After spending 3 weeks too many ramblin' around Portland I decided to head out again and head to Bend, OR. I was going to try and catch the M-EVEBAR in Vancouver, WA and ride it through the Deschutes River Canyon to Bend. I had my friend drop me off by the yard in Vancouver around 8PM where I would begin my wait for this train. Little did I know that the EVEBAR would not come that night, or I had already missed it.
I fell asleep at the spot I had chosen to catch out from and was woken up around 7AM by a SBD finally pulling in for a crew change. There wasn't anything to ride on except for one empty 48, the kind that has no floors on the ends but has kind of a floor in the middle but still has those big holes. I climb i with my dog and lay down on the sides facing towards the front of the car. Its not long before we air up and are underway.
The first part of the trip the train heads east along the Columbia RIver and then would supposedly cut south at Wishram towards Bend. I didn't enjoy the scenery too much because I really was not entirely comfortable on that ride. I was sitting there watching the ties fly by underneat and watching the wheels in front of me rolling at 55+ mph and I suddenly had a bad feeling about the way I was facing, "What if something kicks up and hits me in the face" So I turned around and faced the backside leaning against my pack. As if on cue I hear a lound clanging sound. Cha-chunk cha-chunk cha chunk, and then one of those steel brackets that you see along the rails all the time comes flying over my head, lands about 2 feet from me bounces off the floor of the well, falls through one of the holes, bounces back up, hits the underside of the train and then its gone.
"Holy Fuck!", I cried out loud to myself. "That was pretty close" I'm glad that I turned around or that bracket may have took my head off, or at least busted my face open. I am not even sure where it came from. Maybe it was laying on the grating on the porch, or maybe someone through it at the train as it rolled by, or maybe the train kicked it up somehow. I'll never know.
After that I managed to sleep some despite my fear of getting jostled through one of the holes. I sleep too good on trains thats for sure. After a few hours of sleep, I was laying there thinking. "This train is awful quiet right now, its almost as if we are not moving at all" Just then I wake up to the train airing up and beginning to roll. "Ah, on the move again" I pop my head over the side to see about where I'm at and just as I do that I notice we are rolling right by the bridge that crosses the Columbia River and goes South through the Deschutes River Canyon. "Shit!" Not the EVEBAR I realized. SO I said fuck it, I'll just ride through to Pasco and then come back the other way once I'm there. No sweat.
The train stopped again at an undetermined siding somewhere west of Pasco and I noticed a highway so I said fuck it and got off and decided to try hitching down to Bend, or at least back to Wishram to wait for a SBD. As soon as I got off the train a WBD Unit Grain train pulls in and sides. My original train takes off. "Perfect" I thought. I'll just ride this to Wishram. I hike the line looking for a ride but to my disappointment its one of those earthworm grainer trains that BNSF runs and they are nothing but suicides. So I opted for the DPU. As I'm hiking the line to get to the DPU before the train pulls, my dog decides to break away from me to find shade and goes to the only shady spot he can find. Under the train! He wouldn't come to me so I had to risk myself and reach under the train and grab my retard dog from under the train. Luckily it didn't pull ad I got him out with no problem and promptly delivered a cuff across his head.
I made it back to the nice A/C cooled DPU just in time to pull. This time I'm headed back towards the West with the plan of getting off in Wishram to catch a train to Bend from there. I fell asleep again. I sleep like a baby on trains, especially in a DPU that is climate controlled, either warm in winter or cool in summer. I slept great with dreams of trains and beautiful women. I vaguely remember dreaming of the train stopping but I did not wake.
When I did wake it was dark. I sat up with a start. "Where am I?" I asked myself. I looked out the window only to see that the train was passing the Columbia River Bridge that goes from Vancouver and into Portland. A whole day of traveling on two different trains and I was back where I started! So I walked back into PDX the next morning, rode the yellow line to the Albina yard and then caught the M-PTRV to Eugene and then hitchhiked to Bend from there.
Not too crazy or exciting of a trip, but It sure is comical.
I fell asleep at the spot I had chosen to catch out from and was woken up around 7AM by a SBD finally pulling in for a crew change. There wasn't anything to ride on except for one empty 48, the kind that has no floors on the ends but has kind of a floor in the middle but still has those big holes. I climb i with my dog and lay down on the sides facing towards the front of the car. Its not long before we air up and are underway.
The first part of the trip the train heads east along the Columbia RIver and then would supposedly cut south at Wishram towards Bend. I didn't enjoy the scenery too much because I really was not entirely comfortable on that ride. I was sitting there watching the ties fly by underneat and watching the wheels in front of me rolling at 55+ mph and I suddenly had a bad feeling about the way I was facing, "What if something kicks up and hits me in the face" So I turned around and faced the backside leaning against my pack. As if on cue I hear a lound clanging sound. Cha-chunk cha-chunk cha chunk, and then one of those steel brackets that you see along the rails all the time comes flying over my head, lands about 2 feet from me bounces off the floor of the well, falls through one of the holes, bounces back up, hits the underside of the train and then its gone.
"Holy Fuck!", I cried out loud to myself. "That was pretty close" I'm glad that I turned around or that bracket may have took my head off, or at least busted my face open. I am not even sure where it came from. Maybe it was laying on the grating on the porch, or maybe someone through it at the train as it rolled by, or maybe the train kicked it up somehow. I'll never know.
After that I managed to sleep some despite my fear of getting jostled through one of the holes. I sleep too good on trains thats for sure. After a few hours of sleep, I was laying there thinking. "This train is awful quiet right now, its almost as if we are not moving at all" Just then I wake up to the train airing up and beginning to roll. "Ah, on the move again" I pop my head over the side to see about where I'm at and just as I do that I notice we are rolling right by the bridge that crosses the Columbia River and goes South through the Deschutes River Canyon. "Shit!" Not the EVEBAR I realized. SO I said fuck it, I'll just ride through to Pasco and then come back the other way once I'm there. No sweat.
The train stopped again at an undetermined siding somewhere west of Pasco and I noticed a highway so I said fuck it and got off and decided to try hitching down to Bend, or at least back to Wishram to wait for a SBD. As soon as I got off the train a WBD Unit Grain train pulls in and sides. My original train takes off. "Perfect" I thought. I'll just ride this to Wishram. I hike the line looking for a ride but to my disappointment its one of those earthworm grainer trains that BNSF runs and they are nothing but suicides. So I opted for the DPU. As I'm hiking the line to get to the DPU before the train pulls, my dog decides to break away from me to find shade and goes to the only shady spot he can find. Under the train! He wouldn't come to me so I had to risk myself and reach under the train and grab my retard dog from under the train. Luckily it didn't pull ad I got him out with no problem and promptly delivered a cuff across his head.
I made it back to the nice A/C cooled DPU just in time to pull. This time I'm headed back towards the West with the plan of getting off in Wishram to catch a train to Bend from there. I fell asleep again. I sleep like a baby on trains, especially in a DPU that is climate controlled, either warm in winter or cool in summer. I slept great with dreams of trains and beautiful women. I vaguely remember dreaming of the train stopping but I did not wake.
When I did wake it was dark. I sat up with a start. "Where am I?" I asked myself. I looked out the window only to see that the train was passing the Columbia River Bridge that goes from Vancouver and into Portland. A whole day of traveling on two different trains and I was back where I started! So I walked back into PDX the next morning, rode the yellow line to the Albina yard and then caught the M-PTRV to Eugene and then hitchhiked to Bend from there.
Not too crazy or exciting of a trip, but It sure is comical.
