Christmas Eve day 1997
and the only thing running on the railroad is Amtrak, treating the
passengers of #14 to a winter wonderland crossing Salt Creek Trestle.
A 4449 powered
excursion passes Horse Thief Lake in the Columbia River Gorge.
Laying over in Portland
Union Station between runs.
One of my favorite
locations on the Cascade Line is at Fields, high above the Salt Creek
Valley. Nice light all day, good views in both directions and vistas of
the mountains across the valley.
The top of the line is
along the shore of Odell Lake at Cascade Summit. This was a favorite
company publicity location back in SP days.
Another favorite
location is Mowich. A siding, nice signal bridge, and view of Diamond
Peak.
The lead unit is only
half a car length from crossing the state line into California on the
BNSF Inside Gateway near Morrill, Oregon.
In the summer of 2002,
UP's #6936 leads an engineering special through Oakridge.
Another leftover from
SP days (unfortunately now gone) were the wig-wag signals in Downtown McMinnville..
The Albany and Eastern
crossing the Santiam River near Lebanon Oregon on a very hot July
day.
Southbound UP train
QPDRV bound from Portland to Roseville passing though downtown
Springfield on the first Sunday of 2003.
In 2000 it was common
to see solid sets of SP C44's on the hotshot Z trains, such as this
southbound crossing Salmon Creek above Oakridge.
In the October 2002,
the McCloud River Railroad ran a series of fall color excursions out of
McCloud, California. The lack of snow on towering Mt. Shasta testifies
to the lateness of the season and the dryness of the year.
Painted in American
Freedom Train colors, SP 4449 leads an excursion up the Deschutes River
Canyon at Trout Creek in spring, 2002.