Wyoming B.S. Thread

That does look like an awesome spot, and would probably be cool from a light perspective too, since you can position yourself to the south, sort of regardless of time-of-day that it's passing through.

Looks like plenty of roads around too, so you could get your van reasonably close to the SW exit of the loop, though looks like you'd still have to cross the tracks, so you could be in the sun for a bit.

Not sure on the train speed, but might also be fun to catch it on the light surface of the salt flats before W Wendover. Then you'd be racing it to the loop though.

Good luck!

 

Yeah Google is hard to tell what a road is and what isn't in this area. Picked my way along and was able to find a semi level spot (for me at least) in that area. I could potentially go to the loop in the morning and catch it there, I bet its more than feasible in the van, however that gives me one shot vs trying to catch the action twice on the lower and upper section. Hmmm. I'll settle in with a GnT or two and let that be a tomorrow problem.


Beautiful view of I80...

 

Nice. I'm with you on going to the upper/lower section. Besides the two chances, it'd be super cool if you could get the train wrapping around (though, I have no idea how long it is).

Enjoy the view!

 

Hopefully I'll get some freighters before then to get a feel for it. The 4014 train isn't very long, and probably only a drone would capture it well on the loop. It's an interesting solution to get over the mountains here.

From where I'm camped I get a slight rumble from passing trains, but a great piece of data, top to bottom took 11minutes. I notita couple other needs roll in the last hour so I'm not the only one with a great idea. I'll need to relocate in the morning as that time window is probably too tight to reposition with any freedom of composition.

 

Update cuz I'm bored...

Ran into a guy who is retired from the Union Pacific steam program. Was able to confirm I'm on the right line and even got the radio frequency so I can keep tabs on where it's at which was pretty cool. They run on just standard frequency which I found interesting, 160.470. I guess I didn't realize that some frequencies were semi private?

 

Can confirm, trainspotting is the highest form of boredom

 

it's a whole bunch of sitting around that's for sure. I don't really take myself as a foamer but I have all the symptoms of it today. Ran I to a few out here where one of them, getting a shot of this train in this section of track is like a life goal. Drove all the way from NorCal for it.

 

You clearly aren’t doing enough heroin.

 

After meeting a couple of them today, I would say no drugs, a touch of autism maybe. But really we find it acceptable for folks to be obsessed with celebrities, yet getting excited about pieces of engineering that had huge economic impact on our country is seen in a negative light. It's quite interesting from the 30k ft view what we deem as normal vs weird.

Zane you would probably appreciate listening to their radios. Been listening into their IT ticket troubleshooting which is certainly interesting. They had an engine fail, and then IT comes on to tell them why it failed and what they need do.

 

Hang out with me around a hydroelectric dam and you’ll get autism-level nerdiness. I’d love to see a Big Boy in real life as well though.

IT for an 80 year old locomotive lol

 

Haha sign me up for a tour! Love that shit.

Luckily the calls were for other trains, not the big boy. Should be be soon. Should be all steam power, no diesel is hooked to it from what the old steamer told me.

 

“Uh, did you try turning it off and back on again?”

 

The dispatch came over and said to the effect " you're low on XXXX in that unit so your dead in the water. You have three hours until you lose contact to the rear unit. But I've got your ticket submitted at least"

I wasn't entirely joking about the dam tour... Is that something that's feasible? I've been meaning to come out that way in the green truck since @Digiratus wants to give me his old bed topper for my truck. Be fun to plan a nerd trip with it.

 

For sure, and you don’t need to come very far this way. Dworshak Dam, the dams on the Clark Fork (Cabinet Gorge and Noxon Rapids), and of course Boundary Dam on the Pend O’Reille are all fantastic examples. I’ve worked on all of them, as well as Long Lake Dam on the Spokane River, which is one of my favorites.

 

We were just talking about where the Spokane river feeds into the Columbia (not the Snake). Long Lake looks interesting. I've never explored any of that area.

 

Most of the area around long lake is farms and scrubland. Further north towards Colville has some interesting looking areas, that’s the whole Lost Corner region I think. And around Boundary/Metaline Falls is pretty cool.

 

I've been through Metaline and Metaline Falls a few times. Once was with you on a dirt route over to ID and MT in 2020. Been on highway 31 in to Canada too with turbo in 2022. Have yet to make it to Boundary dam though.

 

I had high hopes for that dirt route along the border. Blocked by one pesky landslide.

If you crossed on 31, you were within spitting distance of the Boundary overlook. There is a super secret squirrel camping spot on the river if the line crew left the gate open.

 

So close!

48.98825617159251, -117.3130834622279

This is where we camped before we went to Rady Creek. It was an ok campsite, had the place to ourselves. But being down on the river would have been better.

 

Stripped spark plug. Was running fine before I guess.

Also passenger side was side swiped so it's not cherry by any means. Asking 1800 for it.

I don't know either. But I'd think it should swap fine. That's why I need this 4runner multimode case vs the surf one I got from Brett. It's a rear shift vs forward shift.

I'd love the locker. And it's likely got 4.30s in it. Be a lot of work though. More likely to stick a locker in the 4.56 later though.

Convincing the wife is another story though..

Nice! We just got back from Shoshone lake at 9500'. Was amazing weather. Perfect honestly. Don't have it all to ourselves but the other folks were camped about a mile down from us so didn't even know.

The road was both worse and somehow not as bad as I thought. Lot has changed especially the mile and a half down to the lake. Some of the line I used to take in Frank I'd not even try without a locker at least and maybe even 35s.

I only got stuck once on the way up which was really only because I was flying solo and had no spotter and couldn't see the top of the line. But ripped the hilift out and got it handled quick. Just a. Snag on the cross member.

Was super fun either way. And great to see @BossFoss on the way out.




I took a few photos with the camera. But we all know how that goes..