Post by TrainboySD40-2 on May 15, 2007 0:47:24 GMT -5
As usual, I'll be posting only the fairly good/interesting ones. I took over 550 pictures this vacation, and several videos, which I plan to upload...slowly....
The first train I encountered was a normal westbound Potash with 2 GEs on the head and two midtrain helpers that came through in the five minutes of sunlight I saw!
The first train I encountered on day 2 (When it got sunny) was a very special unit - 5863. Unfortunately, it wasn't sunny yet.
By this time, the sun was struggling out of the clouds.
Day three: Chased a random Kelowna Pacific train from Vernon to Armstrong on a whim. Got some interesting action there....pity it wasn't sunny.
Day four was when the REAL railfanning started. Walked a good ten miles to find a KPR freight switching at Lumby Junction near Vernon.
Caught an Okanagan Valley M420W 3550 (Nee Hudson Bay 3550, ex- CN 2550) working the OVR yard in Vernon.
That day, there was an absolutely spectacular sunset
The next morning, we sadly had to depart.....
Overnight, we stayed in a motel in Castlegar that we had discovered a few years back, and had vague memories of a scheduled freight train coming by. Turns out, things haven't changed a bit!
That afternoon (Day five, by the way) we found the abandoned Nelson facilities. Once the proud home of CP's spectacular F-M/CLC fleet, it's now a bunch of boarded-up and fenced-off buildings....
There are many more broken windows than intact ones in the old shops.
Then we stayed overnight on Kootenay Lake, then popped down through customs into NW Montana (Near Libby). Since when were customs so downright creepy? There was a brief stop at Kootenai Falls.
We followed the BNSF fruitlessly until Whitefish, where we camped next to what turned out to be a whistle post...I got a few twilight pics, but unfortunately, the sight lines on westbounds are terrible, and though the evening light suited them, all the pictures sucked.
then I got up early in the morning to catch the eastbound Empire Builder, which I then chased to the Whitefish station. (I must be the only person to successfully chase the Builder on a bike!
There was also a pair of RC locos switching the west end of the yard.
Ever seen the Bruck? It's a GN bus at Whitefish, used to transport passengers to a from Kalispell to Whitefish to catch the Builder.
Then I popped back to my campground, got in a couple trains before leaving.
Then, this being the final day, we headed east over Marias.
When we got to the summit, I was ecstatic to see a pair of SD40-2s - Turned out the autorack train had picked up a pair of helpers!
We then caught up with the headend
Then we raced east to get to the bridge over the Two Medicine at East Glacier before the train. Luckily, we didn't need to - But we did arrive early enough to catch a westbound there.
Then, after a long wait (Deep into private property, having crawled under two barbed wire fences to get there!) the autorack train came, sans pushers.
Unfortunately, this was the point where we turned north and headed home....
One last thing: Most of these pics are still 'rough', in other words, moderately edited, but not polished yet. Try to imagine them straighter, sharper, and better cropped!
The first train I encountered was a normal westbound Potash with 2 GEs on the head and two midtrain helpers that came through in the five minutes of sunlight I saw!
The first train I encountered on day 2 (When it got sunny) was a very special unit - 5863. Unfortunately, it wasn't sunny yet.
By this time, the sun was struggling out of the clouds.
Day three: Chased a random Kelowna Pacific train from Vernon to Armstrong on a whim. Got some interesting action there....pity it wasn't sunny.
Day four was when the REAL railfanning started. Walked a good ten miles to find a KPR freight switching at Lumby Junction near Vernon.
Caught an Okanagan Valley M420W 3550 (Nee Hudson Bay 3550, ex- CN 2550) working the OVR yard in Vernon.
That day, there was an absolutely spectacular sunset
The next morning, we sadly had to depart.....
Overnight, we stayed in a motel in Castlegar that we had discovered a few years back, and had vague memories of a scheduled freight train coming by. Turns out, things haven't changed a bit!
That afternoon (Day five, by the way) we found the abandoned Nelson facilities. Once the proud home of CP's spectacular F-M/CLC fleet, it's now a bunch of boarded-up and fenced-off buildings....
There are many more broken windows than intact ones in the old shops.
Then we stayed overnight on Kootenay Lake, then popped down through customs into NW Montana (Near Libby). Since when were customs so downright creepy? There was a brief stop at Kootenai Falls.
We followed the BNSF fruitlessly until Whitefish, where we camped next to what turned out to be a whistle post...I got a few twilight pics, but unfortunately, the sight lines on westbounds are terrible, and though the evening light suited them, all the pictures sucked.
then I got up early in the morning to catch the eastbound Empire Builder, which I then chased to the Whitefish station. (I must be the only person to successfully chase the Builder on a bike!
There was also a pair of RC locos switching the west end of the yard.
Ever seen the Bruck? It's a GN bus at Whitefish, used to transport passengers to a from Kalispell to Whitefish to catch the Builder.
Then I popped back to my campground, got in a couple trains before leaving.
Then, this being the final day, we headed east over Marias.
When we got to the summit, I was ecstatic to see a pair of SD40-2s - Turned out the autorack train had picked up a pair of helpers!
We then caught up with the headend
Then we raced east to get to the bridge over the Two Medicine at East Glacier before the train. Luckily, we didn't need to - But we did arrive early enough to catch a westbound there.
Then, after a long wait (Deep into private property, having crawled under two barbed wire fences to get there!) the autorack train came, sans pushers.
Unfortunately, this was the point where we turned north and headed home....
One last thing: Most of these pics are still 'rough', in other words, moderately edited, but not polished yet. Try to imagine them straighter, sharper, and better cropped!