West Coast Railfanning

I've just returned from a short trip along the West Coast. Those of you who've followed me for a while know that I love trains and, although there are many terms for folks like me, one of the nicer ones is "railfan". So today's post is the first portion of the trip from Seattle, Washington, to Eugene, Oregon.  In future posts, I will cover more of the full rail portion of the trip to Los Angeles, California.

Now, you may ask: why do you do this? Well, to me, it's a fun and relaxing way to travel. All of the pictures here were taken with my phone camera so they are definitely not perfect, but you get the idea. Keep in mind that most were taken while the train was moving and often through the thick windows of the car.

When taking these photos I had in mind that I would post them here on the blog so part of the plan was to give you an idea of what you might see on this rail journey. You may wish to scroll through them quickly, or look more closely by clicking on them for a larger view. I did enhance some pics to adjust the lighting a bit.

When passenger railroads were in their prime, most lines had name trains.  Some famous trains: Burlington’s Zephyr, Milwaukee’s Hiawatha, the New York Central's 20th Century Limited, Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited, and the Great Northern’s Empire Builder. The train I'm on here is called the Coast Starlight which was originally run by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and now by AMTRAK.


Boarding at King Street Station, Seattle. The train is scheduled to depart at 9:45 am daily.

I'm traveling in a small compartment called a "roomette".

AMTRAK provides a "welcome aboard beverage" in what they call the "sleeper cars"

I wonder what it's like to live so close to the rails ...

 Hallway in my car ...

Passing the Pierce County ferry terminal south of Tacoma

The Pacific Parlour car is a comfortable place to sit and watch the scenery roll by ...

Along the shore of Puget Sound ...

Scenery rolling by ...

Getting close to Portand, Oregon, and I noticed bird nests on these pilings. You have to look real close but there is a bird sitting on the piling to the left. There were nests on the other two. Not much of a chance to do any birding here, as the train is moving too fast.

I've read that the AMTRAK speed limit on this run is 79 MPH. I like to carry along a little GPS to monitor the speed and exact location of the train.

Some people have a lot of fun living right on a river.

The train is about to pass over the Columbia River which is the border between Washington and Oregon. You can see the front of the train on the left and the bridge ahead.

Crossing the mighty Columbia

Some interesting homes appear to be floating on the river's edge.

Another river crossing, this time it's the Willamette, just before we enter Portland, Oregon.

Above: Entering Portland and another bridge over the Willamette. Below: A condo (apartment?) building right along the rails. Nice new building. Would be a good location for a railfan.

Entering Portland Station.

The historic station is undergoing some renovation. 

Back aboard and crossing the Willamette again, this time on the way OUT of town.

An interesting waterfall at a power plant (?) along the river.

I liked the looks of this place ...

Getting into farming country south of Portland ...

Depot in Salem, Oregon, a historic building here in the state's capitol.

Pretty fields of yellow ... Oregon Sunshine?

Closing out this post as we arrive at the station in Eugene, Oregon, about 280 miles into the journey. More to come on yet another post. Thanks for stopping by John's Island!

Yellowstone Invitation

In previous posts I've been sharing some of my collection of Yellowstone National Park memorabilia. Thanks to all of you who stopped by to take a look at those posts and for all the kind comments. 

The question might occur as to how, back in the early 1900s, folks found out about Yellowstone and how to visit the Park. The railroads did a great job of advertising YNP and published some (for their time) pretty spectacular brochures such as the one  pictured above, or the one below, published by the Union Pacific Railroad. (Most of the images below can be viewed in a larger format by clicking on them.)

They also had professional photographers go out and put together photos that could be used in a sort of slideshow presentation. The presentations occurred around the country. As you read further below, I'll show you some of the slides used and supplement that with some vintage postcards from the same era.  Early presentations were done with the use of lantern slides which are large glass slides, appx. 3 x 4 inches. Of course this was way before electric projectors and so they used something called a magic lantern to project the slides. These slides are fairly rare today, especially ones in good shape and not broken. The slide show might consist of a set of 100 slides.

Perhaps they would start the show with a map of the Park to explain it's size and how you could spend 7 days or so going around and seeing most of it. Most likely the way you would get to the park would be on a train so this whole process worked well for the railroads. Notice the logo for Union Pacific Railroad. (For those of you not into railroading, the main passenger railroad in America today is AMTRAK, which took over most passenger rail service in the US in 1971. The Union Pacific continues to exist today as a major freight carrier.)

Here is a lantern slide on the light table. The round spot is a quarter I placed there so you can get a good idea of the size of the slide.

After showing the map, perhaps the presentation would show a picture of the train arriving at the Gardiner, Montana, depot. For just about any tourist of the day, this would be the end of a multi-day train trip.

Click on the slides for a larger view

We would probably be shown this photo of the Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance to the Park. I featured some info about the arch in an earlier post. It was constructed in 1903 and consists of lava stones.

A similar scene could be seen on a postcard, like this one (note the date is somewhat later as we see the car) ...

Click on above for larger view.

The next slide might show where we are headed for the first night's stay, the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. It was advertised as comfortable and elegant. 

Here are some close ups of the hotel and the hot springs as they were pictured on vintage postcards.

And, after you were in the Park, you might fill out a card that would allow an invitation to visit to go out to others ...

Getting back to our coach ride, along the way to the Hotel, we would pass Eagle's Nest. Although the nest is no longer there today, at the time it was at the top of the column of rocks near the upper center of the photo below ... 

Here's a postcard showing an eagle approaching the nest ...

After spending the first night in the hotel, your guide would possibly show you the wonders of the giant hot springs created over thousands of years with hot water and minerals coming out of the ground.

As you start your journey on the second day your stagecoach will carry you through the Golden Gate.

Perhaps you will see some Buffalo.

And, of course, you will want to join the other tourists to take a closer look at the geyser basins to see the wonders up close!

While in the Park you might take time to send a postcard to a friend. The card below was postmarked Yellowstone Park Wyo, June 28, 1902. All that was required for the address:  a name, city and state. In the message, the writer says that a large party of Shriners has just started off on their tour of the Park in ten coaches. A note in top right corner indicates the card was written at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, North Edge of Park, June 27, 1902. Wonder how long it took for the card to get to Grand Rapids?

At the end of the day it's time for a big campfire. How they did that without setting the Park ablaze, I don't know, but this picture sure looks inviting.

Some nights were apparently spent in the (rather luxurious) hotels while others might be spent in tents. Here is how the camping was portrayed on the vintage cards ...

A brochure we might have seen would entice us to the camping feature ...

Thanks for stopping by John's Island. Anything that ends up here on the Island is simply something that interests me and perhaps you will find it to be the same. Your comments are welcome and appreciated.