Detouring on the Trunk

by Steve Eshom

With UP’s Cascade line shut down due to the massive slide at Frazier I took an opportunity to head over to the Oregon Trunk to photograph some of the regular and detour trains.  Other than a couple of random photos at Moody and a 4449 excursion to Bend I’ve never spent much time exploring the details of the “Trunk”.  Since driving between various points can be time and gas consuming I chose to concentrate Saturday’s exploration to the segment between Dike and Nena (approximately).  This section has a public road all along it and is pretty ‘easy’ to photograph since everything is right out in the open. 

For the day I saw 7 trains!  Here’s the breakdown…

North:
2 UP
1 BNSF

South:
2 UP
2 BNSF

Over the next week or so I’ll post some of the photos as I have time to post process them.  For now here’s a couple that really reflect on the area.

 

Just after sunrise in the canyon, UP’s Z-LCBR winds its way north at the confluence of the White River and the Deschutes.
Mt. Hood looms above.

The Oregon Trunk between OT Jct. and Gateway traverses canyons formed by the Deschutes, Trout Creek, and Mud Springs Creek.  These rivers have cut their way though the rock giving the railroad a pre-made path from the Columbia to Central Oregon.  UP’s Q-PWRV takes advantage of this as it winds along the Deschutes 3 miles north of Sherar.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 at 3:02 pm and is filed under trip reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.