Changes

Two years ago in early November I started a blog journey that now must undergo some changes. (On another note, who knows how this election day may develop.  We may see changes in our country as well.)

During a trainwatching session in Vancouver, Wash. in 2010, a fellow railfan remarked that he missed the SD40-2s.  He was probably 20-30 years younger than me, so had been too young for the heyday of EMD products that once dominated America's rails.

I had recently neared the end of a year-long project of scanning most of my older film negatives and slides, some extending back into the 1960s and 1970s. Over that time span, I scanned more than 6,000 photos, nearly all of them centered around railroads.  Most were from the early 1990s when I got reacquainted with trains. It seemed like I should share my wealth with those younger railfans who had missed the heyday of SD40-2s and with the older people who could remember them.

Those were heady days.  Southern Pacific had recently been purchased by the Denver, Rio Grande & Western Railroad.  After years of languish due to the ill effects of a prohibited merger with the Santa Fe, traffic started increasing.  The new SP, as it was called, desparately needed power.  So lots of older SD45s, GP40s and the like from Chessie, B & O and other eastern railroads started showing up in the Pacific Northwest.  Even the UP and BN yards in the Portland-Vancouver area saw frequent foreign power with CP, Grand Trunk, Conrail, CSX and Norfolk Southern present.  The last of the U-boats were still around on the BN as well.

Two shots from the early 1990s that I previously posted on this blog are shown above.

Starting in 1992, I was fortunate to obtain a job with a trucking company located between the SP's Brooklyn Yard/engine facility and Tri-Met's main garage.  New, weirdly painted units (at least to a UP or BN oriented railfan) showed up daily.

I was able to travel quite a bit, being newly single.  So California, here I came.  Columbia Gorge, Willamette Pass, Boise for the Morrison-Knudsen shops, Tri-Cities for the BN, and Canada for the CP and CN were frequent destinations.  In 1994, I started taking trips east to visit relatives in Michigan.  Some of these were by train, some were by car.  But I was able to railfan Chicago before the mergers and heightened security of the post-merger and post-911 eras.

Power abounded in the 1990s.  Since the most common locomotive was the SD40-2 at 3,000 hp operating on DC current, even the shorter trains sported 4-5 locomotives.  BN especially, was not shy about using GP39-2s on regional runs like garbage trains.  It was not unusual to see 3, 4, 5, even 6 Geeps pulling a train.

So on Nov. 6, 2010, I started a Google Blogspot page, posting at least one picture every day.  Over these past two years, I probably published 750 different photos, many of unique locomotives.  They ranged from "dinkies" (small industrial locomotives) to 6,000 hp GEs and EMDs.  Locations ranged from Pennsylvania to Indiana, to Arkansas to Arizona to California and all other the Pacific Northwest.

Times certainly have changed the past two years.  I've plumbed the depths of my files; the remainder of the photos are duplicates or shots without much interest even to me. Other outlets, such as Facebook, are available for publishing photos.

Recently I've come across Tumblr.  In my test usages, I like it much better.  Photos are displayed sequentially.  No header is required for a post.  All the photos are on display at one time.  Updates are easier to prepare & post. It seems more oriented toward photography.

I'm also ready to move beyond historical postings.  For years, I didn't take many photographs.  I had worked in newspapers for nearly 20 years, which burned me out on photography.  Other activites, like getting remarried, moving into a new house, adding grandchildren to the family, etc. took up time I once spent with a camera.  Besides, with the mergers between 1996 to 2001, everything started looking the same.

Culling my photo files and posting everyday reawoke my urge to use the camera more often. 

So, starting soon, all my photos will appear here on a page I'll call "photoeye": http://www.pdxrailfan.tumblr.com/

I'll keep this blog active as a photo storage source and as a fallback in case tumblr doesn't pan out. Also two years ago I started a sister site called "Photo Memories" for non-railroad stuff.  Within a couple of weeks, both Blogspot sites will be merged into the new Tumblr site. The new site will see new postings only when something really unique or new or interesting gets photographed. It won't always be rail oriented, but it will be the best I can produce at the time. 

If you've checked these sites over the past two years, thanks for viewing.  Hopefully, you'll follow me to the new location.

Always another use

Many older rail cars have found another use such as this ex Rock Island Dining car that is a Stoby's Restaurant in Russelville, Ark. Photo taken in 2002.

A unique view of history

Two "modern" and unique locomotives now have Museum of Transportation at St. Louis to call home.  Above is the 1,000 hp Chicago Burlington & Quincy "Zephyr" with 1,000 hp made in 1939.  Below is the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific EMD 1955 Aerotrain with 1,2000 hp.  Both are a far cry from the 4,000 hp plus AC units so common today.  Photos taken 2002.

Cutting brush

From 1991, these photos show the Port of Tillamook Bay 4381, a SD9 which was later wrecked downhill from Cochran, pulling a brush cutter along the POTB tracks.

UP in Indiana

Ex-Conrail 5351, a GP38-2, and a Union Pacific SD40-2, 3184, prepared to depart with a local at the west end of Elkhart, Ind. yard on March 21, 2002. The ex-Conrail unit was lettered for PRR, a transitional mark before going into Norfolk Southern markings.

Military units

String of military units sit alongside I15 near Ogden in September 1996  at Utah's Hill Air Force Base where Army locomotives from all the United States are rebuilt. Pictured are GE 44, 60 & 80 tonners and Alco S1s, RS4-TCs and MRS1s.

KCS in KC

Kansas City Southern GP38-2s, in two of the company's many paint schemes, lead a transfer from Union Pacific to home territory at Santa Fe Jct. in Kansas City in 2002.

Coal train

Union Pacific 6452, an AC400, brings up the rear of a Centralia coal train passing through Vancouver on Sept. 21.

Grain terminal switcher

Now known as Temco for Tacoma Exporting Co., a branch of a larger operation in Tacoma, Wash., the former Harvest States plant in Kalama has added this SW1200, a former BNSF Heritage unit, to its switching fleet. JLCX stands for J & L Consulting.

CP grain empties

On a foggy day Oct. 28 in Kalama, CP9739 prepares to depart Kalama Export as unit three of a Union Pacific grain empties headed for Eastport, Idaho.

New ES44C4 units

One of the new style GE's, an ES44C4, which is not powered on the center of each of the three axles,  powered coal loads through Vancouver last month.  The wheels to drop down when needed to provide traction.

Southern Pacific renumber

Patched Southern Pacific units are still fairly common on the Union Pacific 16 years after the merger.  UP6210 was phtographed on a grain empty in Kalama Sept. 13.

CSX slug switcher

GP 40-2 6409 and "road slug" 2226, a former GP30, worked the yard at Hagerstown, MD, in May 1999. Note Western Maryland logo on underpass.

Conrail slug

Conrail SD38 6953 and MT4 slug 1018 switch at Stanley Yard south of Toledo, Ohio, in May 1999.

Conrail C32

Conrail 6612, a C32-8, visited Brooklyn (Portland, Ore.) yard in 1994 after being used on a Southern Pacific train.  The unit was later converted to a gray painted ballast train unit.

One of the new CNWs

CNW C44-9 8835 enters Albina Yard in Portland, Ore., as part of a light power move while UPY1487, a former Southern Pacific MP15AC waits on Sept. 13, 2003. 8835 and her siblings carried CNW paints, but were ordered to UP specifications in anticipation for the merger, which had already occurred at the time of this photo.

CNW in Vancouver

SD40-2 6923 provides power as one of three units on southbound Union Pacific train passing through Vancouver, Wash. in the 1996 on the Seattle sub of then Burlington Northern.

CNW at east Portland

CNW SD40-2 6887 and UP 3652, also an SD40-2, lead an eastbound train through East Portland back in the 1990s.  SD40-2s were the standard on regional freights up throough about 2007-08.

CNW SD40-2s

Chicago & Northwestern SD40-2 heads a southbound Union Pacific train through Vancouver, Wash., in the 1990s.  CNW units were common on UP trains of the era.

Operation Lifesaver

For the past week or so, Burlington Northern units, mostly photographed in the 1990s, have been featured.  Now, the emphasis turns to a real "fallen flag," the Chicago & Northwestern.  Mostly controlled by the Union Pacific for years, the CNW was molded into the UP in 1995.  Prior to that time, many CNW units such as these SD60s, were used in the Pacific Northwest. 

BN transfer to SP

GP50 3102 heads south out of Lake Yard with a cut of containers of flat cars (COFC) for the Southern Pacific in Brooklyn.  BNSF and SP cooperated on daily transfers of cars between Brooklyn and Lake Yard or Vancouver.  Each railroad took half the year, so frequently foreign power was seen in Portland area yards.

BN switcher

Burlington Northern 378, an SW1000, switches near Vancouver in the early 1990s, pre merger with ATSF. Where SWs like this were the norm for yard work, very few remain in any railroad's system, having been replaced with GP15s, GP38s, and GP39s of various persausions.

HLCX1064

Freshly painted GP38-2 passes through Vancouver, Wash. Saturday, Oct. 13, as third of four units on the Union Pacific FIHK.

Passenger units repaired

Repairs are finally starting today (Oct. 13) on at least one of three passenger cars that were enroute from California to the Spokane area for a railroad historical meeting got stopped in Albina Yard, Portland, Ore. The three McCloud River cars were enroute to Spokane for the STMA special passenger run on Saturday, June 30 as part of the 2012 MRHA (Milwaukee Road) convention in Moscow, ID. They were held first in Klamath Falls, then got stopped at Albina due to truck & underplate issues.

BN at Oakridge

Burlington Northern SD40-2 7287 rests at Oakridge on the Southern Pacific.  It was in helper service on the SP at the time.

Hoyt St. turntable

Burlington Northern GP38-2s 2088 and 2093 cross the Hoyt St. turntable in the early 1990s. The turntable was moved to Vancouver after Hoyt St. was closed.  In the background is the Lovejoy bridge, which was torn down and replaced with a shorter reach structure to facilitate building expansion in the neighborhood.

Bend Turn

GP40-2s 3043 and 3048 return from Bend enroute to Wishram as part of the Burlington Northern Bend turn in the early 1990s.

Snake River crossing

Three GP38-2s cross the Snake River bridge near Pasco enroute to Villard Jct. and Riparia for a transfer to the Camas Prairie as the line wsas know in the early 1990s when this photo was taken.

Transfer

Burlington Northern 2726 gets some new crew members leaving the SP&S Yard in Vancouver (and blocking both mains)  as the transfer to Lake Yard while the SW1500 #28 waits on the NP tail.  Photo from the early 1990s.

BN 7502

Burlington Northern 7502, a cabless SD42-B, was unit number 3 on a Chicago - Portland on Christmas Day 2000. Intermodal power was a common use for B units on the BN as power stayed with the train from origin to destination.

BN B Unit

While the most widely known B units on the Burlington Northern were the B30-7As numbered 4000 through 4119, BN had three SD42-Bs that were cabless.  Photo from the 1990s.

Soo from 1975

Soo SD40-2 #781 captured in black & white photo from Marshfield, Wis. from about 1975.

SP in the Cascades

Southern Pacific was known for its multiple powered units for trains running through the Cascades.  This train was captured near Fields in the early 1990s. Chances are there were three or four mid-train helpers in addition to the four units on the front.  Chances also were that only about half the power was running properly.

Multi-numbered unit

This AC4400 has had several numbers during its life span.  It started as GECX4000 and was tested on the Union Pacific in UP colors as 1 of 10 units UP tested..  UP then purchased the unit and changed the number to 7000.  It later renumbered the unit to 7300.  About a year ago, the 10 units regained their numbers from 7000 to 7009 as UP needed room for the new ES44ACs.

Longview Fibre

Longview Fibre's S3 works the yard at the company site in Longview.

Peavey switcher

Now known as Kalama Export Company, the facility at which SW1 #632 operates as a remote control unit is more commonly known to railfans as Peavey.  Most of the time now, this road is blocked by unit grain trains moving into or out of the grain facility.

Chop nose

This GP9 started life as a high nose unit and was "chopped" while parked at the former Peavey loading facility in Kalama. Have not seen it there for a number of years as this photo was taken in 2006 but it could be up there at the elevator out of everyday sight.

Renumbered SP

Two ex Southern Pacific GP40-2s leave the Mt. Vernon plant of NRE in September 2002 sporting their new Union Pacific patches. The 1444 is used frequently in various locations around the Pacific Northwest.

Blue Mt in Dayton

Lone Blue Mountain GP35 at Dayton, Wash. in 2000.

Meet at Telocaset

Union Pacific intermodal meets eastbound merchandise train at Telocaset in 2004.

Bridge at Santa Fe Jct.

Union Pacific SD70M leads an auto train out of the intermodal yard in Kansas City and across a unique bridge over the Kansas River in September 2002.

Triple play

Portland & Western GP39-2 2311 and Union Pacific C44ACCTE 5523 stop just before the Columbia Draw Tuesday evening while the BNSF 2724 rests on the NP tail.  Rare to catch three different railroads operatiing in the same location these days.

Broadway in the air

Southern Pacific 6864, a SD45T-2, heads south near Union Station in the early 1990s as the Broadway Bridge stands open for a passing ship.

Soo high nose

Soo 552 GP9 worked the Marshfield, Wis., yard in the mid 1970s with 2201A, an F7A unit.