Favorite Rail Images from 2019

2019 did not present quite as many new photo opportunities for me as 2018 did. However, I really can’t complain. I still managed to shoot plenty of train photos in my “backyard," and I took several trips farther afield. Here are a few of the photos I shot during the year with which I am most pleased:

Arguably the single best image I shot this year. Driving west from Soldier Summit on a trip to Utah in the spring, the railroad signals indicated another eastbound train was imminent. I set up at the turn off to Thistle Slide Rd., and was very pleased to see the train in question was Amtrak's Number 6, the Zephyr, running somewhat late. Overall, the light and other conditions resulted in a near-calendar-quality shot.

Although I no longer live in Spokane, WA, I visit there frequently. Last year, a new pedestrian bridge opened over the BNSF mainline to link the city's new "University District" with East Sprague Ave. Both the aesthetics and the location of the bridge have been criticized by many, but railfans cannot ignore the interesting new photo angles it offers. Here is one I shot in the late morning of Jan 19th.

The city of Walla Walla, WA loomed very large in the early history of Washington State. As a key gathering point for the agricultural wealth found in the southeast corner of the state, several railroads converged on Walla Walla, creating a bewildering maze of tracks north of the city center. Only a few of these remain in service, but on a snowy February morning, I shot a Palouse River & Coulee City RR train shuffling freight cars on the last active former NP track in town.

Speaking of snow, returning from the annual railroad show and swap meet in Monroe, WA, friend Rich Olson and I caught up with an eastbound train of empty oil tanks at Scenic. The crew had just received a green signal indication and began notching up the throttle to get rolling again. Ahead, the train will enter Cascade Tunnel for 7+ miles, and then roll down the east side of Steven Pass.

Local trains operating in and around the Tri-Cities are always interesting to me, especially with the varied mix of older locomotives they run. On a drizzly January afternoon, a UP local runs past the iconic Farmers Exchange building in downtown Kennewick.

Later in the year, a similar UP local pulls through the small yard at Hedges, on the east side of Kennewick.

Any BNSF locomotive still wearing Cascade Green paint is worth a photo or two. In this instance, one such SD40-2 leads as the Byron Turn cruises through Richland on its way back to Pasco Yard.

Very recently, the Byron Turn has operated behind matched pairs of freshly repainted former ATSF SD75i locomotives, as seen here passing Desert Gardens cemetery in Richland. Without being too morbid, this may be a good place to be buried when that time comes, so close to an active rail line.

Technically not a local train, this grain train is inbound to Pasco Yard, crossing the long former NP lift bridge across the Columbia River in mid-September. The cut of WSDOT Grain Train cars immediately behind the power will most likely move north to the CBRW with the next Connell Turn out of Pasco.

Here's the Columbia Basin Ry. itself in October, running south out of Warden, WA headed to the BNSF interchange at Connell. The CBRW is know for its stable of early, albeit heavily rebuilt, six-axle EMD locomotives.

One of my "bucket list" items has been attending the festivities surrounding the 150th anniversary of completing the Transcontinental Railroad, held May 10th at Promontory, UT. I did not allow myself to get caught up in all the 'Big Boy' commotion. Instead, I made an early morning visit to the Golden Spike Nat'l Historic Park to avoid the crowds, hiked a few stretches of the right-of-way, and then attended an in-person get-together with some Facebook friends in Ogden. While at the site, I shot this photo of the Railfan & Railroad magazine editorial staff getting their shots of the Jupiter as she rolled out of the enginehouse for a day of posing with her sister, UP 119.

It seems I shot a lot more Union Pacific activity than in previous years. From April, I managed to finally be in the right place/time to catch a train on the Malad Branch out of Brigham City. I had other places I needed to be, but I managed to catch a few run-bys as the train passed through Tremonton, UT

After dropping family members off at the Portland, OR airport in June, I looked around a little prior to heading home and managed to bag this local train switching cars on the Kenton Line with a clear view of Mt. Hood. A closer look in the distance will reveal an oncoming road train.

I attended two funerals with my sister this year. Unfortunately, the latter of the two was for her husband, but the former involved a June road trip to Pocatello, ID to say goodbye to a favorite uncle. Early in the AM before the service, I managed to slip away and catch this westbound mixed freight entering the yard.

I spent a lot of time in Eastern Oregon this year, working to capture images of UP in the Burnt River canyon to support an article I was writing. This picture did not make my cut for the article submission, but it's still a solid shot of a westbound manifest train climbing up through Oxman, OR.

Another UP shot in a location I've never seen a train running came the morning before my brother-in-law's funeral service in Provo, UT. I chased a UP local train working the branch through Pleasant Grove and American Fork, UT and got this shot of the train paralleling Highway 89.

On the return trip from our uncle's funeral, I was driving my sister and her kids west out of Missoula, MT. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a westbound Montana Rail Link Gas Local train on the Evaro Pass line (MRL's 10th Subdivision). We had just eaten, so the kids were pacified enough that they could tolerate a short side trip to bag this image. Then it was back on the freeway for the rest of the way home.

On a February trip to the coast with my wife (for yet another funeral), I dropped her off at a favorite quilt shop in Puyallup, WA, and then made a pass along the tracks. Lo and behold, the elusive Meeker Southern was at word that day and I was able to shoot this image of their former NP SW-1200 shuffling cars in the industrial park they serve.

Heading down to Promontory, I had planned time for a few side-trips. This trip to Vale, OR was well timed, as I just managed to catch the Oregon Eastern RR's train departing for their UP interchange near Ontario. The GP7 is a former Toledo, Peoria & Western locomotive. Other than a "chopped" short hood for improved visibility, the locomotive is otherwise stock and sounds just like an early "geep" should!

On my way to see The Who at Seattle in mid-October, I stopped past the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie, WA and followed their Halloween family excursion train from North Bend to their end-of-track near Snoqualmie Falls. This "grab shot" as the train passed the Snoqualmie depot turned out the best. Maybe others would call this shot busy or crowded, but I think the classic depot, misty mountains, green-haired flagger, colorful trees, and stopped jeep framed the bright orange locomotive just right.

Yet another rock concert made a great cover story for an August railfan trip. On my way to see the B52's with OMD and Berlin at Bend, OR, I took a day to explore the former SP&S Oregon Trunk line. Although I live relatively close to the line, it is not the most accessible route to follow, and I have seldom had much luck with trains on family trips taken along Highway 97. This time, I did much better. One of the early shots I got was this southbound crossing the famous rail bridge over the Crooked River near Redmond, OR.

After staking out a campsite near the Oregon Trunk's Trout Creek trestle, I heard a southbound freight working its way around the canyon. Although I got shots of this military equipment train crossing Trout Creek, this image turned out particularly well as the train reached the high ground between Gateway and Madras, OR.

Another military train the following day crosses over the Deschutes River and enters a tunnel here at the upper of the "Twin Crossings." After transiting the tunnel, the train immediately crosses the river again at the lower crossing. This is a classic OT photo angle that I'm glad I finally managed to shoot for myself.

In August, Washington State handed over operation of its "P&L Line," the former NP branch between Marshall and Pullman, WA, to a new contract operator, the Spokane, Spangle & Palouse Railway. I managed to be on hand for their first day of operation and, among many other images, I got this shot of "GP39M" 3904 (a former ATSF GP35) and its train at Highway 195 on an unusual over/under crossing of the northbound and southbound lanes.

On a late fall trip to Spokane to drop my wife at the airport, I had a chance meeting with good friend Maddie Farnsworth. She gave me a hint that the SSPR had been working at Spangle, WA and might be headed back to Marshall at any moment. Acting on the tip, I managed to chase the train the full distance and got a few good shots. Normally, "going away" shots are seldom very good, but I was pleased with this one as the train approaches Marshall. The only thing that could make it better would be if the train had been long enough to be visible on the near end of the S curve. More sunlight would've helped too.

Saving the best for last, the most exciting trip I took this year was to Olean, NY in hopes of seeing giant six-axle Alco/MLW Century- and M-series locomotives in action. The Western New York & Pennsylvania RR runs its Driftwood (PA) Turn, which is famous for its steep northbound climb up Keating Summit as it returns to Olean. Newer GE locomotive were rumored to be on their way to supplement (and certainly replace) the older Alco/MLW units. The Driftwood train runs 2-3 times per week, and on the first day of my visit I caught it arriving at Turtle Point, PA to deliver its loads of rock. The train had stopped to allow a local from Olean to clear the former Pennsylvania RR mainline, and then its three monster Alcos roared to life bringing the train back to track speed.

The following day, a Friday, got off to a good start with a railfan report that at least three trains would be running that day and a Driftwood train should run on Saturday. Unfortunately, I somehow missed (slept through?) the first train that departed Olean! In my scrambling to figure out where the train had gone, I guessed wrong and followed the southward rail line into PA. When it was clear I had completely missed that first train, I cut over to Bradford, PA where I had an AirBnB lined up for the night. Serendipitiously, I saw a few other railroad locations of interest to me, so it was not a total loss. Once checked in, I drove back toward Farmers Valley, PA where the second of the hoped-for trains should be. I caught up with it (as did a sizeable contingent of other railfans) and got several shots of the train on the branch and on the mainline toward Orlean, as seen above. The bad news was that the Driftwood train would not operate the next day, which actually cleared up some time to see other sites of interest to me on my way back to the airport at Rochester.