My friend and I will have a couple days in the greater Portland area in August to do some railfanning. We'd like to know what's around there. We are interested in the following: Shortlines, especially yards and loco facilities or stored locos. Industrial locos Musuems Displays of diesels, steam or critters. Hot spots for UP or BNSF. Thanks for any help or suggestions you may have.
John, you can't possibly do Portland in a couple of days. I have lived in Oregon for almost 11 years and still haven't found all of the neat places, though have found some. For me, as a steam nut, the Brooklyn roundhouse is the center of Portland. There you will find the SP&S 700, the SP 4449, the ORN 197, plus all the diesels like a PA, FA, F40PHR, F7, RS5 and more. Then there's the P&W. Within driving range UP and BNSF yards and mains, the Columbia River Gorge, the most beautiful backdrop for RR photos that I have ever seen. It just goes on and on. Bring this back up when your trip is imminent. :teeth: BTW, congratulations on 2,000 posts!
One place I discovered by accident is across the Columbia River in Vancouver, WA, where the UP ad BNSF cross the river on a swing bridge, and the BNSF (ex-BN) joins the line along the north bank. Amtrak has a depot there at the wye, and besides freight trains you can shoot the Coast Starlights, the Portland section of the Empire Builder, and the Cascades, which at their longest run between Vancouver, BC and Eugene, OR. In the suburb of Milwaukie, OR, you can find the Oregon Pacific, a shortline that runs 5 miles from the UP interchange at East Portland down to the OP shops and several shippers. They also run an SW1 for power, plus have an amazing assortment of critters (including two GE 80--tonners and an EMD NW5) sitting around. They also use an SW1200 painted in the OP red & white colors. This line is used by the ORHF for their Holiday Express steam runs, which feature SP&S 700 and SP 4449. If you like rapid transit, MAX has light rail in the area. I never shot around Brooklyn Yard, or found where PNWR ran into & out of, but the latter regional is quite busy in & around Portland, running south on either an ex-SP line or the former Oregon Electric line. I have some pics in my Oregon Shortlines and Oregon Class 1 Shots Railimages albums to whet your whistle. Besides such folks as Scott Stutzman of Salem and Jim Fitzgerald of Waldoport, there are a couple of sites on Yahoo to help- PNWR and Northwest Rails. Hope this helps- I was in Salem, OR over the winter, and did a little research before chasing trains in Oregon and around Portland. I regret not having time to get around Portland more, or over the ex-SP south of Eugene.
The Vancouver Amtrak station is a great location. Also, I like to go up Milplain a bit and catch trains as they enter the yard.
Oh boy... I live in Portland and have for most of my 33 years and I don't feel like I have exhausted the possibilities, yet. I second the other suggestions. I happen to like yards and stations quite a bit. I would go downtown to Union Station and get out and stretch your legs a little inside and out. They get pretty uptight about walking out onto the concourse without a ticket, but there is a footbridge right over the tracks that you can reach from just south of the station, and you can catch views of Amtrak, UP, BNSF, and the occasional Portland & Western here. If you have map, find Interstate Avenue and then find Overlook Park. It's near some Kaiser clinics. From here you can see over most of the operations of the UP Albina Yard. This one is hard to miss because there is a big smokestack that says UNION PACIFIC on it. I like to go what everyone in the neighborhood calls the rail cut here in my neighborhood. If you can find your way on a map to Lombard St follow it out toward the end of the North Portland peninsula. Near the intersection of Lombard and Gilbert is a big rail cut. It's technically BNSF, but you can catch Amtrak, UP, BNSF, and Portland & Western here, too. The tracks lead to a center lift bridge (which used to be a swing-span) over the Willamette, which then lead to the BNSF yard on the other side of the river and also connect to the line going up through Linnton, Goble, Rainier, Astoria, etc. Heading the other way, the tracks cross the Columbia Slough and then some flat land and then over the Columbia River into Vancouver. There's tons of stuff. I could go on for days. I live in Portland, and, depending on when you are here in August I might be here to help you on your railfanning and direction-finding. Feel free to send me a private message if you are interested, and bring a bunch of maps that you don't mind getting marked up. I would recommend and Oregon map and a Portland one for starters.
Excellent guys!! Thanks!!! We had planned for the Portland & Western as well as the Oregon Pacific(some great threads in the shortline forum!) Thought about the Brooklyn Roundhouse but I've heard there is no public access. Is this true?? I like the couple hotspots you fellas mention and had even thought of heading over the river to Vancouver myself. Are there any loco facilities/yards for the P&W?? Perhaps Willbridge yard?? How bout the Portland Terminal?? Anybody got info?? How bout the Columbia & Cowlitz near Kelso,WA?? Yard or facilities nearby?? I've got a Delorme Oregon Atlas & Gazetteer, the Pacific Northwest issue of Steam Powered Video's Railroad Atlas and of course maps for Oregon and Portland. Just trying to get some more ideas goin. I'll also be cataloging steamers and critters listed on other sites to see how many we can find and photograph. SteamDonkey, you may just recieve a pm as we get closer to finalizing plans. We will be digital capable so can upload/email photos when we return. Anybody got anything they are just dying to get a pic of?? We may be able to take special requests.
John, You can get to the Brooklyn roundhouse still,Ya just have to know how to get to it.(A must see!) Now the Portland Terminal on the other hand,Well they are pretty touchy about people taking pictures these days. I'm pretty sure the Portland & Western shops are at Albany about 1hr south. I do recommend Vancouver Station and the north end of Vancouver yard. Give me a yell. Maybe we could all meet?
Albany is the center for all things P&W. Also, I recommend heading out to Beaverton and Points west. You can see regular operations of the P&W and it's connection with The Port of Tillimook bay. I guess this is the old Oregon Electric? You can also follow the tracks to Forest Grove and Gaston. Finally, the connection goes through a mountain pass where that tunnel fire was a few months back and connects up with the line to Astoria. There was at least one daylight train a day on this part of the line and there's a small yard along TV highway. Finally, this line meets up with the MAX train for the trip into the city and they're building a connecting commuter service along part of these tracks. So there's much to see. Also, I second the Railroad cut in St. Johns. I loved that location and if you explore a little as you head north, there's a lot of rail activity following the port of Portland Piers.
DEFINITELY stop in Albany to shoot PNWR action. MAtter of fact, you could hop off the I-road in Eugene & follow the PNWR/UP line north & catch whatever comes along as you head north. In Albany, you'll catch the yard on the south side of town along 99E (IIRC), and you'll catch SD7 1501 (still in grimy SP paint but with W&P and PNWR lettering) performing switching chores. SD9s, GP39-2s, GP35Ms, SD45 are some of the power you'll see at the "squarehouse". If you're lucky, you may see DLMX SF40C 644 (an ex-Amtrak SDP40F in powder blue & silver, the so-called Maersk engine) that was rebuilt by Santa Fe in the 80s). An oddball, sure, but it loads up & pulls tonnage, so PNWR uses it. ALbany is where PNWR trains head out to the Westside line, up the Oregon Electric (former BN, nee SP&S), or west to Coos Bay. You could spend days just pacing this railroad by itself. ANd if you decide to stay on 99E north of Salem, you'll run across the Willamette Valley RR at Woodburn and the Oregon Pacific's Liberal Branch at Canby, plus parallel the former SP all the way to Oregon City and I-205. (That's just me- I use I-roads to get somewhere fast, and the side highways to railfan)
P&W system map http://members.trainorders.com/dan.sheets/Map/View_Map/view_map.html This is off a railfan site, and it seems pretty accurate but there may have been small changes in the system since it was made. If you want some PNWR/WPRR action, I strongly recommend Albany Yard as well. I have heard that railfans are not always welcome because a few bad apples have swiped airhorns and a builder's plate. You can get pretty good views in some places from just outside the railyard, however. Adam
I'm sure things have changed. But my favorite place used to be near the PTRR tower north of US. You were surrounded by action. Hoyt Street facilities, SP, ATK, BN, UP, PTRR, etc. Boxcab E50
Yep, been to Albany. They were very friendly to us. Course we asked permission first and they let us have free reign as long as we didn't cross any tracks. I was just wondering if they kept or serviced any locos further north. Plans also tenatively include the Willamette Valley and Albany & Eastern. Further south we also plan to stop by the WCTU and CORP. Basically we have a week and want to shoot as many locos from as many roads or displays as possible. Our last trip to Eugene, Corvallis and Albany was spectacular!! Now we are extending our range a bit.
Sadly, the Hoyt Street facilities were obliterated to make way for redevelopment. I used to go walk back and forth on the Lovejoy viaduct just to watch trains. Union Station is still there. There's some trackage through there, of course, but a lot of what was is no longer.
PTRR yard tower I must confess that I do not know which is the PTRR yard tower. I am sure I remember seeing it. Can you give me some idea where it is or was and I will check? There was a whole lot of fun, cool stuff near Union Station that is no longer there. The Steel Bridge with its rail-dedicated lower deck is there (ODOT and the local transit agency actually lease the top deck from the UP). There is an old switching tower that is mostly boarded up just southeast of Union Station. A lot of that neat stuff near Union Station has been obliterated for redevelopment into condos for people with lots of money. Adam
I believe the tower referenced above, is down by the RR bridge which took trains over to Brooklyn Yard. Can't think of a name for it. The PTRR tower was just north of US. A street dead ended there. Hoyt Street was just across that road (west) from the tower. The round house would have been SW of the PTRR tower. Just a few hundred feet away. Boxcab E50
Dang, wish my agency would get me another traveling gig over that way- I had a blast last time I was out there! Still have lots of the PNWR to chase and shoot, plus I never got up to the BNSF yard in Vancouver, altho it looked like from where I was standing at the depot, I wasn't far away.
Man it would be cool to get Scott, SteamDonkey, myself and Jeff and maybe a few others together for some shootin! My only thought is Jeff and I will be there midweek so it might interfere with some work schedules. Maybe we could work out an afternoon/evening shoot and some dinner.
After the BN merger, that yard was quite interesting! You could see a fair amount of ex-SP&S ALCo power. And more. Boxcab E50
