PDXrail transit
Your reference to Van de Kamps brought back many memories. As a kid, up through junior high school, my mother loved to have lunch at Van de Kamps and she often took me along. Instead of parking in the VDK parking lot, she would park on Casitas Ave and from there we would walk along Fletcher Drive crossing the SP tracks, to reach VDK, thus allowing me to see the trains. About half the time there was activity on the “slide” as cars were switched at the ‘top end’ of Taylor Yard. Most switching was done across Fletcher Drive with Baldwin switch engines. Somewhere I have a picture of a Daylight painted GS4 being used as a helper on a freight train. I took the picture from the Fletcher Drive crossing. What an insult for a GS4.
Later on in high school, we often visited the VDK drive-in, but at that time trains were not our primary interest. Funny how that works.
Years later I had lunch at Lowery’s, but it was no equal to VDK.
Thanks for the nostalgic excursion back to the VDK experience.