Archive for the 'photos' Category

As Lon mentioned in a reply to my post last week the BNSF 9316 was pulled off the empty Rawhide coal train at Vancouver due to flat spots. This left me with a hole in my coal train monitoring for the week.

Running an hour and a half behind the C-RHMCEC coal train last week was a C-SCMCEC (Spring Creek Mine) load. The Spring Creek train was lead by an ES44AC BNSF 5892. When I arrived at the depot Sunday morning I heard the BNSF 5892 announce its arrival at Felida so this gives me another week where I can post stats on the Centralia coal train cycle.

Last week the SCMCEC passed 39th St. at 6:30pm on its loaded trek (above) to Centralia. This week Lon tells me that it passed at approximately 5:30pm giving this train an average speed of 13.1 MPH for the week.

So what would speed up this cycle and is it worth the investment to improve the cycle? Both of parts of that question require quite a bit of research and analysis. I’m sure the class Is do that sort of analysis on critical delivery lanes but how important is it for coal delivered to Centralia? I’m sure if the cost of providing delivery service could be improved the railroads would be interested even for Centralia coal. For now though I’m betting the 13-14 MPH average speed is close enough to the sweet spot.

Thank you Lon for the spotting notes.

Brut·ish

Pronunciation: \ˈbrü-tish\
Function: adjective
1: resembling, befitting, or typical of a brute or beast
2 a: strongly and grossly sensual b: showing little intelligence or sensibility

SD70ACe’s sure are imposing when they are coming straight at you. Instead of the sleek, elegant lines of an F unit, they were given utilitarian features to improve their safety and performance. Their square, boxy nose is designed to maximize crew safety but arguably their worst feature somehow gives these brutes appeal.

Last week while in Old Town I spotted a pair of TriMet’s new Siemans Avanto light rail vehicles. They were on a test run, acting as a blue line train. The photo isn’t the greatest (windshield glare, anyone?) but this was the first time I’d seen a pair of these units on a test run in the daytime.

Recently grabbed a photo of the new heavy rail commuter service running in the Portland area.

    

 

 

 

 

WES DMU Departs Tualitan

Many parts of Western Washington are inundated with water as I write this.  Railfan reports have slides down at various locations over the major rail lines and Amtrak and BNSF have cancelled service between Eugene, OR and Vancouver, BC.   WADOT has closed I-5 around Chehalis and Centralia again which means the BNSF Seattle sub isn’t far behind.

It time to bring out the shovel! Since the rain is ending by tomorrow morning I imagine it will be a few days until things start to returning to normal.

My last post featured railroad workers in the snow… so how about a shot from a couple months ago on a sunny day near the Los Angeles Harbor, where a brakeman rides the end of an intermodal cut being shoved towards an unloading track.

My Journey Through 2008

To celebrate 2008 I assembled a program to show off my favorite railroad photos from the places I visited this year.   Assembling this program gave me a great retrospective on the year and the fun I had pursuing my hobby.

I’d say 2008 was a pretty good year and I feel I came out with some nice photographs.  According to Lightroom I shot just over 3700 railroad images this year which is up by 20% over the previous year. Keep in mind I did this in a year where gas prices arguably were an issue for railfanning but in the end they didn’t impact the photo total.  Based on photo counts from the various trips I took I seemed to take fewer total trips but the total number of photos taken on each trip was much greater.

Fuel prices did impact the fall trip with the FoamersNW crew as we chose to stay close to home and skip paying the airlines to get us there.  The end result was some of my favorite images from the year taken along BNSF’s Lakeside Sub.  So from what seemed like a failed trip something good was made.

What will 2009 hold?  Real hard to tell.  With the slowing economy I’d expect freight traffic to be down a bit early which will mean fewer and shorter trains.  I’d also expect that sometime in ‘09 the economy will pick up so hopefully by this time next year there is more optimism and freight traffic will be on the rise. 

Where do I plan to go in 2009?  So far the list is:
Central Montana
Tucson, AZ
Bellingham Sub
Kootenai River Sub 
Nampa Sub
….plus the usual events (GorgeRail, Autumn Leaf, Hot Rail, Winter in the Blues)
….plus the usual haunts (Columbia Gorge, Vancouver, Seattle Sub)

These are of course the wish list and are subject to change but are all locations I’d love to spend a few days railfanning.

With that look to next year, have a happy and prosperous New Year and sit back and enjoy Detours, Deserts, and Snow (4 min 44 sec).

In the last half hour temperatures have risen above freezing in Vancouver for the first time since late in the day on 12/18. For much of the northern United States that’s not significant but for the relatively mild Pacific Northwest 6 days is a healthy stretch of below freezing temperatures. The current forecast is for temperatures between 35 and 50 through next week. Bye bye beautiful snow, hello slush and mud.

The weather here in the Northwest has been quite chilly, with current snow accumulation at my house in Vancouver around 6″. Today I ventured out towards the depot to see what might be happening on the rails. The scanner told me things were messy, with lots of switch and signal problems throughout the terminal.

I took a few typical train-in-the-snow photos, but I also captured a few shots of railroaders at work despite the weather:

Conductor on the Coast Starlight train 11. Ten minutes prior, he was on the ground lining a switch.

Conductor on Cascades train 516, asking on the radio if he can depart (and get back inside)

The station agent loads bags. I wonder if he was contemplating chains for the baggage cart?

Conductor from the Z-CHCPTL uses the handle of a broom to remove snow from a switch

Last month when a herd of railfans congregated in Centralia for a slideshow, I was in Los Angeles on a business trip. While there I got a chance to do a bit of railfanning for several hours with Jeff Bass

Our first stop was at Dolores Yard, where there just happened to be an open house / family day. We snapped a few photos including some of a couple of the UP Heritage Units on display. The lighting was only good for one of the units but since we don’t see theme often I figured I should capture them both.

Other photos to be posted in the coming days.

I took the following shots recently while walking parallel to the tracks into downtown Portland.  I had tried making the trek a few times earlier in the week and various things got in my way; from running errands to the alarm clock not going off.  After finally hitting the ground early enough I managed these shots.  One is the Amtrak Cascades approaching form the south, and the other is the same train moving north toward downtown Portland.

Amtrak Cascades CAB leading in Push Operation

 

Amtrak Cascades #500 in Push Operation

This post could also be titled “SPOPAS Before and After”…

On January 7, 1989 on my return to Pullman and the start of my final semester at WSU, I photographed BN train 613 (Spokane to Pasco manifest) tipping over the top of Providence hill. Spring forward a few years(….ahhh….19 years).  On September 13, 2008 I again found myself at Providence, this time photographing BNSF’s M-SPOPAS doing the same thing as 613 19 years earlier.  This spot was my favorite place to take a break on the drive between home and Pullman and today it stands as one of the places I still love to visit even it if is just to reminisce.

BN train 613 reaches the summit of Providence hill on January 7, 1989.

BNSF train M-SPOPAS reaches the summit of Providence hill on September 13, 2008.

The 7.01 mile Flathead tunnel looks much like its older sister the 7.79 mile Cascade tunnel though there are a couple of differences.  First the grade is .5 ascending eastbound versus 1.6 ascending eastbound.  Second the speed inside is 50 mph versus 25 mph.  Because of these factors this tunnel doesn’t tend to become the bottle neck the Cascade tunnel does.  In fact trains pass between Rock Creek (west portal) and Twin Meadows (east portal) in just under 10 minutes! Eastbounds entering the tunnel don’t have the fans blowing in their face instead the door is closed which forces the locomotives into a clear column of air.   A flush is performed after each train exits the tunnel.

 

An X-VAWCIM (Vancouver, WA to Collins, MT) roars out of the east portal of the Flathead tunnel at Twin Meadows, MT.

My normal commute involves a trip on TriMet’s MAX light rail line which parallels Union Pacific’s Graham Line along I-84 through Northeast Portland. Earlier this month our train passed a UP freight which was working hard up the grade and I hopped off at the 82nd Avenue platform, hoofed it up the stairs and across the street so that I could get a “from above” shot as the power reached our location.

Here’s a UP SD90 coming under Halsey Street:

Amtrak train 27 passes over the venerable 6th St. overpass

Modern, elegant, and stylish or old, boxy, and crumbling.  How would you describe the railroad underpass at Sixth St. in Vancouver?  I’m afraid I’d have to go with the latter three descriptions just based on appearance.   Each time I drive under it I question its strength though I’m sure that its design and construction is sufficient because the trestle still does its job just fine.  I guess I’m spoiled by more modern construction that looks far more substantial and overbuilt…especially in the railroad arena. 

I thought it would be a good idea to start capturing some images of this structure since over the next few years it will be replaced as part of the re-development of the former Boise Cascade paper plant site.  From what Aaron and I gathered at the open house last winter there will be a shoo fly in place for several years while the new structure is constructed.  The new lead for the Port of Vancouver is being built with a very nice overpass structure at 6th St. and 4th St. which should allow for two 10-12 ft. auto lanes plus a bicycle lane.  Oh, and the clearance appears to be much more modern than the current 8′ 8″ height.  It will be nice to be able to pass under this without having to remove the railroad radio antenna from my rig!

Another, more ‘edgy’, version of this image is available in my gallery.