Nostalgia & History > Santa is coming....

...but he will need to dodge this massive steam plume of Union Pacific "Bull Moose" 2-8-8-0 #3525 pulling hard on the grade at Nordeen and almost to the summit of the Blue Mountains at Kamela, OR. Sister locomotive #3613 is pushing on the rear of the train. Richard Kindig braved the cold on this Christmas Eve in 1939 to capture this stunning image of heavy freight action on the Union Pacific Railroad. The Bull Moose 2-8-8-0's were the mainstay of the freight trains in the mountains of northeast Oregon from the 1920's until after WWII. Photo from the Preston George collection at the Oklahoma Historical Society.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Superb winter steam scene!
Bob

I agree, an incredible photograph.

Richard Kindig a Denver, CO, based photographer nailed the Union Pacific steam in their finest days.  Thanks for posting Rickhard's fine work.

A terrific image of how railroading used to be. Those trees all grew up!  I'd sure like to see some logging along the ROW for the UP and ODOT.

That's quite a scene of passing steam doing some heavy lugging.  Thanks for this.