Western Railroad Discussion > Oregon Eastern RR in Prime Light

On these long days in June, it's possible to chase the Oregon Eastern RR returning from Ontario to Vale, OR heading toward the setting sun. The slow speed allows one to get a variety of angles with plenty of time to get to another location. OER makes the run Monday-Friday usually leaving Vale around 4~6pm and arriving at Ontario Wye over an hour later. Thursday the run often departs Vale in the early afternoon. Depending on how long UP delays the interchange work in Ontario, it can take a hour or so, then the train will return to Vale in Prime Light.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Photos are from Friday, but are not being shown in order. Most of the traffic is Cryo-Trans and Lineage reefers heading to the servicing facility in Vale, OR, and pressure differental hoppers heading to the US Silica plant at Celatom, OR. But you will also see loaded centerbeam flatcars, covered hoppers of fertilizer and tankcars from time to time.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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The primary locomotive is a ex-SP GP35-3 still in ex-Hudson Bay Rwy paint, now OER #3600. The alternate locomotive is a ex-ATSF GP7u OER #2182, but it's rarely operated.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Good set making use of long days and location varieties, Eastern Wash and Oregon are really nice..!

Bob

Beautiful set of pics, particularly the last one.  The engine still looks good and it's always good to see the reefers.  Reefers always remind me of old times.

Great lighting cause them to be great photos. Looks like former SP GP35 that I probably saw when new working high priority 
piggyback trains on the SP Coast Route in times past.
Regards, Jim Evans

Great chase Ted resulting in great photos

Excellent series Ted with many Nice scenes.

Larry

That line was really something when it ran all the way to Burns, the scenery in spots was pretty spectacular.
Really nice to see some shots of the current operation, thqnks for the post. 

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/23 10:04 by callum_out.

Thanks for posting the photos, Ted. 

And yes, the 3600 has SP roots, built as their #7703 and then renumbered 6600.  Omnitrax bought the engine after retirement, it spent some time on the Northwestern Pacific in the middle 1990s before working for a succession of Omnitrax roads before Western Rail picked it up, rebuilt it to what they are calling a GP39-3, and sold it to OERR. 

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Cool shots.

Excellent series Ted!  Any one of these would make for a succesful outing!

Great pics!!