Miller River - a photo on Flickriver

Miller River

            Eastbound Amtrak #8, The Empire Builder, streaks over the BNSF Miller River Bridge between Skykomish, WA and the former timetable location of Grotto.  Despite being well after sunset, the rising full moon cast enough light to fill the foreground somewhat during my time exposure.

Grotto has not appeared in a timetable since the end of 1982, at that time the intermediate location between Baring and Skykomish was removed as unnecessary.  At the same time, Peshastin on the east side of Stevens Pass was also stricken from the official records.  Both locations would live on in railroad parlance though, as the nearby talking defect detectors would announce their named location before the mileage on their broadcasts.  I recall many times in my childhood being roused from early morning slumber at the Sky River Inn in Skykomish by a detector readout at Grotto, and scrambling trackside to get a photo of the impending eastbound train.

My vantage point for this photo is from a rocky bar at the edge of the river.  The Old Cascades Highway had a parallel span to the railroad above my position until a storm event in 2011 damaged the bridge enough to have it condemned and removed.

Taken in: United States / Washington / Miller River (show map)

Taken on: October 4, 2025

Tags:

Scenic Subdivision

Skykomish

Miller River

Bridge

Empire Builder

Amtrak

P42DC

BNSF

Passenger Train

Time Exposure

Night Photography

Fall Color « less

Sets appears in: • BNSF Stevens Pass

Groups appears in: • Night Images • I love Amtrak more » • North American Railfanning • railfans • BNSF - Burlington Northern Santa Fe • Railway Photographers • Steel Rails Across North America. • U.S. Railfan Pictures • Pacific Northwest Railroad Photography • Trainspottingmaps.com • Railfan Atlas • Rail Pictures North America « less

Camera: Nikon D850, f/9.0, 37.2 sec, 38mm, ISO 500 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D850
Aperture:	f/9.0
Exposure Time:	37.2
Focal Length:	38mm
ISO:	500
Exposure Bias:	-5/3 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 (Windows)
Show full info

Stats: 529 views / 15 comments

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder