Drove home to Heppner, OR (endpoint of a former UP branch) to visit the folks this past weekend, and the train watching (from the car) was excellent!
The drive back was the best. First, saw a (I think) AC4400 #166 still painted in SP colors. Looking a little haggard, of course. On the other side of the river I saw a nice mixed bag, including an old Santa Fe blue & yellow warbonnet SD, Norfolk southern dash 9, and a Montana Rail Link SD. Head unit was a BNSF heritage unit. Original cascade green BN units were also plentiful. Another BNSF train had a Conrail unit in the mix. Also saw a blue & yellow SF warbonnet GP on a UP freight. I would have liked to see some C&NW paint but I have not seen any for quite awhile.
Does anybody have any good pics from this area? It is easy to see a bunch of trains as the rails are as close as 20 feet from the freeway in some parts.
I was in the same area this past weekend! I have an old shooting buddy in Hermiston and we went out target practicing a short distance from the UP Washy line. Was suprised to see the Boardman coal train being led by BNSF units - does BNSF have running rights over UP to Boardman for this train?
Did you see anything going across the bridge E of The Dalles (I think the WA locality’s name is Wishram, either N or S off the Oregon Trunk?
Yeah riprap, I think that is where I saw one of the warbonnet SF units… I couldn’t remember the name of the town until you mentioned it!
I might actually be moving to Hermiston this spring. I was there to check out some of the new housing areas.
What kind of shooting? Trap?
You should try the 14 on the Washington side, There are places the track is so close to the highway you can almost reach out and touch them from your car.
Here is a shot of Wishram and the bridge mentioned.
A little different angle
This shot was taken further east.
Here is one at Drain lake between Cooks and Home Valley
Here is one in Home Valley
That’s all I have uploaded.
I would have to say that the Columbia Gorge is one of my favorite places to ever watch trains. I lived just outside of Portland for about 18 months back when I was 22, but I was into girls more than trains at the time. There was a girl that I had my eye on in The Dalles and I would drive out there to see her, and as I drove I would see nothing but beautiful scenes of trains passing through the landscape. Truly a wonderful site with an amazing river with beautiful cliffs on each side with railroad tracks on each bank. It’s just too bad for me, that I didn’t have a nac for taking pictures of trains back then. I really can’t wait to revisit the river again this time armed with a camera.
It is a fast growing town. Still lacking the cultural persona that most longer established cities have, but give it a few years, they might get opry and ice skating yet!
Actually, target shooting out in the boonies (at an undisclosed location [;)] ). We shot pistols - .22’s, 9mm, .38’s, .357’s. I never knew how much fun it is to shoot an 8 chamber revolver with alternating .38’s and .357’s! It’s like “boom”…“BOOM”…“boom”…etc. He also showed me why the Hollywood stuff is BS - very hard to shoot accurately with a gun in each hand, although I did better than he did!
Hermiston isn’t my favorite. I’d prefer La Grande, but at least its still eastern oregon! After 8 years in the valley I’ve finally had enough.
BTW - went by the new Wal-Mart megadistribution center there in Hermiston. Suprisingly, it seems there is no rail service there, it’s entirely served by truck. And all the truck trailers surrounding the site were dry vans, not one domestic or international container in sight. Since there is no TOFC service in that part of of Eastern Oregon/Washington by either UP or BNSF, all those trucks must be coming in via highway from Puget Sound or Salt Lake City (the nearest TOFC yards) if they are using rail at all!