Not your everyday helper setup! After a long struggle up the grade from Hilgard, stalling out once below Motanic, getting going again at a 10 MPH grind, the crew of the westbound stack train finally was forced to give up just a few miles from the summit, and gone was my chance of a last-light-of-day shot at the top of the mountain. Luckily for the railroad, a 7-unit light engine set heading east was able to head down and give them a lift, literally, to the top of the Blue Mountains. The resulting photograph, in the fading light of blue hour, shows the huge lashup of locomotives leading the train over the crest of the grade at Kamela with the conductor of the light power set riding the back end of what had been the trailing SD70ACe. In a few moments, the train will ease to a stop and the light power set will cut off. For the record, the crew of the stack train had told the dispatcher before leaving La Grande that they had serious doubts about pulling the grade with just two units...
