Studio Note: Painting the Union Pacific Rail Yard

Brandon Waite

While scouting familiar industrial corners of Eugene, I finally set up to paint a long-observed Union Pacific rail yard off Irving Road. This small 10x8-inch plein air study captures the rhythm of stationary boxcars, overhead wires, and the quiet movement of engines beneath the freeway overpass. With an eye toward structure and contrast, I worked to balance the hard-edged geometry of the scene against the softer forms of the distant hillside, all while navigating the usual on-site challenges of scale, composition, and curious passersby.

This is a smaller 10x8-inch painting completed on-site en plein air, taking about an hour and a half from start to finish. I’d been eyeing this spot for a few months, regularly passing by it a few times a week. The location is a Union Pacific rail yard in the Santa Clara area of Eugene, Oregon, near Irving Road and the Northwest Expressway. It’s a distinctly industrial part of town, with numerous businesses, including a large lumber mill.

The access road is a wide gravel lot just off Irving, right before the light. I parked a good distance away from the tracks, just short of the more heavily trafficked service road used by rail workers traveling alongside the lines.

There are typically a few lines of parked train cars in this section, and on this day, I caught a long string of boxcars in various styles. Farther down, a stationary engine sat idle under the freeway overpass, adding an interesting focal point.

During the painting session, there was steady rail activity. A few train operators maneuvered an engine up one of the empty lines, switched tracks, then headed back down. A couple of official-looking trucks drove by as I set up; I worried momentarily about being asked to leave since I was technically trespassing, but they just waved and kept moving.

The painting process itself went well. I initially struggled with scaling the proportions of the trains and tracks, but as I established key landmarks, things fell into place. It was a solid exercise in observation, translating what I saw in real time onto a small canvas.

The biggest challenge was preserving the industrial character—capturing the rigid lines of the overpass, power lines, and rail tracks—while balancing them against the softer shapes of the distant mountain and hillside greenery. I laid down a cadmium yellow underpainting to inject vibrancy, which worked, but it left a subtle greenish tint across the piece. It’s not unpleasant, but in hindsight, I’d prefer using a bright pink or burnt sienna for the underlayer.

Impressionistic landscape painting of a Union Pacific rail yard with overhead wires and distant hills

Overall, it was a dynamic and rewarding location to paint, with plenty of movement and contrast to keep things engaging.

If interested you can inquire about purchasing this painting here: https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/brandonwaite/artwork/rail-yard-brandon-waite