Portland Sunset

Union Pacific freight train along the Willamette River in downtown Portland, Oregon.

Union Pacific's Kansas City to Portland intermodal train rolling along the Willamette River at sunset in downtown Portland. Covered hoppers of grain fill the adjacent sidings, waiting their turn to unload in the Irving elevator in the background, which would receive another ship later in the evening. Across the river, the silent hulks of flour mills stand as a reminder to a time when most of the nation's grain was still milled domestically. The I-405 Fremont Bridge soars across the river in the background. 

The train is only a few miles from its destination in southeast Portland's Brooklyn Yard, following a three-day run across most of the continent. Often it carries several boxcars of beer immediately behind the power, but today it is a solid string of containers. The clouds are evidence of changing weather in the Northwest, with a major snowstorm predicted for the coming week.