No, This isn’t a grade crossing incident gone bad. It was 4 am and I had just started
out on a 850 mile trip home to Ely, Nv. from Kalama, Wa… It was still dark when I got
to Washington highway 14 in Vancouver, which I would take east to interstate 82 about
200 miles to the east. That’s when I heard the first detector go off. Haveing no
intention of stopping to railfan along the way I didn’t give it much thought. Then as
I crossed the bridge over the tracks in Camas I thought I saw a eastbound down below
in the foggy darkness. Only the ambient light from the pulp mill lights the scene so
I couldn’t be shure.
Then at the other end of Washougal, where the highway crosses back over the tracks,
I saw a green block at the east end of the sideing. I thought about stopping to wait,
but I had a 14 hour drive ahead of me and decided not to waste any time waiting for a
train that may or may not be there. So I decided to continue on. As I climbed the slow
winding road up and over Cape Horn I figured the train would easily beat me to where
the road and tracks come together again in the george, some 12 miles away.
I had pretty much forgotten about that when I encountered the tracks again. For the
next 10 miles the forrest obscures the tracks most of the way except for several short
areas where the tracks swing next to the road, only to dissapear again in the thick
forrest. As I traveled along this dark and deserted streach of road I kept seeing the
occasional, and erie, hint of light through the trees in my rear view mirror. And when
I went through Skamania there was another green block. So when I got to North Bonneville,
where the tracks and road come out of the forrest, I expected to see a train overtake me.
But as I continued east nothing appeared. I kept my eyes
Nice story, and the photo gives a pretty good idea of what this is like.
On a warm sunny Sat. afternoon in early Sept. 2004 I also encountered and paced a BNSF eastbound over part of your route on Washington Rt. 14 from that night - from around Carson to the vicinity of Underwood/ White Salmon (opposite Hood River). Even though I think it was a garbage train, it was still a thrill as it was moving at track speed, and it was just about 10 feet out the passenger side window. As you said, every couple of miles we would switch sides or both go through parallel tunnels or something else to make it different and . . . interesting (the “Bikes In Tunnel When Flashing - Speed 30” warning signs have to be seen to be believed). Because I was driving when this started to happen, all the photos were taken by my wife, who got an on-the-move crash course in RR photography - if we stopped to trade places we never would have caught up again (she did pretty good, too). About halfway through, we saw another set of lights coming towards us - and yes, the DS and both crews pulled off a non-stop meet ! I’ll see if I can post a couple of my photos either here or someplace else with a link.
I thought this location and opportunity was far better known than it apparently is. I’d go back again in a moment. I should, too - my wife really liked Vancouver, Washington, and there are a lot of things to see in the vicinity - both RR and non-RR related. I’d recommend it for anyone - it’s got to be as good as Tehachapi with the scenery and ability to get up close to the trains.
Yes it is a great place. I lived in Stevenson for 3 years, and in all that time I only saw the “bicycle in tunnel” lights flash once, and didn’t see one [%-)] go figure.
…Now that’s something different…I really enjoyed reading and riding along on your early morning rail experience. Liked the photos too. That 850 miles would be a pretty long day of driving. For years {46}, I’ve been driving back and forth to our home area of Pennsylvania and can relate to that, even though it’s only 400 miles.
Here’s my (wife’s) photo of the non-stop meet that I mentioned above. This is where Chad - in his 1st post - described it as:
“Much of the way you are so close you can almost reach out and touch the cars. The only thing between is a rock wall about 2 foot tall and a foot and a half wide in many locations.”
As you can see between the white line and the locomotive, that description is exactly correct ! It is the neatest thing to roll along with the lead locomotive at about 40 mph for minutes at a time, and just listen to the engine RPMs change, the wheels squeal, glance at the journal boxes moving up and down, watch it lean into the curves, etc. It about the closest thing to a cab ride, and the best pacing location I’ve found yet ! (OK, I still a lot of the nation to cover, and I haven’t been to US 30 along the UP in Nebraska, but this has to be better scenery !)
Here’s a photo of the “bicycle sign” (again by my wife) that was the subject of a couple of our posts above, and of course the train about to enter a short tunnel along with the highway:
That first pic (Cooks sideing) is just the type wall I was refering to. It really is a great spot to chase (if the highway is free of tourists and boat trailers). I have been around the west and I can only think of 2 other spots that would even come close to rivaling the BNSF in the George. Highway 111 between Thermal and Niland (along the north shore of the Salton Sea) next to the ex.SP and Santa Fe ave. north of Bakersfield next to the BNSF would be the other two. Don’t get me wrong, there are many great paceing oppertunitys around but certain ones just lend themself to the experience (like the above mentioned). Things like lack of road traffic, high legal speed limits, lots of safe places to stop and shoot, unobstructed view and the good chance of a long run.
Last year I made 2 trips a week from Salem, Oregon to Yakima, Washington. This lasted several months while I delt with my father’s estate. He worked for NP for 43 years. I would watch the trains from the Oregon side of the river and cross over to this section of track at the right moment and pace a train up to Wishram. It was the highlite of my trip. Once I noticed that a side door was open on the trailing locomotive. I pointed that out to the crew at Wishram where the stop and they rewarded me with a tour of the cab. What a great memory. The last cab I had been in was a F7 or GP9 back in 1967.
