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CONTRIBUTING EDITOR JAMES D. PORTERFIELD


COLUMNISTS


ALEXANDER B. CRAGHEAD THOMAS KELCEC GREG MONROE GEORGE M. SMERK JEFFREY D. TERRY WES VERNON


SUNSET ON PROVIDENCE HILL, NEAR BEATRICE, WASHINGTON, 2005. PHOTO BY ALEXANDER B. CRAGHEAD The Unforeseen Rewards


THE LENGTHS A RAILFAN WILL GO TO TO GET A specific photograph can sometimes be tax- ing. Many a journey begins with a pre-dawn departure, a bleary-eyed scramble to grab cameras, maps, other paraphernalia and hit the road. Breakfast is often candy-coated coffee and whatever “heat lamp cuisine” is available from a gas station, followed by miles and miles of driving.


Such sacrifices, however, are often neces- sary in order to reach a specific photograph- ic target. This might be when a particular job on the railroad goes on duty, or to set up at a location for specific combination of ge- ography and light. Yet the experience is a joy of its own, even for non-photographers. One of the most entertaining tasks is to ride shotgun, with a big DeLorme atlas in your lap, trying to outthink the railroad and play- ing navigator. With multiple factors to bal- ance — traffic and routes, train schedules, imperfect knowledge of the railroad, target locations, it’s a kind of game, like a cross be- tween amateur rally racing and railfanning. One trip I recall was a 2005 attempt to catch an already departed outbound BNSF “Z” train from Portland, Ore., in the dawn light at the eastern end of the Columbia Riv- er Gorge. This was no easy target: “Z” trains, which take their nickname from the first let- ter of their train symbol, are the highest pri- ority freights on BNSF, and rarely get de- layed in sidings for meets. Ours, the Z-PTLCHI-1, was a mixture of trailers-on- flatcar and containers headed for Chicago — and fast.


Thanks to some careful and determined driving, we made it to a highway bridge over the railroad and the river at The Dalles just in time to capture images of this eastbound intermodal train in the brilliant dawn light, with the shining white flanks of 11,234 foot high Mount Hood pasted in the sky above and behind it. Surely this dramatic back- drop made our efforts worthwhile.


4 AUGUST 2012 • RAILFAN.COM


Yet this photograph was hardly unique — the same view at the same time of day has been done hundreds if not thousands of times by countless others. Atop that, the lo- comotives on the head end were a mismatch of colors and levels of maintenance. This is actually typical of such trips, and a reason not to fret if that first special target is a miss. Often, the best images of a hard- core, crack-of-dawn railfan trip come at the end of the day, when you are tired, full of bad road food, and simply responding to what is around you.


On that 2005 trip, the best photographs came as our small group sat out the sunset at the top of Providence Hill, where the old Northern Pacific high iron rises over the hump between Spokane and the Columbia River at Pasco. The treeless rolling hills were awash in wheat and wild grass, while cresting over the hill, a manifest freight be- hind four blocky General Electric locomo- tives heaved into view, cutting across the bleak horizon. All caught the edge of the dy- ing sun in rouge and flame and gold. In that last quarter-of-an-hour of day, at a bleak spot the NP named Beatrice, the pho- tographs we made were not planned. For- tune or fate, it was a random happenstance of celestial position, railroad operations, and geography colliding here in the grains of eastern Washington. Our attempt to catch a specific target — that morning’s “Z” — had lead us here, to the unforeseen reward. Today, gas prices continue to increase, making these sorts of long-haul railfan day trips more and more difficult to execute. Don’t let that discourage you. Trust me, these trips are still worth it.


Alexander B. Craghead is a writer, photog- rapher, watercolorist, and self-described “transportation geek” from Portland, Ore. You can reach out to Alex on our web site at www.railfan.com/departures.


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