23-09-09 PHOTOS: Portland Steel Bridge

Here in the second part of my 2023 trip to Portland, Oregon I return to downtown to take a walk across the famed Steel Bridge, used by both Amtrak and the MAX light rail alike. I also get some additional photos of Union Station, the Portland Streetcar and the MAX light rail system. You can check out Part 1 here and the full set of Steel Bridge photos here ( mirror ).

Opening in 1912, the Steel Bridge is not only the second oldest operating vertical lift bridge in the United States, but also the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world. It carries road and Portland MAX light rail traffic on its upper deck and main line railroad traffic on the lower (with pedestrians on both). It is located just east of Union Station and was likely part of VC tower's span of control. It's actually a common misconception that downtown Portland sits on the Columbia River, when in fact it is on a tributary, the Willamette.

The bridge carries the MAX Red, Blue, Green and Yellow lines, with flat junctions at each end. Below MAX SD660 #309 on a Yellow routing diverges onto the North-South downtown alignment at the western junction.

Here SD660 LRV's #311 and #304 taking a green line routing into downtown at the west end of the double deck Steel Bridge.



Here SD660 #303 and #225 on a Red routing take the opposite path towards the east-west downtown alignment.

The Steel Bridge has a two lane truss containing both MAX tracks and two single lane wings on the side for road traffic.

The bridge is just downstream from Portland Pacific Grain Terminal.

MAX SD660 #313 on a Blue routing approaching the bridge from the east.

MAX SD660 #252, in a 1980's retro paint scheme, sits in front of the Portland Trailblazers' arena at the Rose Quarter station just prior to entering east bridge jct.

Directly east of the Steel Bridge is EAST PORTLAND interlocking where the route to the passenger station splits from the Union Pacific Portland Sub. While there I caught this Union Pacific light engine move with ES44AC's #8114 and #7786.

EAST PORTLAND interlocking also functions as Portland Union Stations turning wye and every day Amtrak Train 28, the Portland section of Amtrak's eastbound Empire Builder Train 8, goes for a spin in order to head back west out of the station to reach the BNSF Columbia River route on the north bank. Train 28 consists of coaches, a sleeper and the sightseer lounge/cafe car, which will join with Train 8 in Spokane on the midnight after departure. Today, Train 28's power consisted of a single ALC-42 Charger, #310.

23-09-08 PHOTOS: Portland MAX

Over the years I've managed to at least put a toe in all of the major West Coast population centers, many more than once and for significant periods of time, however I had never gotten the opportunity to visit Portland beyond a 20 minute train-to-bus transfer as part of a Coast Starlight bus bridge in 2014. This year I finally managed to put a real trip together with two solid chunks of railfanning. The first, featured here, involves the trip in from the airport via MAX light rail and wandering around Union Station before heading west of the city to my final destination. The second part will cover both ends of the city's iconic Steel Bridge as well as the return trip to the airport. You can view the first set of photos here ( mirror ).

Starting things off on Southwest Airlines, I encountered the Hawaiian and New Mexican heritage units at BWI and Chicago Midway respectively.

Unfortunately the MAX Airport Line was under reconstruction so my first experience with the light rail was boarding a TriMet shuttle bus to the Gateway Transportation Center.

To reach Union Station I would need to catch a Green Line train in from Gateway, as the Red and Blue line trains use a different alignment through downtown. While known for its boxy Siemens SD660 LRV's #236, in recent years TriMet has been ordering SD70 and SD700 LRV's like #402.

My train downtown would feature Portland 300-series SD660 #320. While the rolling stock is set up for a look ahead view, I later discovered that the default behavior by most operators was to deploy a curtain and block it.

With the first segments built in the late 1987, MAX is one of the few North American rail systems with left hand mounted signals. On the dedicated rights of way signaling is a basic ABS/ATS setup with speeds up to 55mph between stations.

MAX uses BNSF style speed restriction signs including a harsh 20mph through stations.

23-09-02 PHOTOS: Doswell

As the supply of interesting signaling in the northeast dries up, I have been having to turn my attention south to the state of Virginia. The CSX route between Washington, DC and Richmond, VA fortunately has a number of Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac era signaling from before it was purchased by CSX in 1992 and after learning that the notable Doswell, VS bracket mast was under threat of replacement I schedule a third RF&P related trip in the summer of 2023, the previous two having been to the Milford and Fredericksburg areas. You can find the full set of these new photos here ( mirror ).

The first stop of the day was at the Coleman's Mill intermediate signal location, 29.5 miles from Richmond. I arrived with my friend in time to catch Amtrak Train 88 with P42DC #54 leading.

We then ran express to Doswell, VA where the famed bracket mast was still standing along with its intended replacement. Typically CSX would have replaced the now disfavored bracket configuration with a cantilever, but because the signaling logic was not in need of replacement and the location of the signal is constrained by adjacent tracks, a new bracket mast was ordered.

Doswell is a significant interchange point and yard for the Buckingham Branch railroad which operates the former C&O Blue Ridge route between Richmond and Clifton Forge, VA. Two of its locomotives, GP40-3 #12 and GP38-2 #17, were standing adjacent to the bracket mast.

Doswell's other big attraction is HN tower, the classic RF&P station and the C&O Blue Ridge route diamonds.

The diamonds are the real deal and not the low maintenance flange riding type.

The RF&P was one of the better resourced railroads in the former Confederate South and many of its all brick towers survive today with. HN tower features such PRR quality elements such as copper cladding, an air plant for pneumatic switches and a bay window.

The former joint RF&P / C&O station still stands and houses Buckingham Branch offices.

I was wondering why so many railfans were hanging around the Doswell diamonds, when southbound Amtrak Palmetto Train 89 appeared with ALC-42 Charger #329 leading on what was apparently one of the first uses of this locomotive type out of Washington, DC.