Archive for the 'gorgerail' Category

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

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

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:

Due to some scheduling circumstances we have added two new shows to this year’s lineup for GorgeRail.

In a group effort, five railfans from the Pacific Northwest present “Gorge Rails” which is a look at some great photos taken in (where else) the Columbia River Gorge.  Steve Eshom, myself, Drew Mitchem, Paul Petersen, and Robert Scott are all contributing to this show.

The last addition is a short piece I have put together called “North Slope of Hood”, featuring the Mt. Hood Railroad and originally presented at the Railfan & Railroad Show prior to Winterail 2006.

Head over to the GorgeRail website to learn more about the event and registration information.

I need to apologize for my lack of updating on this site lately… things have been busy in my offline life and I haven’t had a chance to shoot much new material.  One of the things going on is me accepting a new position, which happens to be a few blocks away from a mainline in Southeast Portland… so you might start seeing some new material from that area.

GorgeRail plans are coming together with only a couple little logistical pieces needing to be worked out before we start selling tickets.  Stay tuned.

I’m bringing at least one more person on board to post here, and he has already shared some interesting ideas for ways to add material to the site.  His name will be familiar to those in the northwest as well as the locomotive preservation crowd… expect to see something in the next week or so.  Until then you can just wonder who he is

And since all good posts have at least one photo, here’s a short of our “train” from GorgeRail last year for a ride on the Oregon Pacific Railroad:

Even though GorgeRail is over 6 months away, I’m starting to look at the slideshow and find out who is interested in giving a presentation this year. If you’ve thought about presenting, I’d love to hear from you.

What sort of material are we looking for? We’re not too picky… pretty much anything railroad-related is fair game, whether it be modern or historical. In general, shows should be no longer than 20-25 minutes (longer than that and folks tend to lose interest, even with a good subject). I ask that shows have pre-recorded audio of some form, whether it be music or a verbal narration.

If you have a show idea, please send me an email at ahockley@gmail.com and we’ll talk. In the next month I’ll be looking at possible shows so that we can announce most of the lineup when ticket sales begin in January.

The Northwest has experienced its own heat wave over the last three days with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees on two occasions.  Today on my weekly trip around the Vancouver terminal my motivation to get out of the truck and photograph was low due to the fact its was over 80 degrees with >50% humidity at 9am.  I even had a chance to photograph a couple of locations I’ve never shot before, but for some reason standing out in the sun holding the camera didn’t intrigue me.  I’m sure all of you who live in places where it is regularly this warm and humid are getting a hearty laugh.  Ok, enjoy yourselves.

In place of something from Sunday I offer a photo from the weekend before GorgeRail 2006.  After changing crews at Eigth St., a northbound traverses the middle lead past the Vancouver Yard office.

Since I haven’t had a chance to take a bunch of new photos in the last week or so, I figured I need to entertain y’all with something, and I decided I’m going to post a few things over the next few days in a “GorgeRail Unplugged” series, offering a bit of behind-the-scenes insight into putting together the annual railfan event. Even if you have yet to attend GorgeRail, there might be something of interest.

Each year, GorgeRail has had an “official” lodging arrangement including a group rate at a hotel/motel in the area. Attendees are able to stay wherever they choose, but staying at the group motel has often had some benefits.

The first to years, we held GorgeRail at the Best Western Hood River Inn and so that became the natural choice for our group loding. We received a discount on the conference room based on the number of folks which chose to stay at the motel. The motel was nice, clean, and offered rooms with a river view for those who wanted the scenery outside their patio door. The hotel bar stayed open until a good hour so that we could toss back a few pints on Friday night and again on Saturday after the show.

In 2005 we changed the show venue to take advantage of the wonderful theater facilities at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center in The Dalles. Holding the show in a hotel conference room was adequate, but the theater at the Discovery Center provided more comfortable seating, better viewing, and a better sound system for about the same price as we had been paying in Hood River. Of course, being a museum, the Discovery Center doesn’t have a hotel in the building.

Last year we setup a group rate with the newly-built Comfort Inn, which was on the opposite end of town from the show. The facility was new and clean, and offered a continental breakfast included with the price. Unfortunately, my impression of the facility was marred by the fact that my reservation was screwed up and they had me in a room with a single bed instead of two.

This year, we setup group lodging at Cousins Country Inn. The rooms were clean, the prices were right, although no breakfast (or coupon for their restaurant) was included. One disappointment was that they shut down the bar at 10pm, even though we had probably 25 people who wanted to continue purchasing drinks. They lost money and made us unhappy.

Next year, I’m going to do a bit more planning. I want to find somewhere with affordable railfan-friendly rooms, with a bar that’s going to stay open past 10. If anyone has suggestions, or any sort of feedback, feel free to let me know.

Sorry for the lack of any substantial updates here the last week or so… I’m still getting back in the swing of things after GorgeRail, dealing with feedback from this year, folks that want to present next year, wrapping up things from a financial standpoint, and other assorted excuses. And now onto the point of the post…

Dick Samuels operates former East Portland Tracktion #100 on the Oaks Bottom Excursion at GorgeRail 2006.

I didn’t do much railfanning at this year’s GorgeRail. I thought this was a decent shot until tonight when preparing it for this blog post, and I realized I got freeway-fucked. Oh well, I guess that’s an excuse to go do it again without a little red sedan in the photo.

The initial GorgeRail 2007 information including dates and potential presenter information has been posted to the GorgeRail website.

GorgeRail 2006 came and went. Overall I’d say it was a great success. Within the next few days I’ll have some photos and information up for next year on the official website but here’s my take on things. Highlights of the weekend included:

• The first official event was Kathi Kube’s workshop about TRAINS Magazine: How to Get Published. She covered what they’re looking for and provided quite a few “do’s” and “don’ts” for potential contributors. I was pleased to see a crowd of just over 30 people for this workshop.
• After a hasty lunch break (it’ll be longer next year, I promise) Paul Petersen presented an hour-long workshop on digital imaging. It could’ve easily been stretched a bit longer. Paul knows his stuff and enjoys expanding on topics to convey a wealth of understanding upon the group. Again, this was well attended with between 30 and 40 folks in the crowd.
• The feature slideshow program was excellent. We featured a variety of topics from a range of presenters that traveled from places like Maryland, Canada, and California as well as more local locations. From a technical standpoint, things went off without any major glitches. On a personal level, I was disappointed that many folks chose not to arrive for the earlier shows in the program. Those who missed Ken Storey’s China Steam missed an excellent presentation on a topic which is now history.
• The lasagna dinner was excellent, although like lunch, we need to allow a bit more time next year for folks to eat and socialize.
• For the second time in our four years, a major steam event announcement was made at GorgeRail. The SP 4449 will lead an excursion from Portland to Bend (and back) in September.
• Doyle’s after-dinner talk, in which he told stories of his adventures on the Freedom Train, was a highlight of the entire weekend. His sense of humor and railroading knowledge provide a great mix to entertain a crowd of fans.
• What happened at the bar with the staff after the show, stays at the bar with the staff after the show
• The open house and excursion put on by Dick Samuels on the Oregon Pacific Railroad was excellent. He had all of his equipment lined up along the road for photography, and we piled about 50 people onto the 100 and caboose for a trip to Oaks Bottom and back.
• The folks at the Brooklyn Roundhouse went all-out and put on a great display. Kudos to the Friends of 4449, PRPA, ORHF, and others who helped set things up. The GorgeRail folks descended onto the roundhouse and found that in addition to the steam locomotives inside, the GN F unit had been coupled to the two Empire Builder cars for a “mini builder”, and there was a nice colorful assortment of staggered power out back with the F40PHR231, Doyle’s PA, Doyle’s “bumblebee” RSD-5, and a PSAP GP30 which was there for servicing.

I’d like to thank everyone involved, including our presenters, staff, door prize donators, and the folks at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center who were very responsive to our every need. From a financial standpoint, GorgeRail more than broke even. We made a decent-sized donation to Dick Samuels to help offset the fuel costs for the OPRR trip, and the remaining proceeds will be donated to the ORHF.

Mark your calendar for May 18-20, 2007 for next year’s GorgeRail.

• 10 months of planning
• 106 attendees pre-registered
• 11 multimedia presentations
• 1 featured speaker
• 2 workshops
• 2 local artists
• 1 shortline tour & mini-excursion
• 1 historic roundhouse tour with 3 steam locomotives
• 2 photo meets
• 1 lasagna dinner for the 80% of the attendees who are choosing to eat with the group
• over 25 door prizes
• free copies of TRAINS magazine and discount coupons for the Mt. Hood Railroad for everyone

It’s go time. See you in The Dalles.

I came home from work today to find 65 pounds worth of stuff from Kalmbach sitting at my house. Almost all of it is freebies or door prizes for GorgeRail.

Got your ticket?

GorgeRail is now just two weeks away. Registration is still brisk and I expect that by the show date we’ll have at least double last year’s attendance. I have been reviewing the final versions of the shows from the presenters and this year should be awesome with lots of great photography from some very talented individuals. Attendees may also attend a presentation by Kathi Kube of TRAINS magazine about how to be published, and a workshop on digital image editing by Paul Petersen. On Sunday the group will tour the Oregon Pacific Railroad, have a short excursion to Oaks Bottom, and tour the Brooklyn Roundhouse (home of the SP 4449 and SP&S 700).

The deadline for pre-registration is next week. See http://www.gorgerail.com for details. If you wish to enjoy dinner with the group at the Discovery Center, you must pre-register. Dinner will not be available for those paying at the door. Some show tickets should be available for same-day sales at the door but availability cannot be guaranteed as seating is limited. I highly recommend that anyone planning to attend pre-register which will ensure you have a seat and make your entry into the theater as swift as possible.

I look forward to seeing you at GorgeRail!

The last couple days I’ve been spending a lot of time on railroad-related things, but nowhere near the tracks. I’m starting to receive final versions of GorgeRail presentations. Each show undergoes a final review to ensure there aren’t any glitches and that it should project correctly in the theater.

I love what I’m seeing. We’ve got a great variety of shows. We’ve got a great variety of non-show-activities as well.

Ticket sales are just over 200% of last year. Have you bought yours?

I am excited to announce a late addition to the GorgeRail activity lineup. On Sunday May 21st, GorgeRail will wrap up with two activities in the Portland area.

At 1:00pm, we will meet at the shops of the Oregon Pacific Railroad, a shortline operation owned by Dick Samuels. A small but active shortline, the Oregon Pacific is probably best known for Samuels’ collection of assorted historical locomotives. The locomotives will be on display and the GorgeRail group will tour the shop facilities and be able to photograph the equipment which is normally off-limits to the public. Among the units are former Portland Traction Company #100, an SW1 which was the locomotive which both placed the SP&S 700 into Oaks Park and then retrieved her for restoration. More information about the Oregon Pacific can be found on Brian McCamish’s website at http://www.brian894×4.com/OregonPacificRR.html

Following the tour of the Oregon Pacific Shops, the group will take a short excursion along the line into the Oaks Bottom area along Portland’s Springwater Corridor. The tentative plan is to have folks riding in a locomotive, caboose, and possibly open air car. As this is an operating freight railroad, exact excursion plans and equipment cannot be guaranteed.

Following the Oregon Pacific tour and ride, the group will head to the Brooklyn Roundhouse, home to Portland’s three steam locomotives. We will be likely to see the SP&S 700, SP 4449, OR&N 197, as well as other historic equipment such as Doyle McCormack’s Alco PA and Chris Fussell’s Amtrak F40PHR #231.

These events are part of GorgeRail and are included in the price of a GorgeRail show ticket. For a complete listing of GorgeRail events, as well as registration and ticketing information, see the GorgeRail website at http://www.gorgerail.com

What if we were to add something to the GorgeRail activities… something we’ve never done… at no additional cost. Something like… a train ride. That would be fun, wouldn’t it?

Got your GorgeRail ticket yet?

I had heard a few times that the shows presented at the “night before Winterail” pizza party were usually really good, and sometimes better than the shows at Winterail itself. This year the party was sponsored by Railfan & Railroad magazine. After some initial hesitation I decided to attend and also present at this event. Here’s what I thought:

Shows: The quality of the shows ranged from very good to very ungood. From what I could tell, the lineup was first-come, first-served, so there was no screening of content or quality of the shows beforehand. Format was a mixture of digital shows (using ProShow) along with some traditional slide presentations. Shows which stand out in my mind were Ken Storey’s “Great Railfan Trip 2005″ which presented a selection of excellent photos from the western United States of both freight action and the UP 3985, along with Ken Harrison’s show featuring railroad operations in Brazil. Steve Barry presented “Steve’s Steamy Shorts” which were fun to watch. Nate Muhlethaler narrated a show featuring Mexican railroads which was informative as well as having a good variety of photos. Robert Scott presented his show featuring North Dakota railroading which I had previously seen. Barry Christensen presented “Gateways to the South” which darn near bored me to death, with average-quality images of modern freight trains in the southeastern US. Nose-coupled Dash 9 roster shots just don’t excite me. Overall the show quality was about what I expected, some good ones and some bad ones.

Facilities: The theater worked fine for the crowd of 100-150 people, and didn’t have the ventilation issues that would be seen the next day at the main Winterail show.

Show Organization: I’ve got two things to say about the show organization, neither one of them good. The timekeeping was very poor. 20% of the presenters weren’t able to show anything because some other presenters shows went longer than their allotted slots and took up too much time. The folks running the show allowed a couple of the live-narrated slideshows to go on for longer than the 15 minute limit which had been stated. Given that a few of the digital shows (such as mine, at 7 minutes) were far shorter than 15 minutes, the fact that they ran out of time shows serious time-management problems.

Perhaps my bigger frustration was the lack of planning or organization for the projection of digital shows. I don’t know to what extent the Winterail and Railfan & Railroad folks cooperated for the sharing of equipment and such, so these are merely observations from a presenter. When I got there, I was told to give my show (on CD) to Alex Ramos, who took it but admitted he didn’t know exactly what he was doing. After several minutes he came back out of the building, apparently having been told that “the Winterail people” wouldn’t let him load the Friday presentations onto the Winterail computer. As such, he had no idea what computer was going to be used to show the digital shows. One of the guys I was with (another attendee) happened to have his laptop along, so his laptop ended up being used to present the digital shows. Once we got the shows rolling so to speak, it became obvious that the digital projector had some color issues… the color tones were off, as well as all of the images being noticeably darker than they should have been. Several of the photos in my presentation lost a lot of detail that just became black because of the darkening of the images.

Who hosts a digital slideshow without a computer to project the images? And why wasn’t the projector tested to ensure the colors were correct?

Food: For $7 I expected more than two slices of shitty Domino’s pizza. Evan Werkema was overheard exclaiming “That stuff is worse than Tombstone!” I understand that the profits went to rail preservation, but what a joke.

Overall: A few of the shows were interesting. The lack of show organization and time management left a sour taste in my mouth along with the sour taste of crappy, limited-quantity pizza. Would I go again? Doubtful.