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All content © 2006- by Alexander B. Craghead, except where otherwise noted.
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Saturday, December 22, 2007
2007: Ten Best Images
Blair over at Under the Weather recently posted his ten favorite shots from 2007. As Blair said over on Obscar, "I'd like to see what others consider their favorites of the year, and why they chose 'em." Labels: Photography, Portland, Railroads, Transportation
So, here's mine. The order is chronological, and clicking on the image will yield a larger image. If some of them appear soft, mea cupla, I'm still a filmie, and my scanner leaves much to be desired.
1.
The first shot is from the Portland & Western's Newberg District, also known as the Rex Hill line. Here, a westbound -- by SP parlance -- welded rail train, led by PNWR 1853, rounds a curve near Chehalem Station on its way downgrade from the summit.
Rex is an oddball, mountain grades in the middle of the Willamette Valley, a legacy from a narrow-gauge would-be empire that Southern Pacific swallowed in the 19th century. But what an oddity! Within a short drive of Portland, every day, SP SD9s and SD40T-2s ground up Rex, and then glided back down again with the telltale mechanical whine of their dynamic brakes roaring away.
In 1995, PNWR picked up the line, making it an integral part of their operations, but it was not meant to last. Combining parts of SP's branchlines with branches taken over from Burlington Northern, Rex went silent, victim of a new, better, lower gradient route to the south.
I thought I would never have a chance to see the storied hill that was in my backyard the whole time. But construction on the lower Oregon Electric route resulted in detours over Rex, including this welded rail train, bound for the Seghers District. Could anything be more emblematic of the PNWR? Welded rail, bound for upgrading a branchline, being transported over a branchline that they've shut down.
2.
A small switcher, waiting to cross Yeon Avenue in Northwest Portland, the Freemont Bridge soaring through the gloomy skies in the background. It seems like something out of the 1970s or 1980s, but it still happens today -- if you're lucky enough to catch it.
And indeed it was luck that, while giving the "grand tour" to my friend Seth the reluctant Californian, we ran into the BNSF switch crew working the old 12th Street yard (that is actually closer to 27th Street). The switchman hanging off the front pilot is getting off to go push a button on the signal case that will activate the warning lights over Yeon, allowing them to cross and enter Lakeyard.
We waited and watched them go all the way in. Seth was wearing a Union Pacific Steam Program hat he'd got from somewhere, and when the engineer saw us, he pointed to his head, then made a thumbs down gesture out the window, smiling all the while. We were, after all, not in Harriman territory.
3.
TriMet is widely known for stylish smart design on its MAX light rail line. Not all ideas, however, work out so well. Station platforms on the original east-side route were not built to accommodate growth and change, and so have had to be torn into to rewire in the past. Trains still use antiquated catenary hangars on the Steel Bridge that date back to the Portland Traction system of the 1940s and '50s.
This image, taken in midsummer, shows another of the not-so-successful designs, a stylish stainless-steel receptacle for recyclable trash. The idea was to keep dumpster-divers from opening up trash cans in order to score aluminum cans and the like. The general public, however, never seemed to see them as anything other than decoration.
4.
In July I finally had a chance to "meet" fellow photographer Scott Lothes. He and I had been conversing via email for years, during which time Scott went from Midwesterner to being a resident of northern Japan. Now, though, he was returning to the states, and on his way home was passing through Portland.
For a few hours, we walked about the vaunted Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade. This mostly floating walkway continues the tradition of naming major infrastructure in Oregon after still living (and in some cases still serving!) politicians. Anyway, we had walked out to the end of a floating dock (with no boats, big surprise) in order to get a better side shot of the Union Pacific's Steel Bridge.
At the end of that dock was this gate. I don't think it was part of the officially approved public art program. But I could be wrong.
5.
Later in the month came a trip east to visit the Sumpter Valley Railway. On the way, our party had time to kill, so we took a side-route via Walla Walla. Once again, I was in good graces with luck, and we found a local on the Palouse & Coulee City branch up from Walulla. Here is an eastbound grain empty headed to Stateline for loading, climbing up grade near Touchet.
Something about this photograph captures in shorthand the entire region, from the sweeping vista to the "forest" of windmills on the distant ridge. The dichotomy of "not-in-my-backyard" public policy and natural beauty seems breathtaking.
6.
This view is of McEwen, on the Sumpter Valley, taken from the top of a dredge tailing pile. What struck me when I saw this image was how much it looked like it could be a hundred years ago. Nothing obviously screams 2007. And yet it wasn't taken with that intention. It's not my usual style, and it has a bit of a model railroad feel to it, but I can't help but enjoy the image nonetheless.
7.
Anyone with a passing familiarity with my photographic tastes knows I love signs. It should be no surprise, then that this one -- along the scrappy (but not scrap yet!) City of Prineville Railroad -- caught my eye. I love how they just restenciled a new sign right over the old one.
8.
August saw me make a pilgrimage to the Midwest once more. This time, I took a jaunt into Cleveland with my friends Brian & Duane. Among the shots that emerged was this publicity-style image, taken off the closed Broadway Avenue bridge. Below, an eastbound train passes on the Norfolk Southern's ex-Nickel Plate Cleveland District. To the right is the heavy rail line of the RTA, headed towards Terminal Tower in the background.
9.
The towns of the Midwest are depressing yet fascinating. So many have boarded up storefronts, and an air of defeat. Yet in the gloom, some towns find strange ways of waving the flag of community pride. In Corunna, Indiana, the locals painted the antiquated State Route 327 bridge a patriotic star-spangled blue. Below is the the Norfolk Southern's ex-New York Central Chicago Line, on which a westbound NS train barrels towards us.
Interestingly, this is a bit of a cursed spot. There have been two major derailments here in the past five years, yet both times the bridge has survived. Brian tells a story of having overheard a train calling to another over the radio as they passed, asking about the near collision with the span:Train one: "You guys about took that bridge out last week, I heard!"
Train two: "We'll aim better next year!"
10.
Lastly, a classic image of life at Portland's venerable Union Station. The Italianate, castle-like structure is the oldest continually operating union station west of St. Louis, having opened in 1896. Although she doesn't see nearly the hundred or so trains a day she once did, the structure routinely serves lines of passengers on Amtrak's popular Cascades service to Seattle and Eugene. Typical Portland: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Well, that's it for this year. And 2008? Probably a lot fewer rail subjects, and a few more highway ones. But who knows?
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Alexander,
Great stuff! My two favorites were the star-spangled bridge and the shot towards Touchet. Great country, and it makes me long to go back there. The rest of em weren't too shabby, either! That BNSF switch job in the street? Mind-blowing!
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