Steam & Excursion > Cascades Daylight from last Saturday

Well, ol' Nomo finally got a chance to process his digital pictures from last Saturday.

I had the wonderful experience of spending the day with 2 of my best (old) friends, Mitch and Joe, chasing the "Cascades Daylight" and the
SP 4449. We got a lot of pictures, but we just had a great time together and it was one of the best outings ever.

We started out at the Willamette Boulevard bridge over the cut in St Johns (Portland) shooting the train as it came off the Willamette Draw.

We then drove to Mitchell Point on the Oregon side in the Columbia River Gorge and shot across the river.

We then headed east to Moody. We were able to pace the train on the freeway in Oregon from Mitchell Point to Bingen at 60 mph. At Moody, we drove west on a gravel road until we were overlooking the Celilo Bridge. We ran into Vic Neves and Otto Van Drak (Railfan Magazine)at this location. The RR crosses the river at location of Celilo Falls. These falls were covered by the river when The Dalles Dam was completed. It is hard to believe, but other than the swing span center pier, none of the bridge piers were in water. After shooting the train crossing the bridge, we drove down to Moody for more pics.

We then went to Sherar's Falls and turned north down the Deschutes Canyon. We passed the Twin Bridges area (lots of people here) and went further down the Canyon past Oakbrook until we found a spot with the sun at the right angle about 10 miles north of Sherar's Falls. We then pretty much paced the train back south all the way to the White River bridge and then went to Maupin.

We then drove south and went 10 miles down a gravel road to South Junction. This is a great location, but with the train being 2+ hours late, the sun wasn't as nice as it would have been if they were on time (still got a great shot).

After the long drive out to US 97, we hustled north and caught up with the train just out of Madras and were able to pace it for a mile or so.

We got to the Crooked River Bridge with just enough time to hike out to the spot that gives a nice side shot of the canyon and the bridge. The canyon was completely in the shadows, but with a little help from Photoshop, I was able to get a decent photo.

They cancelled the turning of the train on the wye at Prineville Jct., so we headed home after a great day of "foamin".

Enjoy the photos.


1. & 2. Cascades Daylight coming off the Willamette Draw

UP made a meet at Wyeth siding just below the Mitchell Pt. overlook

3. EB UP at Wyeth

Nomosantafe
Portland, Oregon
"Pacific Wonderland"

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4. DP units on EB UP train

5. WB making meet at Wyeth

6. WB UP at Wyeth

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7. - 9. EB Cascades Daylight between Cooks and Hood

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10. Between 2 tunnels

11. & 12. Going away shots from Mitchell Pt. Overlook

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13. - 15. Approaching the Celilo Bridge at Avery

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16. - 18. Crossing the river on the Celilo Bridge

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19. - 21. Approaching Moody with Columbia River in the background. You can see all the way to the bridge at Maryhill/BiggsJct

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22. - 24. Down in the Deschutes River Canyon north of Oakbrook. Dust cloud is from vehicles chasing the train

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25. - 27. More near Oakbrook

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28. - 30. The train had 6 domes

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31. & 32. SB at Maupin

33. Interesting decorations on bridge at Maupin - Breast Cancer Awareness

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34. - 36. SB approaching South Jct. along the Deschutes River

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37. - 39. Going away at South Jct.

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40. Approaching the Crooked River Gorge

41. Last shot - crossing the Crooked River Gorge

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Wow, beautiful set of images. Probably the most thorough with the best lighting I've seen so far of the trip. How much hiking was involved in getting the pics along the Columbia?

Rich

They are all good but I really like the last one.

Actually, even the round swing span pier was built on bare, dry rock. The river didn't have to rise very much for that to change, though. What is now the lift span covered the main channel of the river. The swing span covered the canal on its south end. At the request of the natives, the Corps of Engineers did a study on the current condition of the falls area and found them to be relatively free of silt, the rock formations that made up the falls to be mostly intact, and that the currents of the river still flowed in pretty much the same way through the area. The loss of the falls and the abrupt end of its 12,000+ years as a cultural epicenter is still a perpetual point of deep bitterness and occasional fighting amongst the natives of the region.

Posted from Android

Thanks for posting your great coverage of the trip, Randy. I don't think I have ever seen one of these excursions covered from every angle at every location along the way as this one was, and thank all of you who contributed your photos. It really eased the pain of not being there to contribute. It obviously was a fine one, as all trips run by the 4449 crew are!

Those are beautiful and some spectacular and very
well-composed photos, sir! You did a super job of
getting great photos of just about every good location.
thank you very, very much!! Your great photos are
very much worth the wait.

I, too, wonder how much hiking you had to do to get
some of those photos. And you managed to deal with
the high heat, too -- wow.......

Your photos alone in this post are worth many times
the cost of a year's membership here.

Thank you.

What a SUPER chase!
Thanks for sharing these photos.
Bob