(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Morning Open Thread- Chasing Trains [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2022-10-14

“If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living." Joseph Campbell

With winter coming, my friend Mark and I set out north to geek out and watch trains. I think we did a good job of timing it right so that the fall colors yet warm weather made for a comfortable trip. The oak had started to turn crimson, the rabbit brush, Chrysothamnus, was in full bloom and the Aspens and Cottonwoods were starting to turn yellow in the lower elevations.

Our goal was to follow the Union Pacific Railroad from Ogden, Utah to Green River, Wyoming. This is part of the original transcontinental railroad and for several reasons is near to my heart. My maternal grandmothers grandfather (I believe, it could have been great grandfather) was a mormon bishop in Heber City , 40 miles south of the railroad site, when the railroad was being built. The railroad contracted with the church to hire entire wards (a ward is a church congregation with several wards in a decent sized town) to dig and grade the road bed miles ahead of the track laying crews. So, my family had a hand in building that first railroad through here and I find the idea of hanging out with the ghosts of my family past a pleasing and comforting thought.

Another reason for this area is that it is part of the railroad that I am building for work. Additional reference photos of the real thing are always a good idea. The really help me recreate the place in miniature.

Echo Canyon, Utah

The area is also the set for some of my favorite stories of my dad. Grandpa worked in the area all of his life. One of his thrills was to drive along the highway that in some places is shoulder to shoulder with the railroad tracks. He would have dad lean out the passenger window and toss up beers to the engineers as they were slogging along, going uphill full throttle at a whopping 25 miles an hour. The trains these days go about the same speed.

So after the first day of driving 12 hours to get up to Ogden before the bar that I love stopped serving dinner, we had a good nights sleep and started east. We found one particular train that had lots of cool freight cars in it that was worth pursuing. So we played a game of leap frog. Jumping ahead of it to the next neat location that I knew of to get more photos as the train made it’s way up the 75 mile long uphill climb to conquer the Wasatch Mountains. Then it was out to the wonderfully boring lands of western Wyoming.

Soda Ash mines in the distance

Home base for the next couple nights was the big town of Green River, where dad went to high school and grandpa was the manager of the old Tri-State/Boise Cascade lumberyard. Green River is a division point from three different directions, the east-west route and the whole of the northwest system of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana comes in from the northwest. Every train changes crews here. It has a big freight yard that is busier than ever because of the huge Trona deposits west of town. Trona/Soda Ash/Sodium Carbonate is used in everything from glass, paper and clothing to food. And this area is the largest deposit found on earth so far. This means big business for the railroad.

Look closely and there’s four trains moving in the yard at once.

There’s a pedestrian that spans the yard, built so the railroad employees can get to work in the shops on the far side of the yard. It just might be my favorite place to watch trains I’ve found.

24 hours day, 365 days a year, the trains come and go, delivering every conceivable bulk product across America. When the legs get tired or the action slows down to a crawl because of a shift change with the yard workers, there’s the Sweetwater Brewery at the bottom of the steps of the bridge to wet your whistle. Can’t go wrong with that.

The town is still small enough that a motel can be found within walking distance of said bridge. Rush hour traffic consists of the deer crossing main street to break in to the residential gardens up the hill.

Alas, a couple days and 2,863 photos later it was time to wander back south. Serendipity was smiling on me as it just so happened that Pixie and the Partygrass Boys were playing a street festival in the town of Helper, Utah that Saturday night. Helper was built and named by the old Denver and Rio Grande Railroad as a base for adding helper engines on trains to tackle the short but steep Soldier Summit, the only way to get from eastern Utah into the Salt Lake basin. It has a long history of being a coal mining area to the point that they had their share of labor strife. Heck, it was big enough to warrant visits from Mother Jones. The strife was big enough that the town jail was honored with her presence for a time. Gotta love a town like that.

an empty coal train topping out at Soldier Summit

We caught a few trains on the hill as we made our way to Helper. I was curious. With a town that small and the only main road is right next to the tracks, where was this street fair going to be held? And could I watch trains and dance to the music at the same time?

5 minutes behind, was this BNSF train which shares trackage rights between Denver and Sacramento

Mark evidently got bored while waiting the that train, so he caught me in his rear view mirror.

Sure enough, the little park was right next to the service road for the rail yard. I could have my cake and dance with it too. As one train was leaving the yard and the soundcheck had just finished, Mark leaned over and pointed towards the tracks. There was Pixie filming the train leaving with her smart phone. Well, I don’t get that chance every day.

I marched over and the first thing out of my mouth was, “Don’t tell me your a train fan too?” She had a great big smile on her face as she said she loves trains. I told her what we are up to and her band was the last big hurrah on the trip. Don’t tell my girlfriend.

So we had a couple beers and watched Pixie do her thing. Being the headliner, it was late when they got done and most of the fair was packed up to go home. Unbeknownst to me was that Mark took other photos besides trains on this trip. I was so busy focused on what I was doing that when he sent me the photos with me in them I was flabbergasted. But he sure did a good job of capturing the mood, no wonder he is a professional photographer.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/14/2128563/-Morning-Open-Thread-Chasing-Trains

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/