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….
by Steve Eshom on July 5, 2011
On a dark, cold January night in 2008 a northbound train at Pryor, Or. received a call from UP dispatcher 68. The dispatcher was inquiring as to what might cause an occupancy to come in behind them between Wicopee and Heather. The crew noted no issues but the dispatcher still had issues between Heather and South Frazier. A maintainer was called and as he high railed south from Heather he found mud across the tracks just north of Wicopee. The decision was made at that point to evaluate the situation further in the morning.
Smart move.
What they found the next morning was that the hill side above north Frazier had slid taking the mainline and a significant portion of Coyote mountain down toward Salt Creek at the bottom. Trees, mud, rocks, and anything else that was there was spread over nearly 3/4 of a mile from top to bottom. It was estimated that the mainline would be out for weeks.
Looking down toward the lower track
On my visit in 2009 all the gates to Frazier and Wicopee were closed and locked. This year they were not so I took the opportunity to explore the slide a bit. One interesting view point is to take FR 5448-401 north from 5448 (road to Cruzatte). This road crosses the path of the slide about 3/4 of the way down from the top and about 1/4 of a mile above the lower track. It is fascinating to see just how much material was deposited here. Trees, mud, rocks and whatever else litters the opening in the trees above the track.
Looking up toward the upper track
There were three paths down the side of the mountain, each in a stream bed. The Coyote Creek path was the most interesting as it was quite narrow and deep. I can only imagine what the the slurry of debris looked like squirting through this gap. Awesome I’m sure. Being anywhere near this spot that dark, wet night in January would have been more than daunting.
**In March and April 2008, while the UP was recovering from the slide, I made few trips to the Oregon Trunk to see the detours. Here are the posts from those trips: Detouring on the Trunk Detouring on the Trunk – Madras Bound
by Steve Eshom on May 23, 2011
May 21st was GorgeRail 2011. That translated into a whole weekend of Gorge railfanning activities for me! On Friday I headed out to enjoy fabulous sunny skies and lots of trains. Saturday I had plans for an early sunrise photo before the show and afterwards I expected to spend time with friends so I didn’t have plans then. Sunday I set aside as a make up day for the early sunrise photo followed by some time to get together and railfan with friends.
As you might expect with great plans something would go wrong. Unfortunately the trains and light didn’t cooperate perfectly for the planned sunrise photo. That’s life as a railfan I guess.
At this time of year the light should be rising over the ridge behind my right shoulder (in the image above) about 5:45am. I arrived around 6am on Saturday but the sun never did shine thanks to an incoming rain storm. To top it off I had to leave long before an eastbound train ever arrived. Sunday on several occasions the sun did break through just perfectly but wouldn’t you know it the train wasn’t there. I ended up with the image above which I like very much but would have been better with one of the sun breaks shining on the point where the train was.
I have something to work on for next time I guess.
by Aaron Hockley on May 22, 2011
A couple weeks ago was National Train Day and while I was photographing the event at Portland Union Station I was looking for unique angles and photos that were a bit different that the standard shots of the equipment amongst the crowds. We had gray and intermittently-stormy skies which let to things being wet. At one point I created an image looking down between a Superliner and SP Daylight observation car that were on display. The gray skies, wet pavement, and smooth reflective cars made for an interesting photo.
For those curious about technical details, this is a three-shot HDR image, tonemapped in Photomatix followed by some localized color correction in Photoshop and then a bit of clarity/sharpening in Lightroom.
