Portland & Western #2309 “Philomath,” is a 2,300-horsepower GP39-2 that was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in August 1974 as Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe #3608.
It was retired in December 1992 and was sold to the Willamette & Pacific Railroad in June 1993 and later transferred to the Portland & Western. My dad, Cliff West, photographed it in Rainier, Oregon, in April or May of 2007.
I took these train pictures on April 8, 2006.
We begin at the Portland & Western's small base of operations on Salem Industrial Drive NE in Salem, Oregon, with Willamette & Pacific #2316 “Albany.”
This is a 2,300-horsepower GP39-2.
It was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in August 1974 as Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe #3615.
Portland & Western #3004 is a 3,000-horsepower GP40 that was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in January 1967 as Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific #381.
This was one of a group of seven GP40s that the Rock Island was rebuilding to Dash 2 standards in its Silvis shops when the railroad went bankrupt and shut down in 1980. Before the shutdown it was completed as GP40u #3000. The last two of the seven were unfinished. Chrome Crankshaft acquired all seven locomotives along with the shop in 1981 and finished the remaining two locomotives.
The seven locomotives were sold to Toronto’s GO Transit in 1982. This locomotive became GO Transit #726. As they were not equipped with head-end power generators, they had to operate with HEP cars rebuilt from F-units. In 1994 they were retired and traded in to EMD for new F59PHs. EMD put the locomotives in their lease fleet and this locomotive became EMDX #201.
In 2001, EMD transferred the locomotive to Locomotive Leasing Partners (LLPX), a partnership with GATX Leasing, and the locomotive was leased to the St. Lawrence & Atlantic as #3204. St. Lawrence & Atlantic was taken over by Genesee & Wyoming in 2002.
The locomotive was transferred to the Portland & Western Railroad in April 2004, where it was considered a GP40-2, even though it lacks all the Dash 2 external spotting features like the water level sight glass, rear cab overhang, and vertical shock absorbers on the trucks.
Renumbered to PNWR #3004 in mid-2005, it still wears its St. Lawrence & Atlantic yellow and black paint scheme.
This base of operations formerly belonged to the Oregon Electric (O.E.) Railway, later the Burlington Northern Railroad and now the Portland & Western Railroad. The Oregon Electric was owned by the Spokane, Portland & Seattle (SP&S) Railway, which also operated the route to Astoria nicknamed the "A Line." This safety sign, which depicts the East Coast railroads in the game of Monopoly while declaring "Railroading is not a game: work safely when on board" was erected by the O.E. - A Line Safety Committee, and may predate the 1970 merger that absorbed the SP&S into the Burlington Northern Railroad.
Moving on to Portland, Oregon, I took this photograph from my car of a Union Pacific freight train crossing over Interstate 205, led by Union Pacific #4707, a 4,000-horsepower SD70M built by the General Motors Locomotive Group in London, Ontario, and delivered on October 6, 2001.
From my car on Interstate 5 near Martin’s Bluff near Longview, Washington, I took this photograph of Norfolk Southern #7516, a 4,000-horsepower ES40DC built by General Electric in November 2005 and delivered in primer gray so it could be placed in service as soon as possible.
Finally, I photographed this pair of 3,000-horsepower GP40-2s in the Longview Switching Company yard in Longview, Washington, from my car on Washington State Route 432. Union Pacific #1422 & #1434 were built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in March and April of 1980 as Southern Pacific #7671 and #7949. After the Southern Pacific was merged into the Union Pacific on September 11, 1996, Southern Pacific #7671 became Union Pacific #5322 on October 10, 2002, then was renumbered to #1422 on October 30, 2003, while SP #7949 became Union Pacific #1434 on December 20, 2000.
I took these train pictures from my car on April 1, 2006. First, at Willbridge Yard in Portland, Oregon, Burlington Northern Santa Fe #4400 is a 4,400-horsepower Dash 9-44CW that was built by General Electric in April 1999. With it is Norfolk Southern #9373, Dash 9-40CW that was built by General Electric in May 1999.
Next, at Saint Helens, Oregon, Willamette & Pacific #2306 is a 2,300-horsepower GP39-2 that was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in August 1974 as Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe #3605. It was retired in December 1992 and was sold to the Willamette & Pacific Railroad in June 1993.
My dad, Cliff West, took these train pictures in late 2005. First are three photos of a Willamette & Pacific locomotive in Rainier, Oregon.
This picture of BNSF equipment was taken at the Amtrak depot in Vancouver, Washington. In the foreground, BNSF #518 is a 4,000-horsepower Dash 8-40BW that was built by General Electric in October 1990 as Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe #518. Following the merger of the Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe on September 22, 1995, it became BNSF #518 in April 2001 and was repainted into BNSF’s “Heritage II” paint scheme in May 2001. In the background, BNSF #3126 is a 3,500-horsepower GP50 built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in August 1985 as Burlington Northern #3126. Following the merger of the Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe on September 22, 1995, it became BNSF #3126 on June 3, 2002.
Montana Rail Link #45028 is a Pullman-Standard PS2-CD 4427-cubic-inch 100-ton covered hopper that was originally built in March 1971 as part of lot 9532, a group of 200 such cars built for the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, or Frisco, numbered from 79300 to 79499. The Frisco was merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad in April 1980, and these cars became Burlington Northern 439000-439199. A group of 50 of these cars went to the Montana Rail Link after its creation in October 1987, and were numbered 45001-45050. Initially painted dark blue, they were used to carry materials such as lime, talc, and decorative rock, which caused the dark blue paint to weather quickly. When my dad photographed this car in Linnton, Oregon, it had recently been renovated and repainted light gray, which was expected to hold up better than the dark blue.
Willamette & Pacific GP39-2 #2310 “Monroe” is a 2,300-horsepower GP39-2 that was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in August 1974 as Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe #3609. It was retired in December 1992 and was sold to the Willamette & Pacific Railroad in June 1993. It is pictured here at Saint Helens, Oregon, on October 1, 2005.
Its paint job features banners reading “Celebrating 10 Years 1993-2003” commemorating the 10th anniversary of the formation of the Willamette & Pacific Railroad. My dad, Cliff West, photographed it with a local freight train at the short trestle over Fox Creek in Rainier, Oregon in the Spring of 2004.
Portland & Western GP39-2 #2305 Dallas is a 2,300-horsepower GP39-2 that was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in August 1974 as Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe #3604. It was retired in December 1992 and was sold to the Willamette & Pacific Railroad in June 1993 and later transferred to the Portland & Western.
