Yesterday I was out running errands and spotted a Portland and Western local running a train through Hillsboro. I watched it head out the north end of town toward Banks. I know that they do some fancy movements in Banks in order to get the train on the rails heading for North Plains and over Corn Pass. I have never seen it and had the time so I started following the train. I ran with it up to Roy, it was just outside town so I headed on out to Banks. There I waited for awhile and no train, I went back down the line to Roy and still no train. I followed the tracks all the way back to Hillsboro with no luck. I am baffled as to where the train went. I don’t think they have built a wye track to align the North Plains route to the Hillsboro route, I also know that the speed these trains travel is so slow that it did not out run me to Banks. I even ran down the North Plains tracks a little bit before turning back to Roy and Hillsboro. So can anyone who railfans the P&W help me out?
What is your question?
Mac
[#welcome] [#welcome] ! But yes, you should frame a question to be answered. - a.s.
Question would be------where’d it go?[%-)]
Hence the question being where did the train he saw go?[:-^]
Must be one of those squashed paragraph issues. Please place question at the end of posting—[:-^]
I’m not familar with the area. Lets try to break down the basic question where did the train go? Perhaps there’s an industry that the train stopped to switch. Perhaps this industry is in a location where you can’t see it from a public place like a road?
CC
Oregon Welcome to the forum. These guys have a wealth of knowledge and are willing to share. RL
Zooming in on maps.live.com, I guess the key question would be “where in Banks, OR were you standing, waiting for the train ?”.
It is possible to cross over to the line to North Plains just North of the Wilson River Highway. If you were standing there, you should have seen the train (unless it turned back).
If you were standing further north in Banks, you might not have seen a train heading towards North Plains.
Smile,
Stein, who doesn’t know a thing about the Portland and Western, but knows how to use maps.live.com
Alright, hasn’t everyone had that happen? Or something similar. Chased a train then lose it because you followed the wrong track or underestimated its speed or didn’t know it turned and high tailed it back the other way? Or waited for a trian that never comes…I did that one time. Had the line up from the B&M dispatcher of a westbound due through Hoosic Tunnel by 2:45-3PM. So I waited in the rain at the west portal in North Adams. In the rain. Until 4 PM. No train. Walked back to the car. It stopped raining. The train went by. I went home.
Encountered a train once with five locos - very rare for this line. Shot several pictures, then boogied for an overpass so I could get a few more pictures. Track speed 25, I used the Interstate. Still don’t believe the train got to my vantage point before I did, but it never appeared.
I know the area (I have lived here over 30 years and can remember when both the BN and SP ran trains through the area on these branches. Now they are merged under the P&W. At Banks there is a saw mill, there are no other industries or spurs along the route - which goes across open farmland and is visable from all the adj roads. In Banks the old SP tracks and the United Lines (BN) are parallel to each other. The P&W operates trains over both of these old branch lines and built a passing siding where the are parallel in Banks. A train heading to North Plains and heading over the hill to Linton must head NW from Hillsboro to Banks where the locos swap ends of the train and continue out of Banks Eastbound for North Plains and then north to Linnton. Most of the time the trains go over this line around 1:00 AM so being able to catch one in daylight is rare. I know there are people in my area who railfan the P&W and thought there might be some of them here that could help me figure out what might have happened.