When you drive up the Columbia River Gorge on the highway it is really tough to tell sometimes that you are passing through a pretty major mountain range.  The mountains are certainly there but they tower above so high that it isn’t really obvious what is going on.  If you drive I-84 and look across at Washington the mountains are not as abrupt or as steep as on the Oregon side so you have the illusion that you are passing through a gentle valley.   That’s far from the truth.

I love to find places where the river is fairly narrow and you can easily photograph across it.  Moffett Creek below Bonneville dam is one of the places where that is possible.  With fresh snow on the mountains and the rocky terrain I knew I wanted to visit here and capture a Union Pacific train crossing the bridge.   UP set me up with two trains for this so I took advantage.

What is hard to see in this image is how tall the mountain in the background really is.  The river is around 40′ above sea level and Wauneka Point tops out at over 2800′ (according to mytopo.com)!   This image is actually a panorama shot vertically at 51mm and from what I can tell I’m only showing about 1/3 of the mountain.  Impressive to be in the Cascades.

Vancouver still has not had winter.  We had a bit of rain around New Years but since we have returned to a fairly mild weather situation.   With the mild weather and cool temperatures we end up with fog.   Sunday it was pretty dense in areas including at the Vancouver Amtrak station.   I did hear one train confirm with the dispatcher that the dispatcher did request a signal for them.  They normally could see the signals from their location but in the fog they weren’t visible.   Just another day on the job right?

Yesterday I assembled my top 11 images of 2011 and posted them on the various social media sites.  Today I want to share with you all my top 11 railroad photos from 2011.

Narrowing the list to 11 certainly isn’t easy.  2011 was filled with many wonderful photography opportunities and I ended up with numerous photos I absolutely love.   70 is too many to post though.  So, here’s my top 11 of 2011.  See you next year!

Every year when ORHF puts on their annual Holiday Express my daughter and I go visit.  She absolutely loves steam engines so having them in a small area on a predictable schedule works out wonderfully.  Each year we get more and more adventuresome with the photographs we choose.  Last year we hung out near the turn around point in Sellwood and were rewarded with some interesting images of the Daylight.  This year we did something similar with the 700 only from the other side of the tracks.

In years past my daughter has been apprehensive about the locomotives thanks to their size and the unpredictable nature of the noises they make.  She really doesn’t like to be startled.  This year, like every other, I explained to her exactly what would happen, when the engine would whistle, and what she would hear.  As the 700 pulled away from the Oaks Park station she stood strong next to me and her body rocked with the chuff of the exhaust.  She said “Christmas” as the front of the engine came into view and waved like crazy as the train passed.  She was thrilled and I snapped off a nice photo of the 700 charging (at 10 mph) out of the station.

After the train backed past us headed north for East Portland we walked north to the lake in the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge.  I decided I’d like a photo across the lake so we walked along the trail until I found a suitable location.  My daughter is always up for a hiking adventure so I guided her away from the trail down a a reasonably steep slope towards the lake.  I miscalculated the slipperiness of the slope and one point we both slipped on the wet leaves and fell on our behinds.  The one thing she likes less than being startled is falling.   She was very shocked but stood strong once we brushed ourselves off.

Once along the lake we could hear the 700 once again approaching from the north.  I snapped off a photo of the engine with wonderful billows of steam rolling out.  My daughter talked continually about how awesome the engine was and in doing so completely forgot about the slip earlier.

We walked back towards the Oaks park station and enjoyed looking at the 700 as the volunteer crew unloaded and reloaded the train.  It departed on its next run to East Portland and we stood near the tracks to watch the motorcars go south.  I think both of us liked the car with the reindeer leading the best.  Though all the cars look wonderful it appeared as the most Christmas spirited.

As is normal my daughter asked about going on a train ride.  I explained to her that we have tickets to ride behind the Daylight next Saturday. Oh boy, that was perfect.  She was beside herself with thrill.  When she got home she told her mom all about what she saw and the fact next weekend she’d be going to ride the train.  She also reminded mom she’d be shopping at the gift shop set up for the Holiday Express.  That will be our family’s annual contribution to the roundhouse cause…for the love of steam.

Yes indeed it is again time to eat some turkey!   I’m looking forward to a few days off from work to throttle back, relax, and enjoy my family.  Oh ya and eat some turkey (did I say that already?)!

This year like most I am thankful for the fact that I can enjoy my hobbies like I do.  I quite frankly am lucky to have everything I do.  My family supports me, my friends tolerate me, and I’m healthy.  What else can a guy ask for?

Photographically, I’m thankful for the moments of great light I’ve had this year.  Without those moments, however brief or long lived, the photos I’ve taken wouldn’t be what they are.   Light and shadow you are my friends and thanks for sticking with me.

Train wise, I suppose all the right trains came at the right time.  I’m sure I could look back and say if only a train was X minutes earlier or Y minutes later it would be perfect.  Can’t do that though so I’m thankful for the trains that arrived when they did.  Without them I wouldn’t have the photos I do.

Today’s photo is an image of UP’s M-HKRO cresting the summit of the Blue Mountains at Kamela, Or.  On the 11th day of December 2008 fog from the moist snow hangs in the trees around the summit.  If you were to visit the Blues on Thanksgiving 2011 it would look pretty similar to this photo though I’m quite certain an SD40-2 wouldn’t be in the consist.

Again, have a great thanksgiving!