Railfanning the Yellowstone Branch / Eastern Idaho Railroad

By Josh Bernhard
(Click on the links embedded in location names to see them on Google Maps.)

Right at the border of Yellowstone National Park is this monument to the railroad's influence in the development of the park.

Among all the states in the union, Idaho is one of the least represented states as far as railfanning. If you follow our Facebook page, the first photo I posted there of the Eastern Idaho Railroad received a slew of comments from Idaho natives who apparently took light-hearted offense at this idea. Apparently some thought that I meant that there are no trains in Idaho but I meant quite the opposite. It's true that there are great locations to photograph trains in Idaho but the state is on nobody's bucket list as far as places to visit, giving way to the Colorado narrow gauge, or Pennsylvania's East Broad Top, or California's dozens of excellent preserved lines. I think this is a shame considering Idaho has some amazing scenery and while daily traffic may not be on par with the Arizona Transcon, once you find a train, it is more than worth the effort. This is especially true of the old Oregon Short Line Yellowstone Branch, the line that opened the west side of Yellowstone National Park, established the town of West Yellowstone and brought thousands, if not millions, of people to enjoy the world's first national park before the age of the automobile.

The branch was built by the Oregon Short Line from 1905 to 1907 to tap into the growing tourist traffic that exploded in the late 1890s. Yellowstone National Park had railroad access via the north entrance from the Northern Pacific so the OSL sought to break open the NP monopoly and allow access for tourists from the southern half of the country. The west entrance and the town of West Yellowstone themselves are the direct product of the railroad and would probably have never existed without it - before the railroad began construction from Ashton, West Yellowstone was simply unsurveyed Forest Service land. Unfortunately Passenger traffic on the Yellowstone Branch ended in 1960 and the rails were torn up from West Yellowstone to Ashton. Today the remainder of the branch, from Idaho Falls to Ashton, is operated by the Eastern Idaho, a Wabtec company with the reporting mark WAMX. The line is fairly well known for its fleet of GP30s and safety cab Canadian GP40-2LWs, most of which are stationed on the western portion of the railroad. The northern portion, which operates the Yellowstone branch, uses mostly GP35s.

The Eastern Idaho Railroad operates the Yellowstone Branch using these smartly-painted black and yellow geeps.

If perchance you find your way to the old Yellowstone branch on the way to the park, the bad news is that trains are few and far between. In the four years that I worked in the Yellowstone area, I only saw one train on the branch, running North to Ashton in the late afternoon. Over the week that I was there in 2017 I saw two trains, one coming off the branch into the yard at Idaho Falls on a Friday afternoon and one leaving Idaho Falls on a Wednesday morning. In speaking to locals in some of the towns along the way they all agreed that trains run simply as needed, with no guarantee of when or how far they will run when they do. In addition the Yellowstone Branch has two smaller branches that break off, one at Orvin on the north end of Idaho Falls going to Newdale, and the other at Ucon going towards Menan. Neither of this smaller branches parallel a road for any good measure of distance apart from where they pass through towns so photographing a train on these lines is even more difficult.

The good news is that the main branch runs almost due north, so sunlight is good almost all day, depending on whether you take Highway 20 (afternoon) or the old Yellowstone Highway (morning). The downside to the Yellowstone Highway is that it is no longer an uninterrupted road but rather appears and disappears at random every few miles, so chasing a train will require hopping back and forth between it and Highway 20 where on ramps are available. Traffic on the Yellowstone Branch consists of three main commodities: grain, potatoes and fuel oils. Tank cars, hoppers and those white Union Pacific ARMN refrigerator cars are the staple rolling stock seen. Since agricultural traffic is largely seasonal, traffic levels fluctuate through the year as harvests wax and wane.

Potato packing plants are equally as common as grain elevators on the branch, playing well with the Idaho stereotype. Cruddy, rusty ARMN reefers are used for this service.

Your tour begins at Idaho Falls, where the Eastern Idaho Railroad interchanges with Union Pacific. A few daily UP locals from Pocatello terminate there and EIRR switching traffic is fairly constant throughout the day. The best time to see the yard is in the morning from the northern end, where a parking lot and street parallel it on a bluff giving a slightly elevated view. In the afternoons you can see the other side of the yard in sun from Centre Avenue (the Union Pacific end) and Emerson Avenue (the EIRR end).

The Idaho Falls yard sees a lot of traffic as EIRR and UP trains switch local industries as well as prepare trains to head out on the Yellowstone Branch. Here the Yellowstone turn pulls out of the yard while another GP35 switches in the background and an SD24 rests near the yard office.

Between Idaho Falls and Rexburg the branch is pretty straightforward, literally. A clean straight shot north with a siding here and there for potato packers. After Rexburg the tracks get a bit more interesting, curving a bit with more sidings branching off at right angles for sawmills and fuel dealerships. However, they run at an angle through the city so there is no one road that parallels them. Following the tracks involves a zig-zag going from one block to another until the track reaches the other end. Just make sure to stop at every track because Rexburg is the only city I have been to where every single grade crossing is protected with a mandatory stop sign - it is easy to forget this when most non-gated crossings are protected only with crossbucks.

This cluster of elevators in Rexburg looks like it may be built around the old freight depot. The building closest to the tracks looks very much like an OSL standard depot.

  

While in Rexburg, be sure to stop at Smith Park near the hospital to check out the steam tractor there. It is a monster of a machine.

At St. Anthony the elevator districts start cropping up and at Ashton the tiny town is filled and surrounded with a maze of spurs, sidings and a wye servicing Elevator Row right on Main Street. Ashton is in my opinion the most interesting of the towns, being the current end-of-track and former junction with the Teton Valley Branch that ran to Victor Idaho.

Garry, Idaho is a typical example of the scenery seen along much of the Yellowstone Branch between Idaho Falls and Rexburg. A potato packer is served by a spur at this location.

 The spurs at Thornton were being reballasted during my trip.

If you wish to continue from Ashton for a bit of ghost railfanning, the grade for the old Yellowstone Branch has been reclaimed by fields. However, it turns east to parallel the Henry's Fork River until it pops out as the Yellowstone Branch Line trail at the Warm River Campground just off the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway. No roads parallel the trail for a long time but it can be hiked or biked through Island Park to West Yellowstone (more on that later). The Teton Valley Branch likewise runs far away from any parallel roads until France Idaho where it more or less parallels the road to Tetonia. The abandoned elevators along this line are as interesting as the railroad grade itself. From appearances where it crosses roads it appears that it is an open access road, but I have not been able to confirm how much is driveable.

Ashton's elevators have their own trackmobile to switch cars when an EIRR locomotive isn't around.

Regardless of whether or not you decide to search out the abandoned grades, the best part of ghost railfanning this line is at the terminus at West Yellowstone. There, the Union Pacific depot, baggage building and Union Pacific Lodge still stand, donated to the City of West Yellowstone. The depot itself is an excellent museum (entry fee $6.00) with a short bit of track relaid along the platform and a car from the Montana Centennial Train representing the once busy passenger traffic on the branch bringing tourists to the park.

Just to the east of the depot are the baggage building, now used by the West Yellowstone Police Department, and the Union Pacific Lodge. Interestingly, the linens from this huge hotel were shipped by train to Ogden Utah where the world's only railroad-owned industrial laundry facility existed. The building still stands and is part of the Utah State Railroad Museum complex although it is closed to the public due to its poor structural condition.

This little stretch of track is a definite bonus to a vacation to the park, so next time you head to the Yellowstone/Teton area be sure to look for it. Maybe you'll be lucky and get some great shots.

Links
Eastern Idaho Railroad website
Eastern Idaho Railroad on Railpictures.net (check out Russell Watson's pictures of the Yellowstone Branch)

Chasing Union Pacific 844: Ogden to Green River

 This is now the Desert Empire Project facebook banner, and for good reason - on one end we have an FEF-2, UP 833, and on the other an FEF-3, UP 844, two classic Union Pacific Northerns in preservation.

In case you haven't followed our recent articles, Jacob covered April 2017's "Boise Turn" from Pocatello Idaho to Ogden Utah in the last post; I took up the baton and followed the 844 on its return journey all the way to Green River, Wyoming. The journey began on Wednesday, April 26th while the 844 was still on display at the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden. A Union Pacific Engineer's Special was passing through over the ex-D&RGW Soldier Summit route (today's Provo Subdivision) so I had to chase it from Provo to the Red Narrows before heading north to meet up with Jacob and Schon for a Desert Empire Project party (having our four editors spread between four cities and two states means that we usually only coordinate via internet chat).

 I met Schon and Jacob near Salt Lake City so we could drive to Ogden together; waiting for them gave an opportunity to photograph UTA's Trax system.

The reason for being in Ogden on Wednesday was that I, as a director for the Golden Spike Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society (the group behind the restoration of D&RGW 223), was invited to the Steam Crew Banquet hosted by the Union Station Foundation to thank Union Pacific for bringing the 844 to Ogden. This is a tradition that stretches back decades, and in fact we have heard from several past and present Steam Team members that Ogden is their favorite place to stop because of the hospitality and friendliness. The banquet was attended by representatives of both government and rail preservation groups, including the Promontory Chapter NRHS, Golden Spike National Historic Site and Dynamic Rail Preservation.

Then it was off to bed - after confirming that the crew would be up and preparing the locomotive at 5:00 am the next morning, I knew that if I wanted to beat the crowds and get some good early-morning shots I needed to be up by 4:00. Seeing the 844 alone, yet alive, in the post-rainstorm night really set the clock back. Replace the crew's reflective jackets with normal overalls and the scene could have been any day at the Junction City in 1955. Once the sun came up the people started pouring in so I hurried to stake out a spot at 26th Street where I hoped the bulk of the crowds would not be. There I met with Mitch Harvey, who is developing a digital simulation of the entire Salt Lake and Evanston Subdivisions of the Union Pacific System for Railworks. He was my copilot and official out-the-window photographer for the trip; this was a good opportunity for him to perform field research for his project. Unfortunately, and perhaps it was because of the lack of sleep, I made several mistakes throughout the day that eventually struck me out from my plan of filming the entire trip.

After watching the 844 leave the Union Station (after minor problems with the electrical system) we raced to Peterson on the other side of Weber Canyon to catch it on the curve just before the highway bridge. I somehow messed up the settings on the video camera and overexposed the image there. It was also there that we realized the sheer magnitude of the crowds that also were chasing as I-84 became a parking lot within minutes of the locomotive passing us. Traffic was stop-and-go all the way to Emory and it was impossible to catch up. Here is an important lesson for photographers - NEVER PACE THE TRAIN ON A FREEWAY. The train was going 15 mph under the speed limit, and both lanes were trying to stay alongside, completely blocking traffic. Those idiots really made a lot of people angry (myself included) and the traffic was held up almost ten miles back until the I-80 junction where most of them jumped ship. Common courtesy is one commodity that is almost always absent from railroad related events.

Two shots of the traffic near Morgan.

Basically, the first four stops that we had carefully planned two weeks in advance were out of the question. Once past Emory the traffic cleared enough for us to arrive at Castle Rock with time to set up and wait as a westbound freight inched its way by before the 844 arrived. The canyon isn't called Echo for nothing, and the sound of the steam locomotive pounding the iron on an upgrade was incredible. Luckily the extra time there gave me the chance to find and fix the exposure problem for the remainder of the day.

This westbound freight entertained us and the dozens of other photographers perched on the edge of the bluff at Castle Rock. Spencer Peterson of UCrail.com was alongside us although we didn't recognize it until after we began posting our individual photos on our respective sites.

The Boise Turn passes the freight at Castle Rock

Then the traffic held us up again, preventing a stop at Wahsatch and forcing us to arrive in Evanston at the same time as the 844. Union Pacific shut down both east and westbound mains for the duration of the 844's half-hour stay there, effectively holding back several freights.

The Evanston yard, with both mains shut down, was flooded with people, many of whom followed the train from Utah.

Mitch and I decided to continue on to find a good spot; after much thought, some confusion, and multiple last-minute decisions, we chose a spot called Leroy, the site of a now-demolished section house. Only the trees planted by the railroad and a small dugout mark the site as having once been inhabited. It was here as well that the wind really picked up, blowing over my tripod which luckily was caught by another photographer who Mitch had met a year ago in Salt Lake City.

From Leroy it was a mad dash down a muddy dirt road to reunite with the interstate and reach Granger before the train, which luckily we did. The gentleman at Leroy advised us to run straight through Granger to the bridge just west of town, which was some of the best advice I have ever received. We had the location all to ourselves as the 844 slowed from track speed to enter the town, where it stayed for another half hour. Unfortunately I set up the tripod on a stack of ties which turned out to be very unstable and with each gust of wind pushed the camera further and further to the side.

The bridge at Granger. Note I was not on the bridge or the track but took this photo from a distance with a zoom lens.

Then on to town to find a sudden and unexpected population explosion as the little town was invaded with people who were there to see it the 844 despite strong winds and alternating hail/snow/rain/sun that hit us every five minutes or so. Granger's existence depends on the junction between the Transcontinental mainline and the ex-Oregon Short Line Pocatello subdivision to Idaho so rail traffic is heavy through there. As temperatures dropped I realized I didn't bring a jacket, so the emergency raincoat was pulled from the back of my car to improvise. Two westbound freights passed through, one of them a Herzog ballast train, while we waited, and then it was on to Green River where the real party began.

 A westbound ballast train approaches Granger

UP 844 highball Granger!

Winds kept getting stronger the further we went until they exceeded 40 mph; when we reached Green River we thought the pedestrian overpass spanning the yard would be a great place to film the train coming in, but the wind was strong enough to sway the bridge enough to cause nausea and vertigo. In addition, a long line of freights and intermodal trains were backed up in the yard so the 844 was held for hours as one westbound after another pulled out.

The 844 was held here for several hours while westbound freights poured through Green River. Dozens of people were crowded on the pedestrian overpass waiting for it to move which it never did.

 A yard job passes under the overpass. Extremely strong winds caused the bridge to sway back and forth, yet this tenacious crowd stuck to it for hours despite the 844's lack of activity during that time.

One of many freights that passed through while waiting for the 844.

After waiting for more than two hours we decided to head back to Ogden, where we caught one more freight in Echo Canyon before parting ways for the day.

This was a great chase. Upon returning to Utah, several friends remarked that we were crazy for going all the way to Green River. In a way we are, I guess. You need to be crazy to devote so much time and effort into following a steam locomotive.

You can watch the video from this trip here:

And my video from the last time UP 844 passed through Utah here:

-Josh

Spring of 2012; A Railfan Trip Down to the Durango and Silverton

Spring break of 2012; I was a young adult ready to graduate high school when my dad and I set of for a journey down to the Four Corners area. I had a desire to go and see the famed Durango and Silverton railroad. I was a relatively new railfan, having been actively photographing trains for only a few years. 

It was during this time I had a hankering to go and see some good steam engines at work. Other than my family trips to Disneyland every other year or so; I rarely got the opportunity to see steam engines. The clean, polished, and cooking grease fired steamers at Disney also made them seem less authentic than "the real deal" engines lurking at other railroads and museums. It had been years since I had visited the Golden Spike National Historic Site at Promontory Summit, and at that time the Heber Valley's steam had gone quiet. My only memories of steam that were fresh in my mind were a brief encounter with Virginia and Truckee #29 in Virginia City, Nevada; and a brief chase of UP 844 through my hometown in late 2011.

August 8, 2010; other than my encounters with the Disneyland steamers; I went years between my experiences as a small child seeing UP 618 and the Promontory engines in steam, to the point in 2010 when I got to see Virginia and Truckee #29 "Robert C. Gray" pulling a short car load of tourists into the station in Virginia City, Nevada. I didn't get to ride the engine that day; nor did I have more than ten minutes to admire it... But the oily smoke, the hissing machinery, and the beautiful appearance of this 2-8-0 reignited a passion for steam engines within me.

If the V&T 29 piqued my interest in steam engines, it was the UP 844 which set the hook! I was lucky enough to have the 844 pass through my hometown on the Lynndyl Subdivision during my senior year of high school. Compared to the hundreds of miles some railfans take to chase these steamers, my brief jaunt across the county from Stockton to Erda, Utah; was rather modest in comparison. Yet the image of a large steamer blasting through my hometown has stuck with me.

One amazing thing about steam engines is that you don't need to be a dedicated railfan or "foamer" to understand the appeal. A large crowd of locals gathered in Stockton, Utah; to see UP 844 when it stopped in town. This sight would be repeated nearly three years later in 2014 when Big Boy 4014 was towed through town dead in consist.

With my renewed interest in steam engines reaching fever interest; my dad and I planned our trip to see the Durango and Silverton. Along the way, we would stop at both Arches National Park, and Mesa Verde National Park. Our route would take us over old Denver and Rio Grande Western territory, including Soldier Summit and Spanish Fork Canyon (places I finally got to go and railfan up close just a few weeks ago as I wrote about in this blog post here). I was a new comer to Soldier Summit at the time, I had only passed through the route twice before; first time in 2006 with my family (back when SD40T-2 units such as DRGW 5371 still called Helper home), and a second time with my local Boy Scouts of America group to go to a camp in Moab. I wasn't stopping to admire the scenery in Spanish Fork Canyon with my dad, as my knowledge of the area was still growing and new. I had heard about the Thistle landslide, and I knew that Helper was named after helper locomotives; but that was about it! 

On a bit of non-train related side note; my dad and I stopped in Moab to see Delicate Arch before setting off on the road again. Once we reached the vantage point of the arch, rain clouds formed and soon we were drenched in a quick desert rain. Fortunately, my camera stayed dry during the process; ready for the train pictures coming up the following day...

After a surprisingly wet stop in Arches National Park, my dad and I continued on our trip to Durango, Colorado. What followed was one of the most quirky road trips I had ever been on. My dad and I entered what was new territory for the both of us as we passed down into the Four Corner's region. My Grandfather Lyman insisted that we stopped in Dove Creek, Colorado; to buy him some Anasazi Beans. After searching the town high and low to buy some Anasazi Beans, we continued on our trip; beans in tow, only to shortly there after recognize the brakes on our old Dodge Caravan weren't doing so good... As we made the descent down Highway 160 in darkness, my dad was fighting the brakes in the car to keep us on the road. Our dramatic descent into Durango was without incident though, and we were fortunately able to come to a stop at the end of the road! 

It was there at the intersection of Highway 160 and 550; that I got my first glimpse of the Durango and Silverton railroad. In the cold damp air, steam was rising above the roundhouse; suggesting the slumbering steam locomotives inside. Few moments in my time railfanning have made me feel like I was in another time; that I was witnessing something far more ancient than I was (walking around East Ely yard in the Nevada Northern, and watching a set of MK50-3 units being fired up in Martin, Utah; are the only comparable memories in my mind). I was ecstatic for our upcoming trip on the railroad, and could hardly wait for the next day! 

Of course, we had to find our hotel building... After driving up and down the 550 a bit, we finally pulled our beaten Dodge Caravan into a parking lot and set off to sleep for the night. It had been a long trip getting there!

After my dad ensured that our Dodge Caravan was in a repair shop getting new brakes; we finally rushed off to the train station in Durango. Durango is a unique town; while the railroad gives it a certain historical appeal, tourism and the local university have kept the place modern. This is not the hard luck mining town that the Denver and Rio Grande Western served; but instead a modern small city. While the darkness of the night made the sight of the railroad more authentic feeling, in broad daylight it felt more anachronistic. The large McDonalds encroaching the railyard, only helped to further the feeling like the railroad was the prized antique in a very modern city. Any feelings of modern encroachment though were shunned when I finally got to get close to our train.  

The classic narrow gauge rolling stock was being lead by D&S 478. An ALCO 2-8-2, the utilitarian look of this K-28 class engine was in stark contrast with the refined taste of the V&T 29, the race horse look of the 844, or the pristine colors of those Disneyland engines. 478, looked like a true working steamer, weathered; oily, and dirty. Appliances sat on the frame and smokebox of the engine, hissing and growling. The coal smoke it breathed was dirty and dense; not unlike the smelters and mines this engine was built to serve. The winter snowplow was still affixed on the pilot of the engine, and gave it a sort of mean, aggressive look. It was everything I was hoping for, and as we climbed aboard for our trip to the Cascade Wye, I was excited to see this machine in action.

After our train left Durango; we began to climb through the river valley and then slowly up through a small forest on approach to Rockwood. Even though our train was running in what is considered "the off-season" for the Durango and Silverton; we still had quite the crowd with us on the train. The first car was entirely full of school kids on a trip, with their teaches herding them and keeping them in line. There was a large amount of European tourists. One of them who I remembered, was a man from Britain who was taking a month long vacation to the United States. He was riding Amtrak across the country, getting out to see the tourists steam railroads along the way! Another group of European tourists smuggled what appeared to be a zip lock bag of Vodka onto the train, and were sharing it among themselves.

I was spending a large chunk of the trip from one of the open air cars, watching as our train entered Rockwood. The forest here made it hard to see the engine up front, but the distinct chuffing sound carried all the way back to us. After departing Rockwood, we began our trip along the highline route.

There is a very good reason that the highline on the Silverton Branch is world renowned. The Denver and Rio Grande Western and its predecessors, seemed to have an astounding habit of building railroads in the most extreme of mountain passes. Sharp curves and sudden drops can give riders a sense of vertigo, as the train slowly crawls through the terrain. It is absolutely a gorgeous area to, making it look less like a real railroad; and more like something out of the mind of some model railroader. 478 held up well making the trip, even as her stalk barked in loud chuffs signalling the effort the engine was putting into keeping our train climbing up hill.

After crossing the bridge over the Animas river, our train came closer to the waterside. This part of the trip is not to dissimilar to the experiences one may get on the Heber Valley Railroad in Utah or other tourist lines; as the train snakes alongside a river in a forested canyon. Of course, even in springtime this forest of the Durango and Silverton was chilly; a reminder of its high altitude. We were truly in the heart of the mountains, and 478 pulled us towards the Cascade Wye.

Now out in the woods, parked on the leg of the wye, and away from such modern structures such as Durango's McDonalds and coffee shops; #478 truly looked like it was back in its element. The forest was a great backdrop to view the engine, and crowds gathered around to closely inspect the stalwart machine which had brought us this far on our journey. Of course, even at rest on the wye; the crew was preparing our train for our departure back to Durango. The engine's two air compressors on its smokebox were firing constantly, probably filling up the air tanks to provide a steady air stream to power the brakes which would keep our train under control on the downhill trip. Every time the air compressors fired, the front of the engine would violently shudder; as if the machine was sneezing! 

Our trip down hill had the benefit of being able to try and nag some photos and views of the train for a second time. We crawled along the highline again, admiring the scenery one last time before our train returned to Durango. Although the Cascade Wye "off-season" trip is shorter than the summer season trains to Silverton, it is still a lengthy journey which takes a round trip of three hours to complete. Compared to modern passenger trains, or highway speeds; the narrow gauge steamers of Durango are rather slow. Yet, the view is incredible; and watching a train being pulled by a steam train is always a ton of fun. I am pretty sure sometime during this leg of the trip, a piece of ash from the engine landed in my eye! Ouch! One of the few downsides to riding behind a coal burning steamer I guess! 

On our return to Durango we toured the line's roundhouse. The roundhouse was built in the 1990's to replace the original, which had been destroyed in a fire. We toured the museum displays inside, then watched as diesel engine #11 began switching the yard. The Durango and Silverton's small fleet of diesels are used only for MOW trains, yard switching, and dry summers where using a steam engine runs the risk of starting a lineside fire. 

Once our Dodge Caravan left the repair shop, my dad and I were off out of Durango on our way to see Mesa Verde National Park. Although we had left behind the famed railroad, the memories of riding behind a K-28 climbing up the Animas River valley is still fresh in my mind.

-Jacob Lyman