Assorted Photos

[funnelfan]

I recently bought some stuff from my old C-730 including a circular polarizer. And in the process of learning how to use it properly, I've been taking lots of photos from all around here. I really should have bought this filter long ago, but never did. Well after bit of inspiration, I called the local camera store and found out that they carried the parts that I needed. So I did some upgrading, but now comes the task of learning how to use the new equipment. I have a lot of photos here, so it will take me a few days to post them all.

1. This is the photo that got me thinking about a circular polarizer. While it's still a great photo of the Eastport Turn working up along the Moyie River near Meadow Creek, glare was a real problem here. A circular polarizer would have brought out the yellow of the UP units and the blue of the sky, as well as giving some depth to the river.

2. This is my first action pic after the upgrade. Without the polarizer, glare would have been a huge problem in this pic. The sun was at a angle that was casting a large amount of unpolarized light at me. This is a loaded westbound grain train crossing the Spokane River in the Spokane Valley.

3. I was happy that this filter doesn't ghost the headlights. I had bought a circular polarizer for my video camera years ago that had a huge problem in that regard.

4. The west end of Hauser. The glare here would have been a real killer of this shot.

[funnelfan]

5. West end of Hauser. I kinda over did the polarizer effect a little bit. You do have to find the right balance in the effect, as I was beginning to learn.

6. The Q-DENTAC at Hauser Junction.

7. I found this rail train at Hooper Yard last Sunday with a cool crew aboard. The engineer went rattlesnake hunting with a shovel after one on the tracks startled the conductor at Hooper Yard on the UP. Here they are trying to convince the "chef" on the rail train to grill it up for lunch. At first the cook replied "I ain't putting that thing on my grill". But after much prodding by most of the crew, he finally gave in. The engineer skinned and gutted it. We all had a steak lunch with beans, onions, chips, and a little bit of rattlesnake. There just isn't a lot of meat on these things, but it's actually pretty good. Like chicken, but fairly chewy. It would make some good jerky.

8. The rail train had two SD60's for power.

[funnelfan]

9. UP is in the process of replacing all the mainline turnouts on the Ayer Sub. Here is the old Hooper Junction switch discarded in whole, including the still upright switch stand.

10. The rail train finally went to work after fixing a starter on the large Detroit Diesel engine that pulls rails on and off of the racks.

11. Another view.

12. I decided to hang around in case there was a fleet of trains coming after the rail train was supposed to clear up by 6pm. I went down to Lower Monumental dam (called Lo-Mo by the locals). The grain harvest is on, and the road down Devils Canyon from Kahlotus to the grain elevators on the Snake River was wall to wall grain trucks. this is the reason so many branchlines in the Colmbia Basin have been pulled up. The big hydro-electric projects of the 50's and 60's brought cheap water transportation deep into the interior of the Pacific Northwest.

[funnelfan]

13. The old station of Scott on the UP below Matthews, really just a farmer's elevator. The old place is virtually intact as it has been for most of the past century.

14. A barge waiting at the locks of Lo-Mo.

15. The rail train was really picking up the old jointed rail that had already been replaced. It would be taken back to Trinidad, CO where the battered ends would be cut off and the sections welded together to create new ribbion rail for various uses.

16. Even though the rail train was back off of the mainline by 6pm, I got skunked. There were problems up north and crew there didn't clear up until after 9pm, so the southbound fleet wouldn't come until after dark.

[funnelfan]

17-19. A three way meet at Wells. Dave Gribe, the conductor waiting on the ground to do a roll-by is one of the few 4th district conductors left. There are still a few of the old 4th district (Walla Walla based) engineers and conductors working out of Hinkle, and their memory goes back a long ways, to the days of "Old Ayer" and before the dam projects on the Snake River, where places like Starbuck and Tekoa were important points on the UP system. In addition to working on the railroad for nearly four decades, he raised horses and other livestock. This is probably Dave's last year on the railroad, although he keeps putting the question off. The mass hirings over the past decade now have the old heads outnumbered 6 to 1 by people with less than 10 years, so the collective memory of the railroad is quickly fading.

20. A grain train works up through Marshall Canyon. This is really the rear end DPU's.

[funnelfan]

21-24. A Boardman Coal empty coming down out of Marshall Canyon and across Latah Creek and into Empire Siding.

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25. A particularly big Coeur d'Alene local coming back toward Spokane at the state line.

26. A old school house not far from the shot above.

27. H-CSXPAS coming into Spokane. These power poles are being erected along the tracks in a short section next to the old Otis Orchards siding.

28. Q-EDHK in the Spokane Valley.

[funnelfan]

29. A eastbound stack train climbing the Fishtrap Grade on BNSF's Lakeside Sub.

30-31. A new logoed grain train just behind the train above. I'm not sure what the boxcar was doing in there.

32. V-KCKPTL near Tyler, WA.

[funnelfan]

Final Shot:

33. A couple of old 40's wait on the M-SKHK for the call to duty as storm clouds gather overhead.

[drew mitchem]

Beautiful work Ted! I really like the work train photos, and the photos from above in Marshall Canyon!! (still cringing from missing that nice consist on the coal empty !!!) Anyhow, see ya the night of August 3rd eh! ( Oh no, not HIM again!)