Live from Boise following the Idaho Erben's one post at a time…

A Day in the Gorge

While extremely belated, I am trying to go back and start posting some of my railfan adventures in the recent past. Anyway, I will skip a lot of idle chit-chat here, and just jump right into the details.

I have a good friend who calls Vancouver, Washington home. We are computer game buddies, co-workers, and amateur photographers. Back in August or so, I had been IM'ing with my buddy Charles about wanting to get in a railfan trip somewhere before I headed back to New York in September. Well, one thing led to another, and we had planned a Day in the Gorge in early September.

The itinerary was such--Cody would work until about 14:00 on Friday, September 10. Then, I would jump into my loaded pickup and hit the road west for the Columbia River Gorge. Along the journey, I planned to catch a little action along the OSL in eastern Oregon before sunset.

As I left town, I flipped on my scanner with my new antenna, and enjoyed the improved reception. I listened to fair amount of Nampa yard chatter as I rolled west out of the valley into Oregon, and here and there, caught a few trains calling signals out around Ontario and Payette. The afternoon sun was out, with some haze here in there, but a nice railfan afternoon. I heard a Z-train leaving Nampa as I was through Caldwell, and figured I would run up to Huntington, OR, and setup for a shot of him coming over the bridge over the Snake River.

I rolled into Huntington, and took the road east back toward the Snake River. Friday afternoon had a number of people out fishing along the meandering Snake. I pulled out my gear, and sat, and waited...and waited...and waited. Finally, a little after 17:25, I heard a rumble in the distance. I jumped in the pickup and drove to a spot a little way up from the river, and setup for a shot with the 300D and my 55-200mm zoom:

09/10/200417:32MP537 - Huntington Sub, ORUPWB Autos, Stacks & VansUP4994  UP4063  UP9171(flag & flare SD70M, SD70M, C40-8)#MT61 carsZKCPD-08

- Kansas City to Portland, OR Premium Intermodal

Giddy with a westbound in the evening light, as soon as I snagged my shots of the ZKCPD rolling across the bridge, it was back into the pickup for a dash for another spot. I zipped to a spot up the road a little bit in the teeth of the westbound climb, somewhere in the 1.5% to 2% range at this point, at the highway overpass to head to Rye Valley. The sun turned out to be a little low here by the time my subject arrived:

After passing, it was back on the interstate headed west. The tracks out of Huntington turn North by Northwest, so the sun is on the west side of the tracks, and this time of year, nose light is a little difficult in the afternoon and evenings, and the interstate and roads are on the east side of the tracks with only a few places to cross over. I decided Durkee was my best chance of a shot in the rapidly disappearing light, as I am on the west side of the tracks, and it is somewhat more open, in addition to swinging slightly more westward for a small stretch. There was a big town get-together/BBBQ BYOBB in Durkee that evening, but I had plenty of time to setup, watch some cattle, and snap off a few nice sweet light shots of a UP SD70M rockin-n-rollin through Durkee:

After these shots, the sun fell behind the hills, ending photography for the day. I followed the Z train most of the way west until the tracks leave the interstate at North Powder. Then, it was a nice journey on the interstate to the Gorge, where I'd find a little spot to park the pickup and recline the seat for shut-eye.

Saturday Morning

After decent weather on Friday, I awoke to the pitter-patter of rain drops on my windshield. Not overly surprising, although I had hoped some miracle would have occurred and whisked away the clouds. Either way, I was here, and if I had to look for a bright spot, at least I had a chance to run the 300D through its paces under less than ideal conditions.

I was on the Interstate side of the Gorge--the south side where the UP roams, but zipped back east to The Dalles and crossed over into Washington on the north side with the BNSF. Since I was going to meet Charles somewhere out there, I started heading toward the Couv, and if a train should happen to cross my path, so be it. As luck would have it, it was only a few minutes until I came upon a WB in the siding, and just as quickly, an EB intermodal came into view. It took a little bit of work to catch up and get ahead of him, as he was rumbling along at a good clip. I finally found a spot, somewhat elevated, at Avery, just a little west of Wishram, and popped a few shots:

The intermodal backed off as he rolled past and neared Wishram, and as it would turn out, he would hold for about ten minutes while he waited a WB Amtrak. With this delay, I was able to find a spot high up on the hillsides east of Wishram, and waited for the EB to leave town:

After snapping a few shots, I quickly packed up and continued east. However, the intermodal was up to speed fairly quickly, and I could not find a shot as the road played tag here and there with the river-side and tracks. So, I gave up the chase and turned back west...and a little bit later, the cell rang and I arranged meeting plans with Charles.

To pass some time, I went back to Avery to see what was up on the BNSF, and listen for activity on the UP, which had been fairly quiet. There was a crewless WB manifest at Avery with a colorful set of power:

After a little wait, an EB manifest rolled through Avery, and you can find pictures of it over in the gallery here. Then, I packed up the gear and again started back west to meet up with Charles around Bingen. Charles and I met up, and I transferred the essentials into his pickup, and we hit the road east to find some trains. The sky was brighter, but still a good overcast over the Gorge.

We drove in at Avery, and setup for a shot of a WB that was getting a fresh crew in Wishram:

We caught a grain train as well at Avery about twenty minutes later, then decided to drive over to the UP side to see if we could catch some action over there. While the full gallery of my photos are here, Charles'' photos from the day can be found over on this site here.

The day was somewhat quiet, we did not have a lot of action on the UP side, but we did have some fun. We were able to chase a few trains east of The Dalles, and find a few shots from up on hill-sides overlooking the tracks, interstate, and river. The last train we were to shoot we shot headed WB in the mid afternoon, then heading back to Bingen for dinner, we caught him at OT Junction crossing over to the BNSF to head south on the Oregon Trunk, and eventually back onto the UP at Keddie and down into Roseville, CA via the Feather River Canyon.

The weather was not perfect, but Charles and I had a good time, and a nice meal to wrap up the day back in Bingen. We have not ventured out again, but as soon as Tyler is ready to snap a few pictures of his own, we'll have to head back west to the Gorge.