I spent last Saturday running on the Snake River RR with a few of my cronies. Here is Jens’ “City of Spirit Lake.”
I couldn’t get the helo pilot to fly any lower.[:D] Warren Mumpower’s Amtrak GP 38 is pulling a string of cars across New Bridge over the Snake River Canyon.
It is harvest season in the Columbia Basin. GN 2042, an R2 2-8-8-2 is pulling one of countless unit grain trains, heading east over the Snake River Canyon. It is a bumper crop, and many cars that normally don’t carry grain have been steam cleaned and pressed into service to carry the load.
Curious. This car seems to get around.
High above the Snake River, #463 leased from the D&RGW pulls a load up to Camp 17. Up here the trees are so big that a metal bridge is required. Three previous wooden trestles were crushed under the load.
Number 463 waits on a siding for the highball. Note the complete absence of ballast on this hastily laid track. Logging track usually doesn’t stay in one place long enough to get ballast. Note also that there has been a partial washout under the track just ahead of the pilot. You have to be brave (or stupid)(or desperate for money) to be in train service in the logging camps of the Snake River.
As we leave you, the 2 Spot and #463 head for the barn at the end of a long day. The 2 Spot is a 2-8-0 that was recently overhauled in the Barry’s Big Train Shops and her pulling power was increased dramatically. Hans Niermann owns the 463 and Joe MacDermott owns the 2 Spot.
