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On my way home from work on a cloudy Tuesday afternoon 3-9-10 I spotted a southbound UP U-SEGL pulling out of Argo.  I continued on to South Seattle where I saw the sun was dipping below the clouds brightening things up.  I parked and noticed two sets of headlights coming my way.  Overtaking the UP garbage train was a Sounder headed for Tacoma.

Leading the 7 car Sounder train was SDRX F59PHI 901.

Less than a minute later at 4:28 PM the U-SEGL approached with units 8607/4714/7824 (SD70ACe/SD70M/ES44AC)

As the train passes we get a view of some of the BNSF power at South Seattle including BNSF 742 with a freshly painted plow and FXE ES44AC 4670.

The power with the FXE leading has moved away leaving BNSF SD70MAC 9660 on another consist out in the open.  This is the former BN 9660.

I like the Grinstein paint but the lack of a BN or even BNSF herald on the front just does not look right.  Better than H2 I suppose.  Moments later the sun was back behind the clouds and I continued for home.

Back on Wednesday 2-24-10 as I drove into Auburn, WA eastbound from Highway 18 I noticed some autoracks moving southbound on the BNSF.  After exiting and turning right I soon caught up to the head end which had a pair of Geeps, the 2706/2813.  The sun was out bright for the moment with dark clouds to the east making for a rather dramatic scene.

Here is the BNSF 2706 as I paced alongside.

The GP39-2 is ex-BN 2706.  Trailing was BNSF GP39M 2813, rebuilt from BN GP30 2210.  It was originally built as the Great Northern 3010.

I watched the train continue south towards Tacoma and I turned back for Auburn.  It was a nice little diversion to say the least.

The east coast has been hit with snow, a lot of snow!  Up to 40′ in some places.  But here in Western Washington it has been wet, but no snow at all this winter in the Seattle area.  Of course with all these gray wet days it has been a rare occasion when I have brought out the camera to photograph a train.  Finally I gave in on Thursday 2-11-10 and in between rain showers took some photos between Argo and South Seattle.  I figured if I was planning on waiting for a sunny day I might be waiting a long time!

I saw a southbound BNSF Autorack train at Argo setting out cars so I waited up on the Albro Place overpass for it to head south.  I noticed a headlight to the south and first photographed a northbound BNSF garbage train, possibly the U-ROOEVE with units 715/4400/4981.

Always pleased to see a Warbonnet leading any train.  About 10 minutes later the Autorack train was headed my way.  I noticed a lighter colored unit second out and thought it was a “peach” but it turned out to be a Union Pacific GE.

Power was the 5372/UP 9814/2103. 

UP 9814 is the ex-CNW 8710, a C44-9W.  BNSF GP38-2 2103 is a former BN unit.  Note it still has class lights!

Continuing south to South Seattle I found a “peach” after all.  BNSF 4572 was at the north end of a quartet of H2 C44-9W’s, power for the evenings Z-train.  You can see the difference in shades of orange between the 4572 and 5488.

A headlight appeared from the north and I photographed the BNSF’s Renton Turn with the 2084/2106, both former BN GP38-2’s.  Of course the four Boeing 737’s trailing the power made it the days prized catch.

Here is a closer view of the power passing BNSF 4572 at South Seattle.  Note the spray from I-5 up above.  Really was a wet day.

And a shot of some of the Boeing 737 fuselages headed for the Boeing plant in Renton.  Once assembled they will fly out of Renton for Boeing field in Seattle.

And then one last shot of the “peach” I originally stopped to photograph.  That orange sure has faded!

The weather may have been lousy but at least I managed to photograph a few trains of interest.

Photographed leaving the old Stacy St yard in Seattle (now SIG) is this local with BNSF 1573/2084 (SD40-2R/GP38-2) headed for Tacoma, WA.

BNSF 1573 was built as Santa Fe SD45-2 5663 in May of 1973 and later renumbered 7203 and then 5803.  After the BNSF merger it became the BNSF 6453.  It was rebuilt by RELCO and renumbered BNSF 1573 in 2008.

BNSF 2084 is an original BN GP38-2 built in May of 1972.

It is always nice to catch EMD power like this and I enjoyed listening to the units roll by with the SD’s whine and GP’s growl.

The early part of January brought a few interesting visitors to the Seattle area, not on the BNSF but on the UP!  And both were related to the Southern Pacific. 

First was SP AC4400CW 107 at Argo on 1-6-10

It has been quite sometime since I’ve seen an unpatched SP unit around here!

Then yesterday 1-14-10 I noticed UP SD70ACe 1996 at Argo in the morning.  The 1996 is one of the “Heritage” fleet locomotives and is painted up for Southern Pacific.

Even on a cloudy day the brightly painted EMD looked really sharp!  This was also the first time I had seen one of UP’s heritage fleet locomotives so I was quite pleased.  Both the SP 107 and UP 1996 came up to Seattle on the BNSF’s Seattle Sub and went back south to Portland on the same Sub.

Tuesday afternoon 11-24-09 was cloudy as I was headed south on Airport Way and as I passed over the UP’s Argo yard saw a UP Geep switching at the south end of the yard. I have a new handheld Vado HD camcorder and had been wanting to test it out. I parked and thought an overhead shot would be good so I walked up the overpass a bit and noticed the headlight of a train coming out of Stacy Street yard. So I continued up to see what this was and noticed it was a BNSF C44-9W, but behind it was a bunch of EMD’s. Cool! It was the M-SEAPAS and it pulled up to the signals and stopped just as a crew van pulled up. A crewman got out climbed up onto the lead GE, then came a couple of toots and they were on the move.

The EMD’s sounded great. The GE chugged and the EMD’s whined. I have always enjoyed taking overhead video’s of EMD’s as the sound is much clearer and the fans on the roof are sometimes the only moving object you can see on a modern locomotive. BNSF 5266/1874/2876/2091/2334 (C44-9W/SD39-2/GP39M/GP38-2/GP38-2) passed underneath and were gone by the time I got back to the truck. Only the first three units were online but it has been a long time since I last saw 4 EMD’s on a BNSF freight out of Seattle. It was a great few minutes spent trackside.

Here is BNSF M-SEAPAS Southbound:

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Driving past South Seattle on Wednesday 11-18-09 I did a double take as I passed some BNSF power at the north end of the yard.  Trailing of three units was NS SD60 6668 in fresh paint.

With all the wide nosed units I have been seeing on the BNSF catching a non-wide nosed unit, and an off line one at that is quite a treat!  Too bad it wasn’t sunnier but I still thought it was a pretty nice catch.

The 6668 was delivered new to NS in December of 1988 so right now it is a month shy of being 21 years old.  Looks pretty good for a locomotive being around that long.

Thursday 9-10-09 I was just south of Argo and photographed a northbound work train led by BNSF 2125/4964 heading towards Seattle.

The following day, 9-11 southbound UP U-SEGL left Seattle with units 8596/4452/4796 at 2:57 PM. 

Nice to see all EMD power on the garbage train.

Sunday afternoon August 30, 2009 I headed south to Tacoma, WA to get some more photos of former NP structures buildings.  Arriving at Tacoma just before 1:00 PM I heard a UP train ready to come out onto the BNSF and head south.  At 1:04 the I-TALAR with units 4908/5477/4200 passed by beginning its long trip to LA.

Less than a half hour later UP’s M-FIHK came out of Fife on its way to Hinkle, OR at 1: 28 PM with units 4761/4986/7919/3844. 

Not bad so far.  Two UP trains with SD70M’s leading.  I then took some photos of the NP car shops as well as the sanding tower transplanted from Auburn Yard after the engine facility there was shut down in the early 1980’s.

Next BNSF’s M-EVEVAW arrived with a couple of GE’s and did some work in the yard.  A noticed a headlight approaching from the north which turned out to be the M-SEAPAS with BNSF 4303/2121/1563/4529.  The train was on the near track making a photo of it too tight so I settled for a roster shot of the 1563.  Recently renumbered from BNSF 1802 the ex-SLSF SD39-2 was headed back to Pasco where it works the hump.

I then drove to Temco to see what was going on there.  There was a lot of traffic and crowds everywhere!  Tacomas Maritime Festival was going on.  First thing I noticed was SW1200’s 175 and 185 were no longer by the 219.  Crossing the bridge I could see them by the grain elevators.  I parked nearby and walked alongside the road for some photos. 

The two ex-NP switchers were separated by one grain car. 

I am not sure why they were moved but I was happy to get some good roster shots.  Temco was shut down for maintenance so there were no trains here.  Heading back to my truck I photographed the ex-GN GP9 also used here, EFX 1611.

Note the cargo ship tied up.  I did a bit of research and the Theareston is registered in Panama.

Here is a bit of research on the 1611.  It was built as GN GP9 664 in March of 1954 and was delivered without dynamic brakes wearing the Classic Empire Builder scheme.  I can find no evidence of it in simplified orange and green and it never wore big sky blue.  An assignment check of 1969 shows the 664 was on Lines West – Montana Division based at Havre for maintenance.

After the BN merger the 664 was renumbered BN 1816 and assigned to Havre on the Billings Region.  I never did see the BN 1816 myself.  It was still on the BN roster in 1995 when the BN and ATSF merged to form the BNSF and the 1816 was then renumbered BNSF 1611.  I did a Google search for photos of the BNSF 1611 and found none!  Next thing I know there is a black and white GP9 lettered EFX 1611 working at Tacoma.  I am still not sure what EFX stands for but I do know the 1611 was the BNSF number it wore.

Before heading home I drove up to the old NP headquarters building to see it up close.  A nearly building was casting a shadow on it but I took a few photos anyway. 

In the future I will have to do more research on it and get better photos.

There has been some great discussion on Yahoo’s NP Telltale site concerning what is still NP at Tacoma, WA.   At first it was thought very little remained but now it seems the turntable was there in the NP years and Gary Tarbox found a drawing for NP Tacoma car shops dated 1957 so it looks as if the car shops were also built by the NP. 

So this would mean that the car shops at Pasco would be former NP as well as it is pretty much identical. 

Here is a photo of the Pasco car shops taken 5-22-09

And a photo of the Tacoma car shops taken 8-30-09.

Now finding some photos of these car shops prior to 1970 would go a long way in verifying this information.