This yellowed print of Great Northern F-units hauling freight, with its visible staple holes from occasional bulletin board decoration may truly have been taken in February 1967, but could be from a preceding month -- it took me a while to get through a roll of film and get it processed in those days.
The camera was a folding Zeiss 620 roll film camera, with bellows mounted lens. Fun to operate: first you would set the f-stop and shutter speed, then the focus, then cock the lens, all with little levers and scales on the lens, then frame through the folding viewfinder, then flip up & turn the little D-lever to advance the film until the next number showed up in the little red window (covered by a sliding shutter to reduce slow light leaks between use -- or between shots on sunny days).
Impetus to go find this photo was a recent
psrail group post warning that the Meadowdale pier grade crossing would soon be fenced off.
My photo position was obviously out towards the end of the pier, a place not always publicly accessible in the intervening years, and not one I recall returning to in any case, though I have driven past the grade crossing a few times.
I had hoped to find what I recall as a companion piece to this shot, taken the same day, showing a Northern Pacific train, presumably detouring due to troubles somewhere between Black River and Bromart.
Perhaps I am wrong, and it was actually an early BN train with an all-NP consist, from a different trek out the pier. But I remember that image's 'golden hour' post-storm lighting being much as this shot, and I remember it being a print, not a slide, so 1967 is more likely.
Either way, it was surely a Sumas turn, with a full F-unit consist, and most likely with the standard trailing geep for en route switching.
And just for the heck of it, here is a reasonably good guess of an unyellowed and undimmed version of the GN print. My monitor isn't good enough for particularly accurate photo work, so I'll have to check it at the library before I know better.
save
I've been photographing trains at Richmond Beach Park on and off since 1966, but I don't think I've ever seen them switching the sidings there before today—I've seen work equipment and stored cars in the sidings, but actual switching?
I seem to recall reading that the sidings were built during World War II, to support the heavy oil traffic for the Wells Point facility, a bit to the North (railroad East).
So it seemed entirely appropriate that it was tank cars being switched here again today.
There is quite a bit going on at Point Wells these days, with the facility being dismantled and cleaned up.
I have no idea if these tank cars are associated with that, or it was purely coincidence that they were in the old tank car siding.
