by Steve Eshom on December 14, 2011
Last week I wrote about my daughter and I watching the SP&S 700 pull the Holiday Express. As I mentioned she was thrilled to see the 700 out pulling a train. For her though steam is all about the SP 4449. It is her real passion and if you gave her a choice the ’49 would be the clear winner. That all said if there’s steam operating she’s still happy.
After our family train ride and gift shopping on Saturday she and I headed back for some railfanning on Sunday. Just like last week the weather was perfect for steam. Cool and moist and calm. We arrived for the 10am departure and found our photo location. 10am on the dot Doyle whistled off and the whistle echoed off all the surrounding hills. What a wonderful way to start!
Of course on the first run of the day the cylinder cocks were open and the rush of steam was spectacular. The throttle was open to overcome the slight grade coming out of Oaks Park station and I’m sure the reverser was all the way forward. The bark of the exhaust was sharp and Doyle kept the speed down and the train moved south. Slowly the Daylight and its cloud of steam worked past us. All I can say is wow. For some reason that 4 minutes of steam engine sights and sounds was one of the very best I’ve experienced. I literally felt immersed in the sound emitted from the Daylight.
I’m quite certain Haley enjoyed it too. After the train moved north she pointed back to another spot closer to the tracks where we could stand for the next trip at 11am. She wanted more. For the love of the Daylight!
by Steve Eshom on July 3, 2011
An excursion behind the Daylight just can’t be ignored, especially when the sun is out! Yesterday my daughter and I spent the day chasing the Daylight around the gorge and as usual with excursions I had a chance for one photo of the train going each direction. After photographing the train in Stevenson we drove out to Wishram to watch the train turn. On the way back we stopped at Home Valley and caught the excursion winding through the S curve east of town.
There was lots of driving but since the main goal was for Haley to see the Daylight I mark the day as a success!
by Steve Eshom on May 7, 2011
Having a daughter who loves trains means attending National Train Day is a “no brainer” for me. It is not so much am I going but rather when. To make our NTD more of an adventure we decided to use Max to get down to the station. With the yellow line stopping a mere block from the depot that seemed much more fun than fighting traffic. As we were leaving traffic around the depot was really heavy so I’m very happy I chose to take Max.
National Train Day is about getting people out to learn about trains. Judging from the crowds around Portland Union Station this morning there was a lot of success with this. Amtrak put on a great show in Portland this year having a couple of Superliners open for viewing in addition to the historic equipment. Later in the day one of the Cascades Talgo set was also supposed to be open. Fabulous! For people who’ve never ridden the train this will be a perfect opportunity for them to get the feel for what it is like.
My daughter and I had a great time taking in all the sights and sounds (4449 whistle every half hour!) . In fact my daughter came back with quite the collection of items in her goodie bag including a SP 4449 video she’s been eying for a while. We are of course looking forward to next year.
by Steve Eshom on December 5, 2010
We are so spoiled in Portland. We are the home of 3 fabulous steam locomotives including arguably one of the most beautiful ever built, Southern Pacific 4449 (“The Daylight“). This year the ’49 is the sole locomotive being used to operate the Holiday Express. The annual Holiday Express is great for families, railfans, or those that just want to go for a train ride as it is a simple, relaxing 45 minute train ride through Oaks Bottom.
My daughter Haley is a big Daylight fan so I make a point to get her out so see the 4449 anytime it’s on the road. This year we headed to Sellwood to see the Sunday 10am Holiday Express departure. Instead of hanging out at the station at Oaks Park we stayed south where the train stops and reverses direction to head north. I captured a few photos there while Haley enjoyed the atmosphere of a large steam engine passing. Following the train we walked north on the Springwater Trail eventually meeting up with the train at the Oaks Bottom under pass. Returning south we eventually had one more opportunity to see and enjoy the train as it made its 11am run.
We ride next Sunday at 2pm which I’m sure will thrill Haley to no end. More importantly the ticket purchase will help with ORHF’s annual fundraiser and will help with the effort to build a permanent facility to house the 3 steam locomotives. I encourage anyone who can to buy a ticket and go for a ride if nothing else to make a contribution. Hopefully all of our contributions will incrementally get ORHF closer to their financial goals.
As a final note, I’d like to say thank you to all the volunteers, sponsors, and contributors that make this happen every year. YOU make us spoiled in Portland!
by Aaron Hockley on May 10, 2010
Like Steve, I ended up down at Portland’s Union Station last weekend for National Train Day. Having been to events such as this with large crowds of the public, I knew I probably wasn’t going to get any prize-winning calendar shots. I’ve recently started playing around more with HDR photography so I decided to take a few photos that might let me explore this technique. This worked well for a couple photos, such as this one of an ex-UP caboose:
I was also able to pull out a decent amount of shadow detail around the Oregon Pacific 1202:
Things didn’t go so smoothly for the 4449. The running boards of the locomotive where nice and shiny which reflected the colors of the crowd next to her. These reflections weren’t too bad in the original image, but after processing the photo and tone mapping, the reflections turned into random noticeable splotches on the side of the locomotive:
You win some, you lose some. Hopefully I’m smart enough to learn as I continue to work on technique.
I’m testing a new embedding method with the images in this post. I see a couple issues so I’ll need to get those resolved.
