Oregon Rail Pictures
KCS 5006 GSETTA 14 Celilo, OR
KCS in the snow. How about that -
After I picked up Gianni, we started our usual information gathering to make a plan for our drive out. With him handling the social connections and me doing mental calculations using various guides, we can usually come up with a solid plan for the day. Based off the conditions I mentioned in my previous post, the situation was much less promising than it usually is. We quickly got word there was a broken rail on the Portland Sub east of The Dalles with two trains holding to the east, and at the time, no trains moving east. Turning our attention to the Fallbridge, there was a VAWPAS that had recently left from Vancouver and an INBROO (which is the one we ended up shooting) dead at Vancouver, which was crewed shortly thereafter. A look at afternoon activities at Hinkle yielded similarly bleak results, with a soda ash that had recently arrived (crew wasn’t expected for a few hours) and an IG4SE, expected to leave around noon, cutting it close to be shot anywhere on the subdivision. Further information told us that said IG4SE had a 5700 series unit on it, which my notes told me was not yet a rebuild. At that point, we accepted that if the broken rail was fixed and those trains started moving soon, a single photo on the Fallbridge for the day would be worth it anyway, and we began brainstorming our plan. Thankfully our lucked changed.
An update revealed that a train had appeared, or perhaps was missed the first time, on the Portland Sub. Just as we were getting onto I-84 in downtown Portland, it was passing through Cascade Locks, roughly 35 miles ahead of us. 84, being in much better shape than we imagined, made it possible to track that train down. We caught the DPUs at the east end of the yard in The Dalles and just made it to the curve at Celilo. After running back to shoot INBROO at Dougs Beach, we decided our best option was to once again head east. With no trains coming out of Pasco and a troubled trash train struggling to do much of anything at Roosevelt, we put all our faith in UP to deliver, and they did.
Assuming it would be a couple of hours at the minimum, we went to hang out at our favorite overlook at Quinton. We were only there for about an hour when I got out of the car to make a phone call, and upon inspection, I could clearly see the signal was red. We both quickly looked for anything that had an ability to zoom and starting searching through the shadows, confirming that there was a train with something yellow on it. Brilliant. In yet another short story for another time, we shot it coming off the John Day River Bridge and chased it to Celilo, where we planned to confirm its passing before heading for The Dalles Dam, a move I learned a long time ago. For context, if you pass the exit at Celilo, you must drive 8 miles to the next exit to turn around. This move is only relevant this time because the train never came. A call over the radio indicated the detector caught something, a 5 inch flat spot 7 cars back. After confirming with Dispatch, they were going to take off slowly before setting out in The Dalles, so we set up here at Celilo (the image you see) to get another photo. Moments after, we hear a “see ya!” over the radio, and I turned to Gianni to jokingly say “watch, another train probably just went around them.” Just then, the crossing guards activate, we both look at each other confused, and a few seconds later, a big, red box materializes as it emerges from under 84. Both of these trains didn’t exist anywhere only a few hours earlier, and yet, here we are. Now that I think about it, that was just a really long winded way of saying we got lucky, but everyone likes a good story. Whether or not this was a good story is up to you to decide.
KCS 5006 GSETTA 14 Celilo, OR
KCS in the snow. How about that -
After I picked up Gianni, we started our usual information gathering to make a plan for our drive out. With him handling the social connections and me doing mental calculations using various guides, we can usually come up with a solid plan for the day. Based off the conditions I mentioned in my previous post, the situation was much less promising than it usually is. We quickly got word there was a broken rail on the Portland Sub east of The Dalles with two trains holding to the east, and at the time, no trains moving east. Turning our attention to the Fallbridge, there was a VAWPAS that had recently left from Vancouver and an INBROO (which is the one we ended up shooting) dead at Vancouver, which was crewed shortly thereafter. A look at afternoon activities at Hinkle yielded similarly bleak results, with a soda ash that had recently arrived (crew wasn’t expected for a few hours) and an IG4SE, expected to leave around noon, cutting it close to be shot anywhere on the subdivision. Further information told us that said IG4SE had a 5700 series unit on it, which my notes told me was not yet a rebuild. At that point, we accepted that if the broken rail was fixed and those trains started moving soon, a single photo on the Fallbridge for the day would be worth it anyway, and we began brainstorming our plan. Thankfully our lucked changed.
An update revealed that a train had appeared, or perhaps was missed the first time, on the Portland Sub. Just as we were getting onto I-84 in downtown Portland, it was passing through Cascade Locks, roughly 35 miles ahead of us. 84, being in much better shape than we imagined, made it possible to track that train down. We caught the DPUs at the east end of the yard in The Dalles and just made it to the curve at Celilo. After running back to shoot INBROO at Dougs Beach, we decided our best option was to once again head east. With no trains coming out of Pasco and a troubled trash train struggling to do much of anything at Roosevelt, we put all our faith in UP to deliver, and they did.
Assuming it would be a couple of hours at the minimum, we went to hang out at our favorite overlook at Quinton. We were only there for about an hour when I got out of the car to make a phone call, and upon inspection, I could clearly see the signal was red. We both quickly looked for anything that had an ability to zoom and starting searching through the shadows, confirming that there was a train with something yellow on it. Brilliant. In yet another short story for another time, we shot it coming off the John Day River Bridge and chased it to Celilo, where we planned to confirm its passing before heading for The Dalles Dam, a move I learned a long time ago. For context, if you pass the exit at Celilo, you must drive 8 miles to the next exit to turn around. This move is only relevant this time because the train never came. A call over the radio indicated the detector caught something, a 5 inch flat spot 7 cars back. After confirming with Dispatch, they were going to take off slowly before setting out in The Dalles, so we set up here at Celilo (the image you see) to get another photo. Moments after, we hear a “see ya!” over the radio, and I turned to Gianni to jokingly say “watch, another train probably just went around them.” Just then, the crossing guards activate, we both look at each other confused, and a few seconds later, a big, red box materializes as it emerges from under 84. Both of these trains didn’t exist anywhere only a few hours earlier, and yet, here we are. Now that I think about it, that was just a really long winded way of saying we got lucky, but everyone likes a good story. Whether or not this was a good story is up to you to decide.