Archive for the 'photos' Category

Union Pacific is well known for the slogans they’ve placed on their locomotives over the years. We Will Deliver… and Building America are the two most recent that come to mind. Those phrases are designed to evoke the feeling of competence about what the company does and to show that confidence around the community and customers.

I saw a locomotive slogan yesterday that cuts through all the corporate advertising and propaganda and gets down to basics about what every railroader dreams of from each trip they take on the road…

FLASH US PLEASE…and the sooner the better!

Amongst my many contacts over on Flickr are several other railfans. One of them, Patrick Dirden, was recently in Vancouver and snapped a photo of the Columbia River Drawbridge from the station platform. There are no trains in the image but he put together a wonderful composition which shows the lines of the open draw span nicely.

I’ve been down there hundreds of times, yet I don’t think I’ve ever taken this shot. Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to see something that’s been in our faces all along…

Click on the image to view it larger or check out more of Patrick’s work.

As I catalog my photos I attach the engine numbers visible in the photo for future reference. During this process if repeat engine numbers come up I usually take note and when I’m finished I search by engine number to see where I previously saw the dupes. Its a fun exercise that takes me on a trip down memory lane and sometimes proves interesting when it comes to the engines.

Case in point. During the “Hot Rail” event a couple of weeks ago I came across BNSF 1101. It has quite a storied history when it comes to the paint job. On 10/31/2000 it was involved in a rear end collision near Bellemont, AZ that moved it from and H1 paint scheme to an H2 paint scheme as the photo below from 3/3/2003 depicts.

Clearly something else has happened to is as it is now in primer. This is most likely from a more minor collision than the the Bellemont one, but certainly something to make it look well worn as it climbs Trinidad hill on 7/28/2007. So will 1101 be painted with the new logo next?

Last weekend several folks were out railfanning the Scenic and Columbia River Subdivisions and I joined them. This was my first time to the Columbia River sub (other than as an Amtrak passenger) and my first time to railfan the Scenic sub when there wasn’t snow on the ground.

Amtrak’s Empire Builder heading downgrade near Trinidad

The Everett to Spokane daily manifest works hard climbing the hill approaching Quincy

A westbound Z train pulls uphill through the “slot” near Cascade Meadows

For more photos of the event, check out the photo thread over at RailroadForums.

Despite Ridgefield South being on the edge of the wide open Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge there are just enough trees to block serious amounts of sunset light from entering the area around the plant. Still the washes of light sneaking in provided for some different photos to be made last night.

The TACPAS is the middle of three northbounds to pass through Ridgefield South over a 30 minute period

I’ve always like the brutish look of the 3 window SD60Ms. They look particularly impressive with the heat waves showing just how hard they are working as they slow for an upcoming slow order.

Yesterday morning I was sitting at work and got an instant message from Steve saying that he heard the SP&S 700 on the radio going past an approach signal at MP 769.  Since that’s about five blocks from my office, I decided it was a good time for a break and headed that way in a brisk walk.  The locomotive was onto the OPR, and unfortunately unless I was going to trespass my photo angle would be aiming southeast into the sun.  I believe the term “craptastic” applies, but hey, it’s a steam train, so I’m going to post it.

Some folks on a certain railroad photography mailing list are all up in arms about the fact that the new issue of TRAINS magazine features a streetcar on the cover.  If that bothers you, skip this post.

Last Saturday I spent a couple hours near downtown Portland taking some night photos.  Several of them involved the TriMet MAX light rail trains in the area.

First is my favorite from the evening, shot from a ramp up to the Steel Bridge with a long exposure as traffic stops and a train passes:

The following set of images were shot at the Old Town / Chinatown MAX station over a period of half an hour with a variety of platform activity and passing trains:

It was fun to shoot something a little different in the urban environment.

Around the summer solstice I find it fun to look back on winter photos as a reminder of what the weather in January was like. Whew, I’m glad summer is here.

With a skiff of snow on the ground a westbound manifest train glides into the Stevenson siding for a meet

The day before father’s day my daughter and I had a bit of daddy-daughter time so we visited the Crossett Western 10 pulling its monthly excursion out of Yacolt, WA. I hope all the father’s out there were able to spend time with your kids sometime this weekend like I was able to. Happy Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day! CW 10 has its excursion train well in hand as it rolls smoothly across the Lewis River.

I mentioned in my post about the southbound steam double header that there were quite a few local residents waiting patiently for the “steam train” south of Woodland. I choose to get one of my last photos of the train at speed on the sweeping curve that leads onto the Lewis River bridge where a group had gathered.

The Centralia South dispatcher held the 4449 north of the crossovers at Woodland until Amtrak 506 could get out of the way. The Lewis River bridge area is notorious for trespassers so I’m sure the engineer on 506 was nervous about blowing across the bridge at full speed knowing the ‘foamers’ would be hanging around the north end. His concerns were justified one individual continually stood between the rails as if he was taunting the engineer to come and get him. Fortunately he had the sense to move before this series of photos was snapped.

Waiting For The Steam Train

I grew up in the Puget Sound region so I have a soft spot for scenes from that area. I’ve seen numerous photos from Steilacoom, but the ones that interest me most are the ones of the trestle between the ferry dock and Gordon Point. Its a quaint setting with a boat repair facility in the foreground and a typical Puget Sound background. To top it off the entire location is nicely framed with typical Puget Sound vegetation (maple trees, fir trees, and a madrone tree).

A Pasco to Vancouver, BC manifest slows for the Pioneer crossovers as it crosses Steilacoom Bay

In places like Arlington, OR mother nature doesn’t provide that many natural frames but man does with built environment objects like the grain elevator. With nice evening light I captured a Gilliam garbage train waiting for a new crew.

A garbage train basks in the sun at Arlington, OR

I guess you could say I practiced framing techniques on my Sunday railfanning trip. The first image I’ve played around with a couple of times. The second was pretty much a grab shot that presented itself as the Z train came around the wye. Thanks to a 10mph speed it was easy to try different things as the cars rolled by.

As is typical with with Sundays this time of year the traffic dropped off to nothing after Amtrak 501 passed…

The morning westbound Z train comes around the wye from Eighth Street towards the Columbia Draw.

Vancouver’s Amtrak depot

Vancouver has a modest (very modest?) engine service facility just south of 39th St. Power is serviced here as required with a preference given to fueling at Hauser, ID if there’s enough gas in the tank. While waiting at the 39th St. crossing a few weeks ago I captured the Z train power getting the once over.

A BNSF crew fuels and checks a set of power before its next assignment.

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

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:

Yesterday I was tied up with some important meetings at work so I couldn’t chase the 844 east like many other local railfans. Instead I took a long lunch and headed down to the pedestrian bridge near Haig at the north end of Brooklyn Yard. David over at This Space for Rent refers to this as the Toonerville bridge, mainly due to the construction and (in)stability. I nominate the bridge for Most Likely to Topple in a 2.5 Earthquake. I was there for a little over an hour and only caught three movements, all in the first 15 minutes or so.

Northbound Amtrak Cascades train #504

Closeup of the cab of UP 522 on a switch job

A southbound manifest approaches Brooklyn

Last weekend, the UP 844 headed west from The Dalles, Oregon to Portland, where the SP 4449 joined the excursion to head north to Tacoma. I shot the train at several locations; here are a few photos.

UP 844 broadside at Rowena

844 with a yellow train and yellow scotch broom just east of Cascade Locks

UP 844 and a bunch of steam at Dodson

Leaving Vancouver, the train passes under Fruit Valley Road

Through the S curve at Steilacoom

At Mosier. No further explanation needed

Like every other railfan in the northwest, I was out chasing the 844/4449 steam special last weekend.  I haven’t posted steam photos because I’ve been busy with GorgeRail preparations (you’re going to be there, aren’t you?) but I wanted to share this photo I took of an eastbound UP train while waiting for the steam special.  When I setup at this spot at Rowena, the lighting was great.  However I was waiting on the UP, and they can’t run a passenger train on time even when it’s their own train on their own rails… so by the time the steam train got there, the lighting had gone all crappy.  This was taken when the lighting was only partially crappy:

Since the first of the year the Portland & Western has been operating what was formerly BN’s and later BNSF’s “664″ train into Vancouver.  The train uses the BNSF’s trackage rights over the UP from Labish (north of Salem, OR) to Portland and then uses trackage rights over the BNSF from Portland to Vancouver.  The BNSF builds and receives the train in Vancouver’s “B” Yard.   To date the schedule of this train has been quite variable with movements happening pretty much whenever.

What makes this train interesting is of course the power.  The P&W has named most of their repainted locomotives which makes them somewhat more personable than just another -9.  Two Sunday’s ago the variable schedule worked out just right as I caught McMinnville (PNWR 2314) pulling the train south out of Vancouver for Salem.