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Getting To the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum Rare Mileage Trips in Oregon, Idaho and Montana 5/21/2004

I received an e-mail from Bart Jennings of the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum about his rare mileage excursion on the Wallowa-Union Railroad Authority on May 22nd, 2004 and while he had ideas for some other trips, I paid for that one. Next came an announcement of two excursions on the Central Montana Railroad on May 24th and 25th and I mailed a cheque for those. Now I was waiting for something in between and a few weeks later came an announcement of a trip on the Pend Orielle Valley Railroad on May 23rd. I asked and received permission to take my vacation from McArthur Fundamental Intermediate so sent off for that last one. I next called Mike at the Auto Club of Southern California for a rental car and he found one through Enterprise with an excellent rate. I went online to get a Southwest Airlines ticket and called the hotels then with that all set, I rode locally as usual but could not wait for the day of departure for this set of rare mileage trips.

I awoke at 3:00 AM and printed my Southwest Airlines boarding pass prior to packing then drove my mother and I in her van to Santa Ana station and following goodbyes, used an old Metrolink ticketing machine that only took cash. Metrolink Train 681 to Los Angeles Union Station arrived on time and I was off towards Burbank Airport, sleeping the miles to LAUPT, where we arrived early and easily walked from Track 8 to Track 6 to waiting Metrolink Train 601 to Burbank Downtown, where I would connect to a shuttle van to the Bob Hope Airport. No one could tell me why this first Metrolink train does not go to the Burbank Airport station. That trip went really quickly and I soon detrained at Burbank to a waiting Super Shuttle van that took me to the airport and I arrived at the terminal at 6:15 AM, walked through Security with no delay whatsoever and was soon waiting at Gate 6 for my 7:45 AM flight.

Following the advice of others who had flown Southwest, when you see the line form for A, B or C, get in it. I had an "A" so was third onto the plane and those in the A group boarded at 7:35 AM for the flight to Portland via Oakland. We departed and once at cruising speed, I listened to Chicago 13, while having some orange juice, that took me to Oakland at 8:50 AM. We laid over until our 9:20 AM departure. It was great to see the Sacramento River Canyon, Mount Shasta and all the peaks of the Oregon Cascades from the air. We landed at Portland at 10:55 AM on a rainy morning and I was first off the plane at Gate C15, with my next flight at C16 next door. I received my "B" boarding pass and waited for Flight 131 to board.

The "B"s were boarded at 11:30 AM and I managed to get a window seat in the fourth row of another Boeing 737. We reversed out of the gate at 11:47 AM and as we left Portland heading east, a westbound BNSF freight with a DPU on the rear was seen before we climbed over the deck of clouds. Once east of the Cascades, the clouds broke apart with several outstanding cumulonimbus clouds towering in the sky. We touched down at 12:40 AM and I was now in Spokane.

I walked over to the Enterprise rental car counter and received a Mazda Protegé then drove east on US 2 to Interstate 90 to the US 195 exit, which I took south into Oregon.

I crossed the former Milwaukee Road grade and arch bridges over Pine Creek outside Rosalia and planned to photograph as much as possible of the former Milwaukee Road on this trip.

The Milwaukee Road grade looking east from the US 195 bridge at Rosalia.

In Colfax, I found the Union Pacific (former Oregon Railroad & Navigation) depot built in 1904 before stopping at Arby's for lunch and a break then drove on to Lewistown, Idaho after a wonderful descent into town.

The former Camas Prarie Railnet cabooses are now Great Northwest Railroad since Watco took over this shortline in March.

Camas Prarie Railnet B23-7 1, ex. Livingstone Rebuilt 1, exx. Norfolk Southern 3995, nee Southern 3995 built by General Electric in 1981.

Camas Prarie Railnet B23-7 4, nee Norfolk Southern 3971 built by General Electric in 1978.

Camas Prarie Railnet B23-7 2, nee Norfolk Southern 4002 built by General Electric in 1981.

Camas Prairie Railnet SW1000 143, ex. Omnitrax 143, nee Denver and Rio Grande Western 143 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1966.

Radio-controlled Webb Asset Management (WAMX) GP30 302, ex. Conrail 2247, exx. Penn Central 2247, nee Pennsylvania Railroad 2247 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1963.

Camas Prairie Railnet rotary snowplough 26.

The covered shop area.

Helm Leasing (HLCX) SW1500 1018, ex. Union Pacific 1018, nee Southern 2304, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1968, at work.

The Great Northwest Railroad, formerly Camas Prairie Railnet engine facility. As I photographed the locomotive, I watched a storm approaching from the west towards me with lightning and thunder booming across the sky then drove across the Snake River back into Washington and started climbing the grade out of the bottom of Hell Canyon. As I did that, the rain started to pour and although it lasted only ten miles, it took some of my best driving to keep going. The rest of the climb to Rattlesnake Summit at 3,956 feet, wa easy, but I next twisted and turned down to the Grande Ronde River.

I climbed the grade out of the river valley, twisting and turning into Oregon, reaching the summit at 4,693 feet. From there, a tired Chris drove the rest of the way to Enterprise.

On my way to the Best Western Rama Inn and Suites, I stopped at Safeway for some chicken to have for dinner then checked in and now in total relax mode, watched the first game of the NBA Western Finals with the Los Angeles Lakers beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 97-88. I called it a night so I would be well-rested for the first of the rare mileage trips tomorrow.

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