Survivors

In the modern day, the WP is known for its massive holdout of searchlights. However, a good chunk of the Feather River Canyon is dominated by newer Safetran signals. This specific section between Keddie and Oroville does have a couple of survivors still holding on though.

 

While most people are familiar with the searchlights from Keddie eastward, in the main section of the canyon both the Paxton and Belden sidings are still being protected by searchlights. Having never shot either them before, my friend and I figured why not try to shoot a CN by the Paxton searchlights. After shooting the train at Keddie, we raced to Paxton and had plenty of time to set up while the CN crawled its way to us. Eventually, it finally showed up, passing the signals at well under 10 mph. While we wanted to also shoot this train at the Belden searchlights, getting to either end of the siding requires hiking, and we were not gonna risk potentially jeopardizing the other shots we had in mind for another pair of searchlights. Regardless, we were happy with our shots at Paxton and that was good enough for us.

Done