Western Railroad Discussion > Braving the heat in Eastern Washington.

After a weekend were temps spiked at 106 degrees on Sunday, Monday's 93 degrees seemed at least tolerable. Trackwork held the trains all day until they opened the floodgates around 5pm. With the Stevens Pass route closed due to wildfire at Wenatchee, a couple westbound stack trains were detouring via Pasco. With a parade of westbounds leaving Spokane, I decided to try that spot on private land near Tyler again. I secured permission again and hiked into the spot in time to catch a westbound.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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As I was hiking through the woods this afternoon in 93 degree heat lookign for spots to photograph trains, I found this baby squirrel in desperate shape. As I approached it, it twitched, but did not move afterwards. It was obvious it was nearly dead due to heat exhaustion after a long super hot weekend. I quickly went back to my nearby car and grabbed a cup of water I had handy and gave the poor guy a good shower of cool water to help cool down. I then went back to my car and cut the bottom off a paper cup and filled it with water and placed it next to the squirrel which was showing some signs of life. I continued to pour some cool water on it and before long the little guy was on his feet again and drinking from the cup. I left it alone for a while to catch another train. I checked on the baby again when I came back to the car. Before I left, I gave it another cool shower, which it was enjoying and refilled the cup bottom. It was getting around much better and will survive for now. But with triple digit temps returning soon, I'm not so sure about it's long term survival. But it has a second chance to make it now.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Well my plans to catch a parade of westbounds didn't go so smoothly. A slow dispatcher turnover and a train that lost it's air conspired into a lengthy delay. The next westbound wouldn't come for quite a while, but the wait was worth it. It was odd westbound hopper train made up of plain gray leased 3-bay hoppers with two CP units on the point and the CEFX "Blue Bomber" AC4400 on the rear. I didn't switch positions quick enough to catch the eastbound H-PASNTW, but did catch the Lind Turn coming west next.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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BNSF just can't win today. Not only does fire have the Stevens Pass line shut down, and the combined #8/28 out of Portland is already 4 hours behind out of Pasco due into Spokane around 3:30am. But right now here at 1am the M-LAUPAS had some kind of issue where it had to come to Cheney for some reason and left it's train at Lakeside Jct that has at least 9 other trains held up.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/15 01:53 by funnelfan.

funnelfan Wrote:
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> BNSF just can't win today. Not only does fire have
> the Stevens Pass line shut down, and the combined
> #8/28 out of Portland is already 4 hours behind
> out of Pasco due into Spokane around 3:30am. But
> right now here at 1am the M-LAUPAS had some kind
> of issue where it had to come to Cheney for some
> reason and left it's train at Lakeside Jct that
> has at least 9 other trains held up.

We were shoving a grain train up the hill. They lost a unit going over the UP line. They got it restarted but being only 2 and 1 they could not get the train moving. Like you said we left our train at Lakeside and shoved them up the hill. I've never played helper before so it was interesting. Half the pool is out here being dogcaught right now.

Nice photos and nice story with regard to the squirrel Ted...Always enjoy your photos....my son and I were out there a few years back and it was a great experience.

Ted,

Nice story about the bushy tailed tree rat. I hope the respite from the weather you provided helps the critter make it through to cooler temps.

When will "August" end?

arb

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Great shots as always Ted, plus te revival of the squirrel. It had been very quiet in Ritzville all day until the parade started. I too was able to catch some of your trains in the backyard, but your pictures certainly had better terrain and background. Nice Shots!! Looks like the heat wave is going to stick around and send temperatures back to above 100 again. Not looking foward to those excessive HOT days.

Larry

Nice pics and thank you for helping the baby squirrel.  I would have done the same thing...

Allen

Great photos, Ted. Really like that angle in photos 2 and 5, very well done.

Thanks for sharing,
~Ryan

Boris sez:"you out all day in hot sun and help rocky? You crazy like sqooril...!"

bradleymckay Wrote:
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> Nice pics and thank you for helping the baby
> squirrel.  I would have done the same thing...
>
> Allen

I agree it was a nice gesture. But, if that squirel survives and winds up in the path of an oncoming motorist and said motorist swerves to avoid it and strikes a tree, would it still be worth it? lol

Nice pics........and a great story.

Enjoyed the photos and uplifting story.   Thanks for sparing your time to help another.  As little as it was, the same mantra of life applies.