Freerails > Model Railroad Forums > Photography & Movies > Pacific Northwest Railfanning ... With Reg |
Freerails > Model Railroad Forums > Photography & Movies > Pacific Northwest Railfanning ... With Reg |
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Reg H Moderator 
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OK, fellow railfans, Here is my first attempt at copying some of my photos.  This is BC Rail in North Vancouver, August 1982. Yes, a great deal of my photos are B&W. |
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Reg H Moderator
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Right way round this time, improved the focus & added (C) Copyright.  West end of the Cascade Tunnel, sometime in 1982. I hope no one minds while I do a bit of experimenting. |
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Reg H Moderator
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And here is another...  Canadian National Railroad, in the Frazer River Canyon, August 1982. My photos tend to capture the atmosphere rather than minute details. |
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Reg H Moderator
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I am simply having too much fun !!!!  Burlington Northern GP-7 "Torpedo Boat" at the Auburn WA shops, 1977. |
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Reg H Moderator
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Simply having way too much fun...  Late afternoon BC Rail North Vancouver Shops, 1981. |
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Reg H Moderator
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This is getting addicting...  The dangers of attempting to record information from a negative. My files indicate that this is an A-B-A set of F-7's. 706 is an F-3 A. 725 is an F-7 B. And the last unit (can't make out the number) is a 'Torpedo Boat', so it is a GP-7. All are ex-NP units. Taken at the old Northern Pacific shops in Auburn WA, 1977. Oh. Thanks, Si. for re-organizing this Thread. |
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Reg H Moderator
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I am surprised at how much of my medium format work is in color. I don't remember shooting that much color.  Deception Creek Bridge, Stevens Pass, 1978. |
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Reg H Moderator
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At Foss River in Stevens Pass, 1978.  We went out year-round. This is a 35mm slide. |
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Alan Sewell Registered
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Hi Reg. Calming down from the wedding I see. Awesome photos. Glad you have got the scanner working and would love to see more of your work. Hope there are some on your trips with John H and "big muddy". Liked the Torpedo GP7. Twelve years later I saw a similar unit, but now Weyerhaeuser #312 at Klamath Falls. Think this was originally BN1870, so a close match to the one you saw at Auburn. Best wishes Alan  |
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Lee B Registered 
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Keep it coming, love it! |
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Reg H Moderator
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Alan: You are daring me to do a spread on the Alaska Expedition of 1982. Actually, after much research, I decided on a set up using my digital camera. I will post a photo. |
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Reg H Moderator
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Nason Creek Bridge, Stevens Pass 1987. Alan... given the year, this would have been a trip with John Henderson. But the 'Big Muddy' would have been retired.  I hope no one is getting bored. I am having a great deal of fun. |
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oztrainz Super Moderator 
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Hi Reg, Long live the FUN!! Please keep the photos coming Thanks |
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Alan Sewell Registered
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Hi Reg Yes keep the photos coming - they are excellent. Re: Big Muddy. My first trip with John, was at Simpson in 1989, and I thought it was in Big Muddy unless he had another van by then. Best wishes Alan |
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Reg H Moderator
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Alan: I guess my memory of the time span is off. He only had the one van. So if you rode the Big Muddy in 1989, the 1987 trip could have been in the Big Muddy. Though might have taken my vehicle. I can't remember what I was driving in 1987. I will ask Carolyn. Here is the digitizing rig I am using. It was hard to get a good angle. Though Emily has moved out, there is still a considerable amount of clutter.  |
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Reg H Moderator
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Alan: You sowed the wind, you shall reap the whirlwind... Following are photos of an Alaskan adventure, undertaken by John Henderson, Erick (the Frier) Jordan, and myself. The year was 1982. This may have been the epic railfan trip of all time. We drove up the Alaskan Highway to Skagway and then on to White Horse in the Yukon Territory. From there North to Dawson City and the Arctic Circle. I blazed through digitizing these 35mm slides, so the exposures are not representative of the original slides. Lots of blown out highlights. I will go back and re-do some of the better slides. No photo essay of this trip would be complete without at least one photo of the "Big Muddy", John Henderson's venerable 1970 Ford Van. I have many miles in the right seat of this van. As have some others, including Alan Sewell.  The sign post at Watson Lake, BC. This was started by crews building the Alaskan Highway during WW2. Of course, more of the Big Muddy. There aren't a lot of photos of John here. For a start, he was always camera shy. Plus, I pulled a lot of my photos of John for his memorial service. And now I don't know where they are. They are around here someplace.  One of my favorite subjects is "Railfans at Work". This is John and The Friar in White Horse. Note the slender gauge.  The Friar snapping shots out the vestibule, on the way to Watson Lake from Skagway aboard the White Pass & Yukon.  The Friar was the cook for the trip. We ate VERY well. The big challenge, Erick allowed as how he could cook anything in his field kitchen (this was a camping trip). So I challenged him to come up with Lasagna!! Which he did, and very good at that. I learned years later that it was the first time he had EVER made lasagna. He got the recipe off the package of noodles we procured on a grocery shopping trip in Skagway.  We got held up by forest fire at Lake Muncho. That is a whole story in itself. Anyway, we spent a few days lounging around camp. It got boring. Somewhere (and I will have to find it) there is a photo taken by John, of me taking a dip in the (glacier fed) Lake. Very entertaining.  The Friar figured he may as well get his laundry done. This is how you do jeans when all you have is a lake and a length of rope.  As mentioned, not too many pictures of John. We needed some up to date information about the fire and the roads north. Typically, John had along exactly what was needed. A shortwave radio. Ooops. I note that this photo is backwards and sideways. As I said, I blazed through digitizing these. Probably not the only one.  Lots of scenery in the north country. It is truly big country. This is coming down into one of the prettiest places on earth, Pelly Crossing on the Yukon River. Yes. That is the "highway".  Some places the transportation facilities are a bit casual. Just over my shoulder is a large bulldozer used to keep the "ramp" groomed.  This slide looks so much better than this. The wild flowers in BC and the Yukon in June are pretty spectacular. A couple of years later, after Carolyn and I had spent some time living in Anchorage, John came up to accompany me on the trip down. In the interval there had been attempts to macadamize the highway in parts of BC. It was not successful. There were chuck holes large enough to eat Chicago. I have never seen so many broken axles.  OK, it WAS a railfan trip. This is in White Horse. The jack apple in the photo would NOT stay out of our photos. I thought John was going to slug the guy at one point. Not typical of John, but he was really steamed, so to speak.  'Nuff said. Erick and I road the train to Carcross, but behind the diesels. We chased the steam engine to Lake Watson. I will need to go hunting for those photos. They would have been medium format.  On the way to Carcross. John chased this train, as we wanted to end up with the Big Muddy there, and not in White Horse. The one-way trip also got The Friar and I the famous lunch in Lake Watson. There is a whole story about that, too, as Erick and I got mixed up in a high society tour group. We had been on the road for almost two weeks and were a bit rough.  And that is the summary. |
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Alan Sewell Registered
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Well Reg Very much enjoyed the whirlwind. Think I started corresponding with John after that trip, originally as a subscriber to "Henderson's Newsletter", which came from a note in Bill Roy's "Timberbeast" magazine. I even think John sent me a Christmas card with WP&Y #73 on it. The van in the photos certainly looks like the one we rode in, from Cooks Wye down to Shelton in 1989. Please keep the photos coming. Hope you can find some industrial railroads as well, including that Alaskan Pulp mill. Best wishes. And happy Independence Day to all. Alan |
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Reg H Moderator
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Railfans at work. One of my themes. And a return to more carefully process images. This is John Taubeneck examining foundry data, particularly dates. Collecting this kind of data separates the mere "railfan", from the (according to them) more serious "ferroequinologists". Actually, John Henderson styled himself an Industrial Archeologist, with a specialty in the flanged wheel on rail.  I am not sure where this was taken. But the date on the slide frame is June, 1982. |
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Reg H Moderator
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Even more Railfans at Work...  This is Dave Gowey and Alan Winston. I do not know the location or the date. It had to be (for various reasons) before 1982. |
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Reg H Moderator
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A couple more from the 1982 Alaska trip.   Like I said, John was camera shy and I had to catch him unawares. Oh yes. That canvas water bag road in front of the grill on the Big Muddy. |
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Reg H Moderator
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Back to my favorite stuff... medium format.  A GP-38-2 on the point. This is 1988, so this is either a local or the BN was very short on power. Somewhere in Stevens Pass. |
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Si.archived Registered 
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Hi Reg  " Big Muddy " ^^ huh ?  You mean you drove all the way to Alaska ... ... & didn't go past a single car-wash ?  Or was it that you just went past ALL of them ! ?  Shoulda tied a rope to the front bumper ... ... & thrown it in the creek ^^ with the jeans !   Si. |
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Reg H Moderator
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Car wash.  On the Alaska Highway (at least back in the 80's) gas stations are only located at the lodges, between 200 and 300 miles apart. You could get gas (by the litre) a meal, and free coffee. Typically, the free coffee was drawn from a pot on the back of the stove, into which all the dregs of the day were poured. Bound to keep you awake for several hundred miles. Besides, car washing is futile. Any vehicle would look like that after only a few hundred miles. In that territory, "a few hundred miles" is just a hop, skip and a jump. It is very big country without much in it in the way of civilization. Reg |
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Lee B Registered
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Did you manage to shoot the MILW heading out to Aberdeen? |
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Reg H Moderator
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Lee: No I did not. I don't have much Milwaukee stuff at all. I do have some photos somewhere of Little Joes sitting around waiting to be scrapped. Also, the very first railfan trip with John Henderson featured a cab ride in a leased Milwaukee SW1200 (I think, might have been a 7 or 9. A long time ago) on the Chehalis & Western. John and I became instant fast friends on that trip. Reg |
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Alan Sewell Registered
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Hi Reg There is a photo in "Logging Railroads of Weyerheauser's Vail McDonald Operation", by Tewewski and Barrett, page-226, which is attributed to John H. and shows a MILW SW1200 #619 with a log train. This was it says in the mid 1970s, so could have been your trip. Would like to have seen some photos of that trip. The list at the back of the book says #619 left CW in 1975. Does that tie up? Best wishes Alan |
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Reg H Moderator
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Alan: That would have been the trip. John had just moved down to Fairbanks, He was frequenting a hobby shop, in which I was known to hang out in from time to time. I was invited on this trip by an employee at the hobby shop. The first time I met John, he was in the driver's seat of the Big Muddy. My photos from that period are not as well organized as later photos. I will see if I can find them. They would be 35mm slides. I didn't start shooting medium format until 1976 or 77. Reg |
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Reg H Moderator
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John loved esoterica. I will have to see if I can find some photos of our trip, to chase the cranberry bog railroads of western Washington. For John, the smaller, the funkier, the better. Reg |
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Si.archived Registered
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" John loved esoterica. ... our trip, to chase the cranberry bog railroads ... ... the smaller, the funkier, the better " Hi Reg  This I just gotta see !   Si. |
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Reg H Moderator
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Si. wrote:
I will see if I can find those. I committed to digitizing some wedding photos from a long time ago. Yeah, I was once a pro. Burned me out on photography for a long time. Reg |
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Si.archived Registered
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" Yeah, I was once a pro. Burned me out on photography for a long time. " Hi Reg Same Here. When something you enjoy ... Becomes hard work ! Mmm ... Well there's always Cranberry Bogs ! Si. |
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Reg H Moderator
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I can tell I will receive no peace until I find the photos from that outing. Reg |
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