Saturday, November 16, 2024

CBRW Between Warden And Bruce

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:

"Between Warden and Bruce, Washington, the next "station" south going to Connell on the Columbia Basin Railroad, there isn't a lot of road access. A handful of farm roads, including the "10 road," at the south end of Warden past the cemetery.

"The 10 road is your standard two-lane gravel road; after passing the cemetery is a gate, left open, with a lock on it. I didn't want to get locked in, and a little past that, at a tranformer station, a hard hat leaving in his pickup truck assured me he wasn't going to lock the gate with me behind it.

"I drove down to the end of the road, which crossed the former NP, then the former Milwaukee Road mainline, and an irrigation canal. A home was at the very end, with an interesting porch looking over the Milwaukee.

"I turned around and decided to shoot the CBRW train from off a little hill as it moved through an S-curve departing the yard, an alignment that replaced the original fill and flyover of the Milwaukee when BN consolidated trackage here post 1980.

"A guy in a white sedan soon left the house heading out on errands. He stopped and I talked to him. You won't lock me in behind you, will you? I'm just here photographing the railroad. Will only be a few minutes, i told him.

"The railroad? Thanks for letting me know. Those folks at that farm nearby"--the other side of the tracks--"grow marijuana and are pretty paranoid about people with cameras." It was then the skunky smell in the air made sense. He said he'd call them and let them know.

"Even so--they WERE paranoid. "NO PICTURES! PRIVATE PROPERTY" they yelled. I yelled back, telling them "TRAIN PHOTOGRAPHER! WILL BE LEAVING SOON!" They left me alone after that, and I got the shot of the train departing Warden.

"I'm sure they REALLY would have gone apeshit if they saw I was flying a drone here as well!"


 

3 comments:

Kurt Moose said...

Nice pic!!

There's always a story to go with Blair's pics, lol!!

Love it!

SDP45 said...

I might have been standing next to him when he took this picture!

Kurt Moose said...

Nice!

That'd be a day to remember!