Wreck Rapid
Stumbled into a pretty cool little photo joint called the William Joseph Gallery yesterday and among the billion sweet historical shots of the American West, including work by the legendary Ray Atkeson (Warren Miller’s contemporary, considered by many the Ansel Adams of the Northwest), Larry Olson and the badass Umpqua photog Dan Callaghan, i found this shot from Allen deLay. Always suspected Wreck Rapid was named such because of an um, wreck or something, but it’s pretty bomber to actually see.
Description reads: Maupin train wreck. a head-on collision between northbound steam engine 3128 and southbound diesel engine 440 occurred 57.6 miles up the Deschutes River on the west bank rail tracks. The location is 3.8 miles up the river from Sherars Bridge, which is near Maupin, Oregon. Since then, this site has been called Wreck Rapids. Three men running the trains died. Train 440 was carrying a load of horses and only one survived in good condition.
Anyway, anyone in PDX oughta stop in there sometime and chat up the guy behind the counter. Fella knows a ton of cool stuff about the history behind a ton of killer old river shots.
December 12th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Very cool. I’ll have to check it out.
“The location is 3.8 miles up the river from Sherars Bridge, which is near Maupin, Oregon.”
I think they mean “north of Sherars Bridge.”
December 12th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
x2 Bac!
And winter is a great time for Stumptown regulars to go and get lost in our history. Great place!
December 12th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
If you want to be overwhelmed by a collection of old Oregon photos, you should check this guy out some time:
http://www.historicphotoarchive.com
Huge collection of photographs, and I think that WJ gets a lot of their images from him. Spent the better part of an afternoon chatting and browsing his collection a few years ago, and bought a few cool Celilo prints. Much cheaper than WJ, too.
December 12th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Kinda cool to see trains so clean looking. I guess tagging trains wasn’t always an “art form” requiring “artists” to write shit I can’t even read.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:41 am
very cool.
December 14th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
mang I love this kinda shit!
December 15th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
it’s moments like these when i’m reminded what a sneaky marketer you are
December 15th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
damn, forgot i’m on the payroll of union pacific.
December 15th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
good stuff…
December 18th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Sweet shot.
I agree, pretty nice not seeing the train cars all full of gang signs and Tupac Quotes