by Steve Eshom on January 25, 2012
Most of the snow from the January 15th snow storm fell west of Bingen. The result was I spent the day west of Bingen too! Snow in the gorge has been pretty sparse lately so I wanted to take advantage. Most of the morning I hung out around North Bonneville photographing Amtrak, several BNSF westbounds, and two eastbound UP trains. The gorge is pretty narrow and cluttered with trees around North Bonneville. I knew I wanted a wider view to demonstrate what the snow looked like so after lunch I drove to Dog Mountain to wait for an eastbound.
Since it was Monday maintenance was out in full force so I took a quick trip to Underwood during a lull to see what the White Salmon River looks like after the Condit Dam breach. I’ve read many people’s complaints about how the breach has ruined one of the best salmon fishing locations in the Gorge. I will agree that the river is choked with muck but since the October 26, 2010 breach we really haven’t had any high water. Once we have a few heavy rains it appears a river channel will reappear there. Now, what will happen with the back water areas? Good question. I’m sure mother nature will show us.
I arrived back a Dog Mountain about the same time and eastbound stack train was going through Stevenson. Perfect. I climbed the hill and gathered in the photo I was looking for.
by Steve Eshom on January 18, 2012
Aaron and I will be making some behind the scenes changes to dogcaught.com over the next week. The result is you may experience some outages or unusual responses. Don’t worry everything will be as it was and we’ll get back to our normal content.
As a teaser here’s a photo I took on Monday while I visited the Columbia River Gorge. We received a bit of snow down to the river level on Sunday so I ran out Monday to take advantage. This image is the DPU of a west bound grain train crossing Cascade Dr. in North Bonneville, Wa.
by Steve Eshom on November 30, 2011
Amtrak Cascades train 507 races along Puget Sound passing under the Tacoma Narrows bridge near Titlow.
Thanksgiving isn’t always the best time to head track side to see trains. Many times the crews are enjoying the holiday with their own families so the railroad tends to move slower. I decided to chance it anyway and head to Tacoma for some railfanning time with my Dad and daughter on Saturday. It was nice to do a bit of exploring around town and find a few places I’d never visited before.
We hit D Street in downtown after exploring the new overpass being installed over Pacific Avenue for the Sound Transit Lakewood extension. We drove the Schuster Parkway and Ruston Way out to Ruston. We visited Titlow Beach and the adjacent park. In the end we saw 3 Amtrak trains including one of the special holiday trains, 2 UPs, and a BNSF vehicle train. Not bad for 4 hours of railfanning!
by Steve Eshom on November 16, 2011
As I sit writing this post we are getting our first good winter storm of the season. Typical Northwest stuff with gusty winds and plenty of rain. The remaining leaves that are hanging on will likely be blown away by this. Oh, and my favorite part, weakened trees will now be selected by mother nature to meet their end. All of this is part of the circle of life in the Northwest.
On a warmer, drier, sunnier day in the fall of 2009 I captured an empty coal train in gorge east of Bingen. I took this photo on Day in North America 2009 and thinking about where we are today I’m amazed how coal traffic has changed. Sure coal trains still go to Centralia but in just a few short years they won’t. More trains now head north to Roberts Bank than ever before. It seems like the stream of coal is stronger than ever with even more coming down the road tomorrow. Good, bad, or ugly it means more trains.
by Steve Eshom on November 3, 2011
Signals for the Oregon Slough Drawbridge and North Portland Jct. indicate stop. This is one of the rare quiet moments on BNSF’s Columbia River Drawbridge in Vancouver, Wa. It seems the bridge is either closed because a train is crossing or open for river traffic. On December 21, 2010 shortly before 8PM everything is quiet ahead of an eastbound manifest and Amtrak 509.
