by Steve Eshom on February 1, 2012
Sunday evening a Google+ photo walk, organized by three local photographers, was held in Portland. Aaron and I joined in the festivities though railroad photographs were not the primary focus of this walk. The walkers were made up of a variety of photographers from around the area including some from north of Everett. The walk started at Union Station and proceeded towards the river, the Eastbank Esplanade, and eventually the Hair of the Dog Brewery on the east side. Hey, photographers of all sorts love beer, not just railfans!
Sunday the weather grew increasingly wetter and by the time the walk started around 4:30pm the rain was steady. Despite the dampness quite a crowd showed up and impressed the organizers who thought many would not attended. I had a couple of rail related images I wanted to capture and right out of the gate I set up for a couple of them. As we moved along it grew dark and the wet streets started to reflect light from various street lights, headlights, signs, and buildings. There was a lot of shiny goodness going on!
When I arrived at the Skidmore Fountain MAX stop I saw a wonderful photo brewing. Street lights lit the area brightly and the reflections from the cobblestone textured streets were spectacular. I set up my tripod and waited for a MAX train to arrive. The result? This colorful image of a westbound blue line train departing Skidmore Fountain. As we walked we talked about how if any of us got 1 or 2 really good shots from the walk, we’d be happy. After I saw this shot on the computer, I was happy.
If you are interested in other’s results from the walk you can view everyone’s contributed images from the photowalk, including mine and Aaron’s here.
by Steve Eshom on January 28, 2012
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.
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 December 7, 2011
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.
by Steve Eshom on July 7, 2011
The Northwest experienced some late snows and unusually cool temperatures (not cold temperatures) this spring. The result is snow remains in the mountains in places it usually disappears from in May. As part of my Pengra Pass adventure I wanted to hang around tunnel 6 (North Cruzatte) a bit. That wasn’t going to happen this time unless I hiked in thanks to a 2′ deep drift blocking the forest road to the tunnel. Sure I had 4 wheel drive and a shovel but I really didn’t want to spend the time clearing the road. Plus a bit of hiking showed me that the drift right off FR 5884 was not the only battle I’d have to fight.
In this photograph of brand new UMAX containers on the I-PDCIR (Portland, City of Industry Repo train) at South Cruzatte the snow still shows through the trees on Judd Mountain. What you can’t see is all other drifts tucked around under the trees. There’s plenty of melting yet to come in the Cascades.
This will be my last post on the Oregon Cascades for a bit. On to Providence Hill….
