user can barely tell it is present thanks to careful visual obstruction.  As a railfan location its not bad though, like I warned above, the lighting won’t be great through 90% of clear summer days.  Cloudy days where the lighting is more diffused will prove to be the best use of this spot.   There are still some hidden gems (in fact there is a sign dedicated to one of the gems) here though.   In the end I think we have us a $12.25 million dollar railfanning platform to enjoy!

(Note: Another fan group, airplane fans, will enjoy the “Land” rotunda thanks to it proximity to Pearson Airfield)

As I mentioned in my November post I participated in DINA 2007 by visiting UP’s Brooklyn Sub.  I have posted several additional photos from the day into my gallery including “Station Stop Salem” which was published in the DINA issue.   Of course these images have a bit of a story a true Northwest railfan can appreciate.

My visit to Oregon City (Train Time at Oregon City) was probably not what most people would call fun.  It was raining.  No, not the annoying mist kind of rain, the heavy downpour kind.  Ugg.  To get a decent photo of the elevated platform the photographer has to be elevated also.  For me this meant getting onto the roof of my vehicle.   I successfully set up the tripod and took a few test shots without getting overly wet.  Once I was back in the relative dryness of my vehicle, I calculated that when I heard a horn as the train blew through downtown I could climb up and minimize my time in the rain.   When I heard horns I started the process.  In the 3 minutes the train took to get from downtown to the depot I was soaked.  Since I was committed I didn’t give up and as the train pulled in I fired away just as planned.  I returned to my vehicle completely soaked but pleased because I got the shot.  In the end I think it is my favorite photo from the day. 

Just after I left Oregon City I heard the detector south of Hito go off.  I knew I had another northbound but didn’t have a great plan of where to shoot it at.  I really wanted to shoot something on the new Pudding River bridge but there was no way I was going to get there ahead of the train.  Instead I took a few minutes to scout around Coalca and came up with “Fall In The Northwest“.  It was taken at 8:15am on a rainy October 20…so how dark was it?  Take a look at the EXIF and you’ll see quickly just how dark it was.  The outcome though was far better than I expected and it ended up being my second favorite photo of the day.

Not long after Coalca I dried out (heat on hot, fans on high) and fortunately as the day wore on the rain turned to showers.  By the time I captured #11 exiting the trees at Shedd (below) the rain stopped altogether ending a good day of railfanning.