I had to pull the Way-Back Machine out of the closet and hit it a couple of times to get it working again, but I wanted to rework this old slide of the eastbound James Whitcomb Riley crossing Broad Street in Griffith, IN back in February of 1976. E9A 412 leads two more E's and a decent looking consist past the crossing guard, taking us back to the former glory of Griffith. The 412 once belonged to the Union Pacific, but now belongs to the ages. In other words, it was scrapped, but that sounds so cruel. I rescanned the old Ektachrome at a higher resolution and cleaned it up a bit, but sadly, I couldn't do anything about the lousy weather.
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Union Pacific westbound, led by UP 4512, a nice looking SD70M, is leaving Echo Canyon behind him, and headed west on a fine late September afternoon. The UP has become a nice diversion on my travels between Indiana and Oregon. One neat thing is that I seem to see more SD70Ms than I do in ChicagoLand, something I won't complain about. Between I-80 and Route 30, there are quite a few opportunities to see Armour Yellow action. And you don't have to wait. It seems like they come to you, as long as you're headed west at about 80 mph (or more). What, do I speed?
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If you're ever traveling west through Utah on I-80, make sure to take a break at the Echo Canyon rest stop, even if you're not sleepy. Take one of the several trails that lead to the red cliffs that Utah is known for, and look down. The sight is amazing, and if you're lucky, you might see a Union Pacific freight threading its way through the canyon. I was fortunate enough to catch two westbounds in less than 30 minutes. The UP was running trains like it was in the business of moving America's freight, oh wait, that motto belongs to CSX. Anyway, here's the second train that I was able to catch, led by a fairly clean SD70M. And yes, I was well rested and ready to start the chase.
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I apologize to Crosby, Stills, and Nash for borrowing their song to title this slide, but I'm finally getting sleepy and my brain has had it for the day. It's 315am and I have no reason to still be up, so here I am. I pulled out this night shot from March of 2023 to brighten my spirits. Uh, well any who, I don't see that many Death Stars in my new surroundings in the PNW, and I miss them. I think the class unit, IC 1000, makes a fine reminiscing scene as it closes in on Kirk Yard. It's passing Miller Street in Griffith here.
And now you've got me dreaming, girl. It's been so long, I thought I'd forgotten how...
Good night
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So, it was pretty much agreed that the control car that came with the Talgo train set used by Amtrak's Cascades service wasn't exactly appealing. Here's the alternative, an Amtrak cabbage car. I'll give it the nod over what that other thing is called, but not by much. You'll notice that the talgo cars are missing, too. You don't really see that much of them. So far, the majority of the time the train runs with Amtrak cars, a Charger painted for the Cascades, and a cabbage car, painted for either Amtrak or Cascades. To make matters worse, sometimes, they'll sneak in an Amtrak P-boat, in the old scheme, no less. Add to the fact that all the trees block the sun. Yes, they do have trees out here, BIG trees everywhere. This is the southbound coming into Canby, OR, my new home to be.
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