Steam & Excursion > More of that Salmonberry love

Oregon Coast Crawler, on the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad from Garibaldi along the Nehalem River to the confluence with the Salmonberry River, Oct 3, 2015.

It was a most beautiful day, perfect for a ten-hour ride with stops for photo run-by's. I have not had the good fortune to come across any other TO members on a train but this time I met two wonderful gentlemen, nomosantefe and Fallbridge4449. As much as I came to see and ride this train I was also here to travel through part one of my favorite landscapes, the Oregon Coast. I had a great time watching the land change from bay shore to ocean front to river valley of woods and open land surrounded by the foothills of the Coast Range. Thanks to OCSRR, RailsNW, and to all who shared our delightful little journey.

Michael, Portland

Here are nine photos and a video...

---

---

---

1. through 3. (above) Three of the photo run-by's

4. Along Tillamook Bay
5. Along the Nehalem River
6. Crossing the Nehalem River Trestle

---

---

---

7. Approaching the Nehalem River Trestle
8. Smoke in the trees
9. Sunset by train

---

---

---

Thanks for looking...

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

Very nice presentation.  Looks like you all had great weather too.  Thanks for sharing.

Nice report, but why so much smoke?
I don't think all that black smoke is good for anything: quality of the image, demonstration of good railroading, or the environment.
We railfans may make more friends if we could get over "make plenty of smoke for the photographers" thinking.
Just saying....
And thanks for posting, you certainly had brilliant fall colors.

Geez! Who was the fireman on that run? He needs to be paying for the fuel oil on these trips! Enough with the smoke, already!

Pat,

I was the fireman on that trip.  The video and photo in this post shows only the run-bys we did on the trip.  The charter operator requested plenty of smoke for the run-bys and I gave it to him.

Here is how the stack looked on the rest of the trip.  Photo by Jeremiah Leitke.

Martin

---

railstiesballast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We railfans may make more friends if we could get
> over "make plenty of smoke for the photographers"
> thinking.

I agree.  As Martin pointed out the rest of the trip aside from the runby's have a clear stack.  But a lot of the pictures are taken in the run-by's.  You show one of those pictures to a non-railfan and they will always comment on how dirty the smoke looks and that steam engines are dirty.  This get's the environmentalists in an uproar and they will start pushing to ban operations.  Being a west coast guy I like seeing a clean stack.  But I also understand that people want to see smoke to show that it's a living/operating steam engine.  So maybe we should open the firing valve a little to dirty up the stack so that smoke can be seen but not to the point that it looks like an oil refinery fire.
To really take great pictures of steam in action pick a cold morning.  Clouds of white steam exhaust with a hint of smoke is a beautiful sight.

Martin, thanks for the followup and I am glad to see that clean stack, like every other time I have personally seen the engine run there. 
Maybe a compromise with some visible smoke to look like it is working would be the best outcome.
If I had been one of the group chartering the train I would have complained but I am not the majority.