Railroad photo of the day (if the day was thursday)
I took a somewhat scenic route back from the dermatologist on thursday, and found myself stopped at the Portland Traction crossing before the Springwater Trail – the Holiday Express is running and I arrived just as it came by on its trip south.
The tiny logging mikado that they’re using until they get the Mount Emily shay back into running order is too small to pull the Holiday express up the ramp to Spokane at the Sellwood end of the loop, so they need to tail the train with their ex-BN SW1000 to get enough puff to get up that hill. I stuck around at the crossing until it passed, then passed it again on the Springwater Trail (the trains only run at about 15mph, and even in my aged & decrepit state I can get up to 20mph along the flat parts of the Portland Traction’s ROW.)