Western Railroad Discussion > The Beautiful, Dynamic Columbia

My wife has been doing a bi-annual railfan retreat to the Columbia River Gorge for the last 30 years. This National Recreation Area doesn't get the Train Order coverage it deserves so I thought I would share a few photos, most of them from Leslie. I had told myself never to post more than 6 photos, so as to keep the presentation interesting. I went through 500 or so images, again mostly from Leslie, and picked out 12 that I thought were most representative of our Labor Day adventure. So I apologze in advance for breaking my own rule.

The weather was dynamic or a fancy way to say ever-changing. Over all it was spectacular. Only one day did we encounter with a few sprinkles. But windy? I think the Gorge inspired the definition. I won't go into a lengthy trip report, but I will give a few high level observatons. I hope other readers can add some detail to my generalizations.

The BNSF seemed to have the greatest train counts, but it was very clear to us that the volume was being driven by a nearly continuous flow of loaded grain trains. Westbound totals exceeded the eastbound counts. I do believe the empty unit trains are routed east from Longview/Tacoma via another route. There was a lot of variety in the trains we saw. While most of it was grain there is a pair of Amtrak Trains, a pair of Z-Trains, ( There may be more but we only saw the Eastbound in the morning and the Westbound later in the day) Mixed freight, Coal, one CBR train, and several special moves including a eastbound military train and 2 eastbound windmill trains. We were wondering where these windmill trains were loaded if anyone can help us?

The UP was consistent but not nearly as busy. Ever since the Moiser CBR derailment, the Engineering folks have had a daily work window to replace rail fasteners. The UP runs a few more Z and K trains then the BNSF but the Grain seems to be flowing on the UP as well.

We found the photo ops better on the BNSF side only because I-84 creates a natural barrier to the UP. And those photos that we did take ( such as of McClure Lake ) were taken off the the Interstate. We did it once and said no more.. To dangerous.

In closing, while we like our photos, we would like to encourage some of the great photographers that post their work on TO's to get up to the Columbia. The opportunities are endless for a creative soul! I would also like to thank Photo Bob for the inspiration in catching Mt. Hood in a few of our shots. He does such a fantastic job with the UP and Mt. Shasta I wanted to attempt to match his work. Not quite, but I will keep trying !

Thanks in advance to my wife Leslie for letting me post her work before asking her permission ( not always a good idea for any decision involving ones spouse!! )

Thanks for looking. 

Photo 1 : Eastbound at Dock Road, Dallesport WA
Photo 2: Westbound at Horse Thief Lake State Park WA
Photo 3: UP Eastbound at Biggs, Or across the Bridge from Maryhill WA



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/16 10:12 by casavoye.

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Photo 4: The daily eastbound Z makes its early morning appearance at Dallasport WA. This was taken from the highway bridge between The Dalles and Dallasport. A word of caution, the walkway is narrow and the trucks move very quickly. Keep focused on the traffic if your taking pictures.

Photo 5: An empty UP Potash Train eastbound at Blalock, OR

Photo 6: Same early morning eastbound Z, but the next day.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/16 08:33 by casavoye.

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Photo 7: BNSF Westbound between Wishram and West Maryhill. You can drive along the old SP&S right of way up to Signal 101. There were no "No Tresspassing" signs. The road is used by fisherman.

Photo 8: Westbound ZG2PD at McClure Lake. This is the spot were you have to pull off into a wide spot on I-84. Once and done for us. To dangerous IMHO.

Photo 9: BNSF Westbound Grain. Taken from the same general area as Photo 7 near Signal 101



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/16 22:08 by casavoye.

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Photo 10 : Eastbound ZPDG2 near The Dalles, taken from the Washington side

Photo 11: Wesbound Grain train meets eastbound at East Maryhill WA

Photo 12: This is actually the DPU's of an  Easbound BNSF train just east of Home Valley WA

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/16 22:24 by casavoye.

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Good series...always love the Col. Gorge, esp the north side.
Brian

Very nice work.

The eastbound empty potash "at Goffs" looks more like it's at Blalock to me.

Best regards,

Rob L.

DAMN!!!! That is a nice bunmch of images!!!!!!

Bon

i simply LOVE the GORGE !!!! ... thx for the images ... google maps has the first photo location as Dock Road 

GREAT stuff....!!

I REALLY like Pic 5!!

casavoye Wrote:
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> Leslie. I had told myself never to post more than
> 6 photos, so as to keep the presentation

No disrespect intended, but, based on the photos posted, that is a dumn rule. Forget it. Don't follow that rule!

 

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

I visited the Gorge for the first time several weeks ago.  You (your wife) did an outstanding job of capturing the beauty of the Gorge.     Please post as many as you like.

I would concur with your observations on traffic.  We saw an incredible amount of grain trains from Montana westward on the BNSF. 

Really great series of photos.

Ronda Thomas

Awesome scenery! I really like #5

PQM

One of the dangers of doing things from memory at my age are the unintended consequences. Thanks to Rob L and Out of Servce for pointing out a couple of inaccuracies which have been corrected. Rob  makes a good obseravation. While the UP also runs plenty of Grain, we also saw several Potash trains each day as well. I believe the symbols start with "O" indicating Ore. Can anyone confirm that for me? Thanks for the positve comments.

Awesome series. Clearly I need to get up that way one of these days as well! Thanks for posting. 

No. 7 is epic.  So much geology going on there, from the Columbia River Flood Basalts in the near and middle foreground,  to that rather unobstrusive Mt. Hood.  And, oh yes, the train is nice, too for a bit of scale. Great photo.

A++ every photo!  Difficult to choose a favorite but No.5 is probably it for today.  
Thanks for taking the time to photograph that area.  I get through there often but usually without time to stop and shoot.

An outstanding group of photos!  Reminds me of everything I like about the Gorge.  Perfect compositions, particularly #5 with the angles of the rails, train, and rocks all point the eye to the lower left.

Rich

Nice. I saw the UP train in #3 up in the Blue Mountains that afternoon around 3:30 or so.

I'm mostly a lurker but I have to say these are calendar worthy; all 12 of them. I'm glad I stopped by today. OK, back to take another look.

spzach