10/8/2020 Elizabeth and I both slept well in our Deluxe Bedroom for our last night on the Empire Builder. We got up after the train turned into the Columbia River Gorge. After she took a shower and got dressed we went to the lounge car to get our breakfast. I had Fruit Loops and a cinnamon roll with an orange juice and Elizabeth had oatmeal and a blueberry muffin. Now sit back and enjoy the views as the train heads west down the Columbia River Gorge.
The trip so far. Next the first dam of the morning.
The John Day Dam on the Columbia River, started being constructed in 1958 and opened in 1971. Now back to the scenery.
The views of the Columbia River Gorge as far as Wishram where I took a two minute fresh air break.
Great Northern 4-8-2 2507 built by Baldwin in 1923. It was retired in 1957 and was sold to the Seattle, Portland & Spokane then donated to the County of Klickitat and went on display at Maryhill, Washington, in 1966. After an unsuccessful restoration effort at Pasco, it was repainted in 2002 and moved to its current location next to the Amtrak depot in Wishram, in 2003.
Scene along the Columbia River.
The Dalles Dam on the Columbia River, started being constructed in 1952 and opened in 1957. Mount Hood would be seen off and on from the train as we contiuned west.
Views along the Columbia River Gorge.
Bridge of the Gods. This brings our coverage of the Columbia River to a close. We stop in Vancouver then made our final trek into Portland Union Station. This was an excellent trip not only for me the veteran train rider but also for my beautiful wife Elizabeth who had all new mileage for the portions of this route from Wisconsin Dells to Winona and St Paul to Spokane. She had ridden the Milwaukee Road 261 from Milaukee to Wisconsin Dells and the Southern Pacific 4449 from Spokane to Portland. Chicago to Milwaukee was done on a Hiawatha train.
Onward to BendWe detrained from the Empire Builder, picked up Elizabeth's case and walked outside and there were no taxicabs in sight. We then found that Enterprise was on the other side of the river, not where it was supposed to be downtown, so took the MAX Green Line two stops to the Convention Centre and walked the twelve blocks to Burnside where Enterprise was located. We got the car, a Toyota Corolla, and escaped Portland by making our way to Interstate 5 and drove to Salem to the Keizer Station Mall.
Ferrocarril Coahuila y Zacatecas, originally a 4-6-2, and converted to a 4-6-0, 6, built by Baldwin in 1904. The shortline CyZ carried copper ore from the Mazapil mines along a seventy-eight mile right of way from its main yard and shops in Saltillo, Coahuila, to a smelter in Concepcion del Oro, Zacatecas. In the 1970s, the CyZ was absorbed as a Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico branch. The NdeM standard gauged the line and it is still in use today. Within a few years, 6 was converted to a Ten Wheeler (4-6-0) and worked until 1965 when it was sold, along with two 2-8-0s and about a dozen cars, to the Early West Railway in Chino, California, a group hoping to start a tourist excursion railroad in Pomona. It was then displayed at a restaurant in Southern California before being sold privately and placed in storage near Lake Elsinore. It went on display at its current location in the car park of the Keizer Station Shopping Center in 2009.
From here we took Highway 22 which was closed thirty-three miles ahead by a fire, and made our way to Stayton and took the back way and found that we had missed a station in Scio during a previous trip.
The Southern Pacific Scio station built in 1980.
Southern Pacific caboose 1167, built by the railroad in 1942, on display beside the station at Scio.
A carving by Milton Dodge beside the caboose. We then went to Lebanon for lunch and I had a root beer to drink which did not agree with me. As we were close, we visited an old friend in Sweethome.
The Weddle Covered Bridge built in 1937 and originally spanned Thomas Creek near Scio but was replaced by a concrete bridge in 1980 and was scheduled to be destroyed in 1987. To save the bridge, local activists staged protests and persuaded former Oregon Senator Mae Yih to help save the bridge. The Oregon Legislative Assembly soon approved the Oregon Covered Bridge Program, which helped pay for covered bridge rehabilitation projects statewide. The Weddle Bridge was the first to receive grants from the program.
My wonderful Elizabeth beside the Weddle Bridge. We drove Highway 20 east of Cascadia to our next stop.
The Short Covered Bridge built in 1945 and is the sole survivor of the covered bridges which crossed the South Fork of the Santiam River, as well as one of the few remaining in the county to have a wooden shingle roof. We then took Highway 20 to 126 to US 97 to Redmond and first drove north to Terrebone.
The Oregon Trunk Terrebone station built in 1911. Since we did not know where Redmond's Union Pacific station was, Elizabeth called city hall and a very helpful lady did some quick research and told us it was on Yew Street. It did not take us long to find it.
The Union Pacific Redmond station built in 1912. We drove south toward Bend and remembered that we needed to shoot the covered bridge.
The Rock O' The Range Covered Bridge, also called the Swalley Canal Bridge built in 1963. It is the only covered span in the state of Oregon on the east side of the Cascade Range and one of very few privately owned covered bridges in Oregon It was one of the poorest covered bridges we had seen, along with the Dahlenburg bridge in Sweethome. It was a short drive to Bend and we had dinner at the Black Bear Diner.
We attempted to locate the Oregon Trunk station but found the current station building that BNSF is using.
The former Railway Express Agency building, built in 1924, is also used by BNSF. We checked into the Old Mill and Suites, formerly the Rodeway Inn, and finished the story.
| RETURN TO THE MAIN PAGE |