From the monthly archives:
It was nice to see some sun in Vancouver this morning! After a week that felt more like spring than winter it was good to be able to top it off with a sunny day photograph.
Amtrak’s Empire Builder crosses the Columbia River and begins to accelerate away from the Vancouver, WA depot.
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Even though I purchased Photomatix a few months ago, I hadn’t really spent much time with HDR photography. Tonight I had some time and found what I figured would be a great subject for my first attempt at tone mapping. I made this photo of the Black Hills Central Railroad on one of its tourist excursions between Keystone and Hill City, South Dakota.
I’m a bit biased, but I figure it’s not bad for a first try at tone mapping…
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Two weeks from today I’ll be headed to Southern California for some spring railfanning. Bring it on!
The Cadiz local summits Ash Hill in September ‘07.
The KCKBAR rolls through the desert between Cadiz and Danby
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For several years now I’ve taken advantage of my company’s President’s Day holiday to visit the Columbia River Gorge for a bit of February railfanning. This year I spent the day west of the west siding switch Maryhill which can be characterized as an area with lots of rock cuts and sweeping curves. I’ve always enjoyed this location thanks to the notoriety brought to it by Dan Schwanz but just have never spent enough time here.
Just after 9am the M-TACPAS, with an SD75 leading, rounds
a curve about 1/2 mile west of west Maryhill
Generally the day was overcast. Early on the fog hung low on the sides of the gorge but not low enough to make for interesting photographs of trains. The sun did pop out for a while but when it was at its best (and I was set up for a great photo) the trains dried up. During the drought I did have the pleasure of listening to the radio conversations of Mad Dog and his conductor making a pick up at Wishram.
With its rear end just clearing west Maryhill, a loaded grain
passes below the grape vines of the Maryhill Winery
Around 3pm the clouds rolled in so much that I ended up not photographing a couple of westbound trains because the scene was so flat. Instead I prepared for a couple of night photos. As it ends up I saw 11 trains in 11 hours.
Headed East. Amtrak 28 sweeps through the curves on its way east to Pasco and Spokane.
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Now that there are two tracks at 11th Street there is more of a chance that Amtrak patrons will get caught waiting like these 9 cars this morning. Of course all 9 of these rigs could have saved a 26 minute wait by using the 6th Street underpass. Maybe the city needs to invest in some new signs?
While a yard crew takes the first 3/4 of the M-PASVAW over the hill Amtrak patrons wait. The road power
for the M-PASVAW starts moving back to its train at Eighth Street.
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