This is sort of a trip report? I only rode the Union Pacific Domeliner City of Portland twice, and that was just from Portland to The Dalles. Long enough to have lunch in the dome diner. However, it was around town enough to be a familiar sight. At the Union Station for its departure, it was spotted on one of the outer tracks, across the high shed pavement, so that a dome car could be centered to impress passengers and people seeing them off.
Lesser known was its trip through Northeast Portland in Sullivans Gulch. Passengers usually were getting settled down as the train eastbound traversed the curves and weren't paying attention. If they did get up into a dome, they could see the Banfield Freeway (US30 at that time). Traffic really moved on the freeway because there was so little of it. Because of my interest in using the gulch for a future rapid transit line I had explored it from the Steel Bridge to 122nd Avenue (not all at once!), but as train-offs accelerated, it dawned on me that I should get photos of passenger trains in the gulch. In the 1960's there were six daily passenger trains on the line, with Train 106, the eastbound "City" being easiest to photograph.
Diesel exhaust from the A-B-A units blows back over the Dome Coach as Train 106 climbs up from the river crossing.
The Dome Diner was open for lunch and the Dome Lounge was also ready to serve passengers.
Off to Pendleton, Boise, Laramie, Denver, Omaha, Chicago. From 1977 to 1997, this line was used by Amtrak's Pioneer. For the past four decades the MAX Blue Line tracks have been squeezed between the UP and I-84.
Lesser known was its trip through Northeast Portland in Sullivans Gulch. Passengers usually were getting settled down as the train eastbound traversed the curves and weren't paying attention. If they did get up into a dome, they could see the Banfield Freeway (US30 at that time). Traffic really moved on the freeway because there was so little of it. Because of my interest in using the gulch for a future rapid transit line I had explored it from the Steel Bridge to 122nd Avenue (not all at once!), but as train-offs accelerated, it dawned on me that I should get photos of passenger trains in the gulch. In the 1960's there were six daily passenger trains on the line, with Train 106, the eastbound "City" being easiest to photograph.
Diesel exhaust from the A-B-A units blows back over the Dome Coach as Train 106 climbs up from the river crossing.
The Dome Diner was open for lunch and the Dome Lounge was also ready to serve passengers.
Off to Pendleton, Boise, Laramie, Denver, Omaha, Chicago. From 1977 to 1997, this line was used by Amtrak's Pioneer. For the past four decades the MAX Blue Line tracks have been squeezed between the UP and I-84.
