Nostalgia & History > 26 Years Ago Today in The Columbia Gorge

Actually it was 26 years ago yesterday. This photo was taken on Saturday, June 18, 1977 at Home Valley, WA. It is BN Train #80, the eastbound morning hotshot. 2 ALCO C-636\'s were the standard set of power on this train at that time.

Rod Loder, Dick Dorn, and I were spending the day in the Columbia River Gorge along the BN mainline. Dick was working on an article on the BN F-units, and we were out looking for them.

We spent Friday, the 17th, on the Seattle line and were rewarded with some great shots. I have included a shot of F-units on Train #182 from that day at Longview Jct. We then we spent the 18th in the Gorge. We shot the 636\'s, Train #X-05 with RS-3s, Train #182 with 2 F\'s and a Geep, and Train #399 with a a similar set of power. 182 aaand 399 were a Pasco - Hoquiam train (182 east - 399 west)

Just a side note, I was working as a brakeman for BN that summer and the next day, Sunday June 19th, I was the head brakeman on Train #80 from Portland - Wishram and we had another 2 unit set of C-636\'s for power that day. We went on duty at 0730, made our pick ups at Lake Yard and Vancouver and saw nothing but green lights all the way to Wishram. We arrived around 1100 and went to the RR motel to rest. We were called on our rest at 1900 for Train # 197 the westbound hotshot. We had 2 F-45\'s and an SD-45 for power. You guessed it, we saw nothing but green signals all the way to Vancouver, made a setout at Vancouver, and Lake Yard and tied up at 2245. This was the ultimate 3 day RR weekend, 2 days of "foamin" and a round trip to Wishram in less than 16 hours on some pretty neat locomotives.

It seems like it was yesterday.

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Great stuff! That first shot looks like it is from the old wooden bridge which is still there.

Ted Curphey
funnelfan@icehouse.net

I was quite surprised to see that the top headlight had been blanked out.

I thought only Rock Island did that.

Yardclerk

More! More! Wish I\'d taken pictures back then...

Thanks for posting your photos and memories.

I spent summers in Hood River, OR in the late 70\'s and was able to shoot quite a bit of film. I miss the Alco\'s and matched sets of covered wagons on the BN.

Thx again,

JMW

Randy, in earlier years those C-636s did a great job of pulling the SP&S passenger trains in the wintertime when blowing snow would short out the traction motors on the EMD Fs. We would tow the Fs around for their steam generators and had a far superior ride on the ALCOs new high adhesion trucks. We won\'t admit to the speed they were run in passenger service!

I do remember that the C-636\'s rode real smooth that day. However, we had such a big train, we never got above 45 mph all the way to Wishram.

The trip back was a different story, we did 60mph (and maybe a little more) everywhere it was permitted. The F-45 rode nice, but I got a little bit of a scare when we hit a rough spot and lurched (at 60 mph)just as we entered one of the little short tunnels west of Bingen. I thought we were going to jump the tracks right into a rock wall. This was my first time on the mainline. We never went more than 35mph on the OE (except with old "Balls of Fire" running) and I wasn\'t used to going that fast.


Jim700 wrote:

> Randy, in earlier years those C-636s did a great job of
> pulling the SP&S passenger trains in the wintertime when
> blowing snow would short out the traction motors on the EMD Fs.
> We would tow the Fs around for their steam generators and had
> a far superior ride on the ALCOs new high adhesion trucks. We
> won\'t admit to the speed they were run in passenger service!
>
> [%sig%]

nomosantafe wrote:


>
> We spent Friday, the 17th, on the Seattle line and were
> rewarded with some great shots. I have included a shot of
> F-units on Train #182 from that day at Longview Jct.


Randy, isn\'t the shot of the Fs right at the spot where they had the head-on several years ago?

Thanks for sharing - I remember seeing the C636s coming into Klamath when we were in high school, circa 1976 - 78. I remember one unit in particular that was neat because most of the BN paint wore off, and the SP&S lettering on the side of the unit reappeared.

- gb -

Greg,

This is where the tragic accident happened. I don\'t remember what year it happened, but I know I was living in Teaxs or Ohio at the time.

Nomo

Would what type of autos they are on those racks ? Perhaps early Toyotas?