Just a Gorge-ous Day!!!

[funnelfan]

Friday, April 24th tuned out to be a gorgeous day in the Columbia River Gorge, even after some low hanging clouds cause some doubt. With Richard Zoller as driver, and myself as navigator, we made our 3:30am departure from Chehalis with hardly a wink of sleep. We made a bee-line down the freeways (I-5 to I-205 to I-84) and crossed the Columbia River at the Bridge of the Gods just as the sun was starting to turn the eastern sky to a golden color. As we passed Home Valley we were informed of a meet being setup at Cooks between a westbound Manifest and the Z-PTLCHC. Even though the sun was still some time away from rising above the rim of the gorge, I've always have loved the pre-dawn look of the Columbia River Gorge. We setup near the west end of Cooks for silhouette shot of the manifest.

Hot on the tail of the Z train was the H-EVEBAR. We moved a shot distance east into the "tunnel district" between Hood and Cooks for a shot of the "heavy bar" entering the first rays of the rising sun. I climbed up a steep slope to nail the second shot here. I've always loved the fact that you can climb around the rock cliffs of the CRG to find exciting new angles for railfan photography.

After then "heavy bar" we attempted to turn around and chase the train. Unfortunately we got caught behind this large crane traveling along Hwy 14. With that we decided to load up on coffee and breakfast sandwiches at McDonald's in Bingen.

Underway again, we hopped to the Oregon Side at The Dalles just in case the heavy bar made a quick departure down the Inside Gateway. Unfortunately it didn't. Oddly enough, we did catch up to the Z train across from Wishram just as it was departing. We just barely managed to catch it meeting a westbound manifest at Maryhill.

[funnelfan]

Back at Celilo in hopes that the H-EVEBAR might depart Avery soon. No such luck, a crew van went to retrieve the crew after they tied down the train. But I did manage this grab shot of the manifest from Maryhill passing in the distance from Celilo Park.

The UP had been dead all morning, and would continue like that well into the afternoon. We moved east to see some activity out that way. At Roosevelt we found a U-EVEROO yarding it's train on the east end while a U-ROOEVE snuck out the west end. The engineer on the U-EVEROO notched out the locos a little bit to give us some smoke for our photos. A work trains was distributing ties along the track between Patterson and Roosevelt. With only the prospect of some westbounds out of Pasco, we moved east toward Whitcomb to a particular curve where the tracks briefly run south into the morning sun. The westbound manifest beat us to the curve, but we caught the following grain train.

We chased the grain train back west, taking shots here and there where the tracks turned to the south toward the now mid-day sun. Another good spot for a difficult sun angle is the overpass just west of Roosevelt. Unfortunately the train had two toasted toasters for power.

[funnelfan]

We also caught the grain train again on the long tall fill at Cliffs below the John Day Dam. I was kinda shocked at the new windmills being erected along the ridgeline on the Washington side of the Gorge. Unlike the windmills on the Oregon side, which are set back from the rim and not readily noticeable from water level, the Washington windmills stand out like giant eyesores.

Arriving back at Maryhill, the UP was finally showing some signs of life. Noteablly westbound and eastbound soda ash train meeting at the east end of double track at Biggs. There was no time to catch the westbound, but we did catch the eastbound just east of Biggs. I was surprised to see the ex-SP AC4400 considering how many are stored.

Finally we got word that the H-EVEBAR was getting ready to run down the Oregon Trunk. Unfortunately the great morning light had transformed into a high mid-day sun. I climbed up to track level in hopes of continuing on up on the sunny side of the tracks, but the slide fence presented a impassible barrier. I had to settle for this track level photo.

With a Z-CHCPTL coming, we jumped back across the river and went down to Horsethief Lake.

[funnelfan]

By this point Richard was getting very tired, having been awake since noon the previous day, and he wanted to start moving toward home. Lucky for us the KG1SE hotshot was just coming along. The first shot was at Rowena.

Pulling off I-84 not far down the road, we took a series of shots as the train moved along the causeway at Memaloose Lake. I've always wanted this shot, and I thank Richard for stopping here.

[funnelfan]

We next caught the train at the overpass in Mosier. UP has been busy with a brush cutter in the area, opening up the ROW quite a bit.

Again pulling off I-84 at a UP access road just west of Meno and Mitchell Point, we nail this image that can be described as nothing less than a "Calendar Shot".

And to finish the day, we catch the train passing under The Bridge of the Gods.

[Allan_Love_Jr]

Wow. Outstanding photos. Looks like some great Railfanning out there.

[austinjacox]

Nice shots Ted and also i like the shot you have of the Stack train at Maryhill you got it perfect through the signals....

[RuckusRails]

WOW, great pics!

Now I've got to clean the drool of my keyboard

[No-Defects]

Originally Posted by austinjacox

Nice shots Ted and also i like the shot you have of the Stack train at Maryhill you got it perfect through the signals....

Is that a really hard shot to get? I think I'd like to try that one, but I'm not sure how to get it????

[funnelfan]

Originally Posted by No-Defects

Is that a really hard shot to get? I think I'd like to try that one, but I'm not sure how to get it????

Nope, it's just about the easiest shot you can get at Maryhill, just off the highway. We got stuck behind a semi truck that seemingly couldn't figure out which way he wanted to go on Hwy 97 coming off of I-84. By the time we got across the river, the Z train was almost on top of us.