America 2011

Day 34 - Railfanning the Feather River Canyon

And so I wake on my last full day in the US, and what better place for it than in the heart of the Feather River Canyon. The FRC is one of only three routes in California to cross the Sierra Nevadas, the others being Donner Pass, and Cajon Pass to the south. Donner Pass and the FRC parallel each other and start and end nearby each other, however only the FRC provides access to Oregon and Washington from California. The two routes are quite different; Donner Pass is steep, mountainous, and extremely challenging, while the FRC is considerably longer, albeit with a much gentler (comparatively) ruling grades. The FRC is also the junction point for access into Oregon and Washington through the BNSF High Line, a rather remote and relatively quiet line that runs into Klamath Falls, OR.

But enough of the background; first item on my action list today was famous wye at Keddie. I jumped in the car and headed off, cleverly forgetting my camera. A quick U-turn to retrieve it form the m...

Day 33 - Klamath Falls OR to Quincy CA

Good morning Klamath Falls, OR. In one of those 3am moments I have remembered everything about my apparently forgettable motel here. Believe it or not but it was run by an Aucklander; I didn't get to meet her though, but I did get good service, and a rather large & clean room with suitably powerful heater. From my window I could see the snow flurries coming in as I looked down the backstreets of Klamath Falls. Lots of small two story brick buildings here, and as the temp plunged well below freezing I could hear the trains rolling through this junction town late into the night. Klamath Falls also has a great Thai restaurant within easy walking distance of my motel.

So goodbye no-longer-forgettable motel, and hello highway. Not an especially long drive today, just 4 hours. At least it would be if I took the direct route. Naturally I went at right angles towards Dunsmuir, one of the famous "snow towns" in railroad circles. Soon I crossed the border into California and almo...

Day 32 - Madras OR to Klamath Falls OR

(Yes, I’m a "little" behind!)

Day 32 and I wake in the little town of Madras, Oregon to another dull gray day. Some quick GoogleMaps-snooping showed a good trestle up the road, so I went to have a look. Indeed, yes, it was quite a bridge, spanning a vast canyon that lead down from the plateau above Madras. Unfortunately it was very dull and gray, and with no trains around, there was nothing photo worthy. I sighed and hit the highway.

Half an hour down the road I hit the jackpot though, at the Peter Skene Ogden State Park (what a mouthfall). You know you’re in for a treat when they warn of 300ft cliffs and the warning signs feature flying dogs!

   

The history was pretty interesting, with the railroad being first across. Given the sheer drop a single span is the only way to bridge the gap, which made construction a little challenging; photos show rop...

Day 31: Portland, OR to Madras, OR

Another morning and this time I was, I have to admit, a little bit excited because I was in Oregon, and it was raining. It's just what Oregon is supposed to do! I decided that today would be my last day in Portland, so I packed up and headed off to the Lloyd Center for some final book shopping. Hopped on the MAX into town and visited Powells again to load up on more books. It was perfect book shopping weather, being dark and gray and raining. I had a lot of fun riding the light rail into town, dodgy rain showers as I ran from building to building down to Powells, and then browsing the isles of books watching the rain pouring down outside.

After Powells I went on a bit of a walk around Portland, since it wasn't raining any more.

A street car, very flash looking.

 

Another type of street car, and a street.

Portland MAX, also runn...

Day 30: Portland, OR - OMSI

Another day in Portland. I set the GPS for OMSI and headed off there. Was a little worried when I arrived and say many many school busses lined up outside and huge crowds of kids assembling. Uh oh. However my trek across the car park was interrupted by the sighting of railway carriages, so I went to investigate. Nice line up of iconic and famous "name train" carriages, including ones from the Southern Pacific "Daylight" series, and the Great Nothern's "Empire Builder". Plus some straight stainless steel corrugated side carriages. Was nice to see all these up close through the deer fencing.

Went into OMSI and yep sure enough there were thousands of kids. I guess I was a little disappointed because I expected more of a museum (as in Oregon Museumof Science and Industry) however it was very much an educational facility designed to teach children about various scientific phenomenon (think Science Alive here in Christchurch)...