UP 5955 East at Signal 747, east of Mosier, Ore.
Whether it's a strength or a character weakness, I have this propensity to come across a photo location, find no train, and commit myself to returning to that location, the way that Gen. MacArthur vowed to return to the Philippines.
A prime example of this situation: the pair of Union Switch & Signal P-5 signals east of Mosier, Ore., on Union Pacific's Portland Subdivision through the Columbia River Gorge. I spied this particular location in October 2021 during a half-day visit to Columbia River Gorge while en route to Spokane from Portland. As bad luck would have it, there were no UP trains nearby and this image eluded me that day.
While preparing my Winterail 2022 travel plans late in December 2021, one thought weighed heavy on mind. Not which airline I might fly to/from PDX, not which hotels I might use, but when I would get a train with these damned signals. The mornings of Monday, March 21 through Wednesday, March 23 would probably do it.
One variable I couldn't predict when I first laid plans three-plus months earlier: Mother Nature. Ultimately, weather was not on my side either Monday or Tuesday morning, with heavy cloud cover and/or steady rain on both dates. Wednesday, it turned out, was the last best chance for any kind of satisfaction, and so I made the decision to sit on this spot — and only this spot — until making a sprint for the airport late Wednesday morning.
Perseverance paid off, as illustrated by Union Pacific Train ZBRG1 23 (Intermodal, Brooklyn Yard, Portland, Ore.–Global One, Chicago) weaving along the shores of the Columbia River and splitting the signals at mile 74.7.
UP 5955 East at Signal 747, east of Mosier, Ore.
Whether it's a strength or a character weakness, I have this propensity to come across a photo location, find no train, and commit myself to returning to that location, the way that Gen. MacArthur vowed to return to the Philippines.
A prime example of this situation: the pair of Union Switch & Signal P-5 signals east of Mosier, Ore., on Union Pacific's Portland Subdivision through the Columbia River Gorge. I spied this particular location in October 2021 during a half-day visit to Columbia River Gorge while en route to Spokane from Portland. As bad luck would have it, there were no UP trains nearby and this image eluded me that day.
While preparing my Winterail 2022 travel plans late in December 2021, one thought weighed heavy on mind. Not which airline I might fly to/from PDX, not which hotels I might use, but when I would get a train with these damned signals. The mornings of Monday, March 21 through Wednesday, March 23 would probably do it.
One variable I couldn't predict when I first laid plans three-plus months earlier: Mother Nature. Ultimately, weather was not on my side either Monday or Tuesday morning, with heavy cloud cover and/or steady rain on both dates. Wednesday, it turned out, was the last best chance for any kind of satisfaction, and so I made the decision to sit on this spot — and only this spot — until making a sprint for the airport late Wednesday morning.
Perseverance paid off, as illustrated by Union Pacific Train ZBRG1 23 (Intermodal, Brooklyn Yard, Portland, Ore.–Global One, Chicago) weaving along the shores of the Columbia River and splitting the signals at mile 74.7.