Hi everyone! Here's the picks for the week. jwb3 on Tehachapi Hardcoaler with a (wood)chip train ridinshotgun with some worn looking power co_riff with a CSX switcher YoHo with some UP diesels r_i_straw with a Burlington 4-6-0 Mike VE2TRV with a CP C424 BuddyBurton on the Iowa Northern Jim Wiggin with an Iowa Pacific dome and one from my recent trip to the Black Hills
Good weather gets railfans off their tether! Very good selections for sure (better than my attempt at rhyming...).
Ha ha ha! Sun was out today and I even got out for just a few minutes. Wasn't in good enough shape to do any serious chasing, but was able to check out a couple of local scenes.
I haven't been railfanning in a long time but I found myself in the Moscow Idaho area last week and caught this train passing through Princeton Idaho. I believe this is the Washington and Idaho Railroad. The engine is Bountiful Grain and Craig Mountain RR. Tom L Wellington CO
More good stuff from all of you. That Tehachapi shot, is it recent? Seems just a short time ago it was very green there. Has it dried up that fast? And Will, let's see more Black Hills.
I don't know anything about the rail scene around here, but I was surprised to see a train, they must be infrequent and I was just driving around looking at old grain elevators and depots! He was pushing a couple of empty center beam cars east to the forest products mill at the end of the line, using a UP caboose in the lead. They then switched out a couple of other (empty) center beam cars and pulled them back west, leaving the caboose at the mill. Seemed odd that they would exchange empties for empties and leave the caboose. I followed him west to Potlatch, where they dropped the cars on the "main" track in front of the depot and then shut the engine off. The engineer stayed in the cab though, while the other crewman took off. I hung out a while but had to leave before they moved again. I assume they were taking a lunch break before heading west to Palouse. Tom L
What you've described does seem to be a bit unusual. Where did you find grain elevators? Any other interesting structures, RR, or?
I was surprised that most of the towns around and including Moscow have well maintained elevators still in use, although few are still rail served. One of the most interesting little towns I came across was Kendrick ID. The former Northern Pacific right of way is now a bike path (just 5 miles to Julietta). Unfortunately the depot is gone, but there is an interpretive sign that shows how it looked back in the day. I saw what I think was the footings for the water tank. Here are photos of the grain elevator and a feed mill. Both in use and in good shape. I fought forest fires in this area 25 years ago and have always thought it to be a really nice around here. Tom L
