I am not a great photographer. I will never be a great photographer. I just take pictures of trains.
Here are some of the shots I took last year that I think turned out best (in chronological order):
In February, I made a trip up to Warden, WA where I understood the Columbia Basin Ry. operated a small fleet of six-axle SD-9s. Without much solid information in hand, I was lucky enough to arrive just as the northbound train left for Wheeler, near Moses Lake. I saw this trestle on my way north, but the morning fog was too thick for me to manage a shot of the train crossing it. After following the train around for most of the day, I was able to set up for this shot, which turned out to be the last one of the day. This is still probably my all-time favorite for 2015.
I managed to catch BNSF's "Lowline Local" leaving Pasco yard. This train runs down to Wallula, WA to serve the Boise (Cascade) pulp mill there and to interchange with Union Pacific. With a good lead on the train, I was able to get in to the sportsmen's access area on the west side of the tracks to find a good vantage to photograph the train. This shot turned out the best, with the choppy water of the Columbia River in the foreground, and the ABS signal mast beckoning the train forward.
On a family trip to LaPine, OR in July, I finally was able to photograph a couple trains on BNSF's Oregon Trunk/Inside Gateway line through central Oregon. Normally, I'm not a big fan of "going away" shots, but with the morning sun shining on the train, and the still snowy mountain peaks in the background, this one turned out particularly well.
The Tri-Cities Railroad is my "hometown" railroad; I live about a quarter mile from the tracks and can easily hear the trains blowing their horns on days when I'm at home. I like this shot for its simplicity. The single cloud in the sky casting a shadow on Rattlesnake Mountain is really cool, I think.
Port of Benton owns the tracks in Richland and hosts both the TCRY and BNSF as its tenants. Here I shot the inbound "Byron Turn" crossing Saint Street. Using a telephoto lens compressed the photo in a way that Badger Mountain appears to loom much larger over the train than it appears to the unaided eye.
On Patriots Day, 9/11, I returned to the CBRW, this time hoping to catch the Warden to Connell train. After following the train down from Warden and witnessing their interchange with BNSF, I then watched the train climb out of Connell Coulee and shot this photo as it crested the grade at Frischknecht.
This was another "telesmash" shot I took of the TCRY on the Port of Benton line as it approaches Duportail Street. Notice the rush hour traffic on parallel Highway 240.
I thought this was another "Lowline Local" when I saw it leave Pasco yard toward Wallula. It turned out to be a unit train of cattle feed headed for the Simplot feedlot located along the old NP Walla Walla line northeast of Wallula. I like this shot because of the early morning light, the Columbia River to the left and the signal mast to the right.
This is the Connell Turn at Glade siding north of Pasco. A favorite because it is consistently powered by pairs of SD-40-2s, and this is one of the few chances the old "deuces" get to run on the mainline these days.
Here's the TCRY again, eastbound on the former Union Pacific Yakima Branch in Kennewick. The dusty yellow flowers on the foreground bushes and the yellowing, but still green, trees in the background make the R/W/B SD-40-2 really stand out.
Fall colors are not as prevalent in the Mid-Columbia as in other regions of the country, but if you know where to look during the short two-week window in October, you can manage some decent shots.
Family trips to Utah a couple times a year are good-news-bad-news situations for me. Good that I enjoy traveling and hoping to see trains, but bad that we're in a rush and there's seldom time to stop and wait for a train to be in the right place for a photo. This time I got lucky on the way home and was able to pull off I-84 at Cement Plant, OR to catch this eastbound mixed freight.
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