A funny looking forest

One of the busiest rail lines around is the route between Mojave and Bakersfield, California that passes through the town of Tehachapi. It is a mountain railroad, crossing the southern end of the Sierra range, with plenty of tunnels, curves, and the famous loop where the track crosses over itself in a loop to obtain elevation. This mostly single track line hosts trains from both the UP and BNSF, and is the major rail link between northern and southern California.

Despite the fact that this is a mountain railroad, there aren't many trees to be seen. The east end has Joshua trees, the west some oaks. For the most part the terrain is bare. That makes these wind turbines that cover the hillsides stand out even more. This is a high wind area, which makes it ideal for wind power generation. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of turbines covering the ridges along the east end of the line. I like them, think they add scenic interest.

View on a bridge

This is the kind of shot the guys from yesterday were going for. The northbound Coast Starlight, running about 4 hours late, crossing the Salt Creek trestle. I'm sure anyone looking out the windows would have wondered about the crazy guys standing in the cold and snow. My own experience was that it is nice to be inside the train, cozy, warm, and dry.

On one of my cross country train trips from LA to New York I  followed a cold front across the country. The weather was quite nice at Albuquerque, but by the time we reached northern New Mexico the temperature had fallen precipitously. It got so cold so fast that the tracks broke apart in several places from the temperature change, delaying my train. By Chicago the next day it was downright frigid.   The train was an hour late getting out of the windy city, and by the time it reached Buffalo the next morning was 7 hours down. Buffalo was in the middle of one of their lake effect blizzards, and visibility was non existent. I could see just far enough off the train to see the streets empty of traffic, nothing moving. Amtrak was the only thing going. I was very glad to be in a nice warm sleeper!

Waiting for a train

In honor(?) of our first major winter storm of the season, here are some intrepid railfans braving the elements in their quest for the white. We're at the bottom of the Salt Creek trestle, east of Oakridge. IIRC, the day was cold and blustery, with the snow starting just above Oakridge. This was as far as we ventured, road conditions being bad above this point. From the left are Anthony Elkins, Dan Sheets, and Matt Robbins. I'm behind the camera.

Big steam in action!

I've previously blogged about the Southern (and Norfolk Southern) excursion program of the 1980s and early 90s. In 1991 my buddy and I took off on our annual summer railfan trip to the midwest. We timed it so that we would be seeing four steam excursion trains in the week we were on the road. That was pretty amazing!

The first day of our journey west we started in Buffalo, NY. The Norfolk Southern was running their big A class, the 1218, on an excursion to Albion, Pennsylvania and back. The 1218 was built in 1943 at the Norfolk & Western Railway's shop in Roanoke, Virginia. It was designed to haul coal from the mines of Appalachia to tidewater in Virginia. The railroad retired it from active service in 1959, but the NS rebuilt it for excursion service  in 1987, and used it to pull passengers throughout the system until 1992.

This video captures some of the excitement of big steam in operation. But to get the total effect, you really have to be trackside. Only there will you feel the ground shake, smell the burning coal, and get cinders in your face!

Artsy

In September 2007 the Operation Life Saver train paid a visit to Eugene. OLS is a cooperative effort between the railroads and law enforcement groups to publicize grade crossing safety. The UP supports OLS by running a set of their restored vintage passenger equipment around the entire system, giving rides to the public and garnering publicity for the cause.

I captured the train in the glinty light of morning, sitting at the Eugene station. The golden glow of the early sun gives the train a surreal look.

A more normal view of the train:

Fast trains

The US is way behind most other countries in high speed rail (among other things). There are many reasons for this, too many to get into here. The only "high speed" trains in the country are the Acela trainsets in the northeast corridor between Washington DC and Boston, and they max out at around 150 MPH. Almost every other passenger operation pokes along at a maximum speed of 79.

In the mid 1970s New York State was at the forefront of trying to upgrade rail service. The state invested in the rehabilitation of trackage for freight service statewide. They also upgraded sections of track on the New York City - Buffalo corridor to allow 110 MPH opearation. Since conventional locomotive hauled equipment wasn't capable of these speeds, the state purchased a number of gas turbine powered trainsets capable of the higher speed. They were based on a French design, but built in the US.

I liked these trains a lot. Whenever I had the chance to ride one, I did. They featured large windows, comfortable seats, and rode very smoothly on the rebuilt trackage. I even talked my way into a cab ride one time. That was a thrill. Watching out the front window as the speedometer read 110MPH was pretty exciting. It was even a little frightening at times, since the route had some at grade road crossings and you never knew if drivers were going to stay out of your way! By the 2000s the trains were showing their age, and the state spent millions to rebuild them. Unfortunately they never saw service, victims of political infighting between Amtrak and the state.

I captured this turbo near Rochester, NY in the autumn of 1981. Though it is only going 79, it whizzed by me pretty quickly.

Another turbine powered train was tried for high speed service. This was an American design, not as successful. After a very short career in the US in the late 1960s, the trainsets were sold to Canada, who kept them running into the mid-80s. My buddy and I rode them a couple of times and found out that they had so many problems a mechanic rode every trip. It was fun to ride, since they had a raised "dome" on each end where you could sit right behind the engineer. The were no walls between the cars, so on a curve you could watch the inside twist and turn. We called it the "worm train".

Colorful

Some of the more interesting trainsets to come through Eugene in recent years have been the Canadian grain trains. These unit trains were made up of long strings of covered jumbo hopper cars, filled with grain from the prairies of the Canadian west bound for California. They were a joint operation with the Canadian Pacific Railroad, who frequently provided their own locomotives. This made for a colorful consist, with CP red and leased blue units mixed in with UP yellow.

On one of our trips up the hill, we captured a set just outside of Westir, Oregon.

Typical jumbo hopper: