Evening Eastman
One regret I have regarding my railroad photography is that I didn't cover the Black Butte Subdivision nearly as much as I could have. In particular, the area between Hotlum and Black Butte deserved a lot more attention than I paid to it, especially in the Southern Pacific days. Access to the area was via a maintainer's road along the right of way with several zero clearance areas. That section of the "Harriman Highway" was not for the faint of heart unaware of nearby rail traffic.
Here, an eastbound nears Hotlum on a Sunday evening in late August 1988. Note the Rio Grande GP40 second out. Motive power from the Main Line Through the Rockies was increasingly appearing on the Shasta Route during that summer. This was no doubt in anticipation of the "Anschutzluss" between SP and DRGW coming in the fall.
Although I didn't realize it at the time, that lone Rio would be symbolic for me. In less than two months, on the day that DRGW acquired SP, the Modoc Line would reopen to through traffic. Dormant between Alturas and Wendel since January 1987, the lonely Modoc would be where I would concentrate all of my railfan photography efforts until I moved to Portland in September 1989.
Evening Eastman
One regret I have regarding my railroad photography is that I didn't cover the Black Butte Subdivision nearly as much as I could have. In particular, the area between Hotlum and Black Butte deserved a lot more attention than I paid to it, especially in the Southern Pacific days. Access to the area was via a maintainer's road along the right of way with several zero clearance areas. That section of the "Harriman Highway" was not for the faint of heart unaware of nearby rail traffic.
Here, an eastbound nears Hotlum on a Sunday evening in late August 1988. Note the Rio Grande GP40 second out. Motive power from the Main Line Through the Rockies was increasingly appearing on the Shasta Route during that summer. This was no doubt in anticipation of the "Anschutzluss" between SP and DRGW coming in the fall.
Although I didn't realize it at the time, that lone Rio would be symbolic for me. In less than two months, on the day that DRGW acquired SP, the Modoc Line would reopen to through traffic. Dormant between Alturas and Wendel since January 1987, the lonely Modoc would be where I would concentrate all of my railfan photography efforts until I moved to Portland in September 1989.