Trains at Ridgefield

This is one of the days I've imagined when I retired. I had coffee and breakfast with Carla then as she headed to work I drove about an hour north of Portland to the Ridgefield Bird Sanctuary 14 miles north of the Columbia River. Only I wasn't looking for birds today, I was looking for trains.

I went to this location to take some train pictures in the fall just as the leaves started to turn. (you can see the pictures here) . I thought it would be nice to compare the lights and foliage today.

There wasn't a lot of activity today so I parked and read my book The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western  Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson. Occasionally, I'd look down the line to see if the catenary lights indicated any traffic coming my way. After a bit a green light came on indicating something was coming from behind me.

Lights indicating something coming from behind me on the right-hand track.

BNSF southbound

Another version of the BNSF southbound

Union Pacific with track rights on the BNSF

I used the LightTrac on my iPad to identify the best time for taking pictures. It shows the sun angle at your selected location so you can avoid unsightly shadows. The app showed me my best light would be on trains rolling south. Luckily for me, the 4 trains I saw today were all heading south.