Burnt River Rails: Addendum

The July 2020 issue of Railfan & Railroad magazine features an article I wrote about Union Pacific's line along Eastern Oregon's Burnt River. To illustrate the story, I provided several photos, from which the editor selected only a few to run with the article. Here then are the remaining images I submitted, in (mostly) chronological order, with their respective caption information:

Seen from the open vestibule window of a Superliner car, Amtrak’s Pioneer approaches its final crossing of the Snake River and its entry into the Burnt River Canyon near Huntington, OR in April 1985.

Taken from the opposite side of the train in April 1985, the abandoned cement plant at Lime, OR appears almost ready to start production at any time, but that will never happen. Gradually, the remaining structures were removed over the next three decades until the last remnants finally came down in late 2018.

Union Pacific’s mainline across Eastern Oregon has been a preferred route for shipping windmill components to Inland Northwest windfarm projects. In June 2009, a trainload of windmill pylon sections rolls west through Durkee, OR behind SD70M 4998 and two EMD companions.

A westbound stack train, led by AC45CCTE 5536 and SD70ACe 8519, heels to a right-hand curve just west of Pleasant Valley, OR in August 2012 on the final leg of its climb toward the summit at Encina, OR. 

If there were any windows remaining in this abandoned trackside house at Durkee, Union Pacific ET45AH 2685 would be rattling them hard as it rolls east in March 2019.

No less than five high-horsepower locomotives lead a short manifest east at Nelson in March 2019. The cement production plant at left replaced the old plant at Lime many years ago, and it still provides a modest supply of traffic for UP’s Huntington Local. This is also the location where the railroad and freeway leave the broad Durkee Valley and enter the lower Burnt River canyon.

An eastbound manifest splits a pair of intermediate signals just east of Lime, Oregon in March 2019. The Old Oregon Trail Highway crosses the railroad at this location midway between Lime and Huntington sidings and right alongside Interstate 84.

Having nearly surmounted the steepest stretches of Durkee Loop, AC45CCTE 5545 leads a westbound stack train under the Old Oregon Trail Highway again as it approaches Oxman in March 2019.  In the early 1990s, UP extended Oxman Siding several miles to the east, effectively double tracking the entire length of the loop. 

In this image, the same westbound stack train is seen continuing uphill through Oxman in March 2019. None of the track between Durkee and the summit at Encina is level; there are only varying degrees of gradient.

The flesh-and-blood horses are not impressed with the passing iron horses leading this westbound stack train at Durkee in April 2019. In about a mile, the train will begin getting very serious about the stiff climb up and around the Durkee Loop, which includes two separate mile-long stretches of 2.2% grade.

Snaking up and away from the Snake River in April 2019, this westbound unit potash train will reach Huntington, Oregon in a matter of a half mile or less. Huntington was once a major division point and crew change location, but trains today do not need new crews until reaching La Grande.

The golden beams of the morning sun have just cleared the mountain ridges to the east to illuminate an eastbound stack train at Durkee in May 2019. The Old Oregon Trail Highway passes underneath the Huntington Sub right below the second locomotive.

Eastbound out of the tunnel near Weatherby, a hot stack train crosses the Burnt River on a two-span girder bridge in May 2019.

Having departed Huntington moments ago, an eastbound stack train drifts down the last remaining mile of the Burnt River before crossing the Snake in early May 2019.

SD70ACe 8942 and ES44AC-H 2754 roll an eastbound train of empty soda ash cars past a small homestead located alongside Weatherby siding in May 2019.

SD70ACe 8942 leads an eastbound train of empty soda ash cars through Lime and across the Burnt River on a through-girder bridge in May 2019. The extra-wide bridge abutments once supported a parallel spur track used to serve the cement plant that stood nearby.

A westbound intermodal train behind AC45CCTE 7961 and two EMDs heads upgrade around the Durkee Loop in May 2019. This valley is drained by Pritchard Creek, which flows through the culvert seen just to the right of the lead locomotive. UP double-tracked this loop in the early 1990s, making it much easier for dispatchers to keep the Huntington Sub fluid in times of heavy traffic.

A westbound manifest with several auto racks at the front of its train exits the Burnt River Canyon itself and enters Durkee Valley here at Nelson in August 2019. A “dead in consist” former Norfolk Southern GP38-2, now GECX 5094, is visible behind AC45CCTE 7938 and SD70ACe 9010 in transit to a new lease assignment with a shortline or industrial railroad. 

The fireman of Sumpter Valley Railroad’s Mikado 19 prepares to give his charge a healthy drink of water at McEwen, Oregon to get ready for a busy day of excursion runs in June 2009. There is very little, if any, visible evidence that this photo was taken in 2009, and not 75 years earlier when the SVRR was still hauling logs.