Western Railroad Discussion > Summer's over...a trip to the Blue Mountains

With the Autumnal equinox looming, I made a trip out to the Blue Mountains & surrounding areas of Eastern Oregon...
The trip began at Echo, I hadn't been in the area since May '13 so I didn't know the majority of the pole line had been removed between Echo & Nolin...the remaining poles now utilized solely as mile markers & potential stoops for the local Magpies.
-East of Nolin the pole line is still intact, as seen here alongside the LIG42 with 16 cars on their way to work Rieth after meeting a couple of Westbounds at Nolin.
-The LIG42 the next day at Nordeen on their way back over the mountain, quite a sight even with only 39 cars in train (32 cars being 2 bay cement hoppers).

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The rest of the consist...

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Up the hill, the head end of this Westbound is almost three minutes away from passing under my vantage point just East of the 4200' summit at Kamela on UP's La Grande Sub...my favorite photo from the trip.
-Mid train helpers on a Westbound soda ash train up the 2.21% grade...& the show begins!
-82 degrees & nothing but blue skies as a Pocatello manifest crests the summit at Kamela.
If this is how summer ends, I'm good with that.

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Now down the hill, 5415 leads a ZG1BR around OGRT4 soda ash loads on an overcast morning at Perry...easy dispatching decision there as it would be over an hour before the T4 made it to the summit.
-Some more Perry action as a Westbound departs La Grande for Hinkle.
-Climbing out of the valley between Perry & Hilgard, another Hinkle manifest begins their Westbound climb.

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Onto the Huntington Sub, 161 Green River soda ash empties cross the detector at 319.5.
-This Whistle Blower moniker seemed appropriate given the ground I had been covering the last few days & the written date.
-Ex CNW 8818, UP 6720 operating in a 4x3x2 set up on a Westbound at the same location.

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Down in the valley a short KSEMN running 2x1 catches a flasher approaching Haines, which allowed me to get ahead of them for a second shot at Wing just outside of Baker City.

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Even further East, a Pocatello manifest is seen at Quartz & again at Encina....that's UP 9140 third out along with 85 cars.
-One of those cars, showroom fresh TILX 720046.

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NICE stuff from an always interesting piece of railroad! Thanks for sharing.

Bob

Great series of photos. I especially like photos 2 & 11.

Ronda Thomas

Back on the West end Friday afternoon I caught a meet between an MNPPT & KPDG2 at Barnhart. There has been some discussion on Trainorders recently about the new traffic on the PDG2 as a result of the new Brooklyn/Global 1 Z trains, here is an example of some additional TOFC biz as the PDG2 heads towards Barnhart.
-A look at the rear of the KPDG2 as it approaches Rieth, that is the Pilot Rock Industrial Lead in the background.
-Last train photographed on the trip would be the MNPPT out of Echo after meeting another Eastbound.
The PPT would arrive the following morning at Lake Yard around 0900, about the same time I was getting back to Portland myself...a fitting end to a great trip.
All photos taken between September 16th & 20th, submitted by location with no specific date sequence.

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Really awesome series.

GOOD stuff...!!! Thanks for sharing.

Time to get trains with the leaves changing.....:<)

Looks like a successful trip! Awesome series.

PQM

Looks like you had a great weekend, I like seeing the locations people shoot on the mtn...

Posted from Android

Outstanding photos. Extremely clear. Can you provide any info on your settings?

Interesting type of new refer car (the new TILX one). I haven't seen one with the roof top edges sloping like that. Wonder what the reasoning is for it?