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I decided I wanted to do something a little different today. Usually I am out on the ex-NP mainline somewhere in Eastern Washington but wanted to spend the day on this side of the mountains. I picked Tacoma as there were a few locations I wanted to get to along Ruston Way. It was about 1:30 PM when I got to Tacoma and first thing I saw was a southbound BNSF train sitting on the main at the grain terminal led by an H2 SD70MAC. Must be waiting on northbounds I figured. Of course it was blocking my planned first location from the overpass looking out over the grain terminal so it was on to plan B, McCarver Street.

UP ran two northbounds first.

At 1:51 PM a general merchandise train went by northward.

There were a lot of reefers on this train!

And at 2:10 PM a northbound UP stack train led by the 7475/2247 is approaching McCarver Street.

Trailing was UP SD60M 2247. I checked and last time I photographed a UP SD60M was in 2008. 4 years has been a long time!

Bringing up the rear was DPU 8703.

Following the two UP’s was a BNSF grain train at 2:31 PM. Units 5695/5680/5305/4779 were all on the head end. Been seeing a lot of these BNSF 5600′s recently.

Amtrak #513 led by the 90278 was next southbound. At least it was this cabbage car leading! My favorite one of the bunch.

Finally I heard the BNSF freight coming south and the 8898/5670 are next on what I figure was the M-TACPAS.  I figured this shot was worth waiting through all those northbounds for.

But now it was past 4:00 PM and time to head for home. Still it was fun to do something different for a change.

Heading home from Oregon Sunday 12-4-11 I drove down to the Vancouver, WA depot as I had not been there for many years.  The clouds were slowly beginning to break up for a photo of BNSF GP39-2 2717 sitting outside.

The ex-NP CTC signals have been here for years.  I’ve seen photos of NP GP9′s going by these very same signals in the late 60′s.  Thought this would be a good time for a photo of them.  Never know how long they will last.

Not much was happening on the BNSF so I got one more shot of the BNSF GP39-2 before heading back out to I-5.

Heading north the clouds really cleared out and I decided to stop at Woodland and see if a southbound might show up.  I picked the grade crossing at MP 116.3 near downtown Woodland and waited.  Soon the detector went off to the north and with an axle count above 500 figured it was a coal empty.  Sure enough at 1:46 PM the BNSF 6049 South went by headed towards Vancouver.

Satisfied with the photo I got back on I-5 and started for home.  Nice way to finish off the weekend in Oregon.

On Saturday morning 12-3-11 I left home for a weekend in Oregon.  The Oregon Coast Scenic Railway was running a dinner train out of Garibaldi, OR (on the ex-SP Tillamook branch) at 4:00 PM and I had reservations.  Main reason for going was to ride behind the GN 274, a former Great Northern F7A that would be pulling the “Holiday Train” as it was called.

I had a rental car for the weekend and it was foggy when I left Renton for Oregon around 08:00 AM.  I headed straight for I-5 and started south.  It was foggy all the way past Tacoma, Olympia, Centralia and on towards Kelso.  I had the scanner on past Napavine and near Castle Rock heard some action as I neared Kelso.  BNSF and UP southbound’s were coming into Kelso and the BNSF had a set out to make at Longview Jct.  I passed a southbound UP train before Kelso and got off the freeway and headed over to the Kelso depot.

I parked and walked inside the depot.  No Amtraks were due for awhile so it was pretty empty.  I liked the fact it was decorated on the inside for Christmas.  I then got the camera out for some interior photos.

Here is a model of the Kelso Depot.

And some shots at various angles.

The tile on the wall sure looked like an NP pattern to me.  Back outside I soon noticed the headlight of a train headed south.  It was a UP autorack train led by 4317/5103/9642 at 10:41 AM.

As it passed by I started taking some exterior shots of the ex-NP depot.  Note that the platform brick is the Herringbone pattern NP seemed to use a lot.

 

Then it was back to the car and I headed towards Longview to see what the BNSF train had for power as I could hear it talking on the radio.  Leading was BNSF 5154 and trailing were a pair of SD60M’s, one in H2 and the other green.  Worth getting photos of I thought.

I got off the freeway at Kalama and waited by the pedestrian bridge.  First another UP southbound passed by at 11:10 AM with 7713 leading.

I liked the different colored containers on the train.  Soon I heard the detector to the south go off so I got back on the overpass in time to see a northbound UP train coming led by 7909/4635 at 11:51 AM.

Behind the power was a long string of SP woodchip cars.  Kind of fitting as I was heading for a former SP line in Oregon.

I could hear the BNSF southbound finally leaving Longview after finishing the setout so I headed up onto the bridge once more.  They had identified the train as the M-EVEVAW on the scanner while switching talking to the dispatcher.

Leading the M-EVEVAW was 5154/8149/8100  (C44-9W/SD60M/SD60M)

And a shot of the trailing “class” SD60M.

I also realized I had just seen the first and last unit of the first SD60M order BN placed.  The two SD60M’s were originally numbered 9200 and 9249 on the BN.

I had photographed the BNSF 5154 South at 12:05 PM and as the Dinner train was scheduled to leave Garibaldi at 4:00 PM I decided to head straight for Oregon.  I was also hoping to get some photos of the dinner train before the sun set anyway.  I knew I would be heading home on Sunday so had another chance to see the south end of the Seattle Sub and maybe get some photos with sunshine in them.

As the sun was breaking through the clouds Saturday afternoon 10-29-11 I headed to Tacoma, WA yesterday afternoon to see what was going on and hoping for some fall color photos.  I first stopped by the Tacoma Rail shops and caught a few of the red and white units sitting outside. 

I’ve always thought SD45′s looked great from the rear! The 3001′s flared radiators show the main reason why.

The 3001 was built as Penn Central SD45 6237 in 1968 and later became Conrail 6237. After that it went to the CNW as the 6564 and finally came to Tacoma Rail.  Next I moved up to the GP38-2.

TMBL GP38-2 3801 was built as a CNW unit, the 4621 and was later UP 386 before coming to Tacoma Rail getting the red and white paint.

BNSF and UP seemed painfully slow not running any trains.  I considered leaving for home but on the way out noticed a train with three CN GE’s switching at the BNSF yard.  That would be a nice train to photograph!  The train was backlit at 21st street where I checked them out but I knew down by McCarver Street the sun would be much better with light on the nose. 

I met up with a few railfans at McCarver Street who at first seemed to think the three CN’s had just arrived from the north and were tying the train up at Tacoma.  (That turned out not to be the case at all, it was the M-TACPAS).  But I did learn there was an 8000+ foot monster BNSF northbound heading our way.  Two Amtrak Talgos passed by first and then we noticed BNSF’s M-PASTAC coming around the curve towards us slowly with red and silver Warbonnet 772 in the lead.  This was that monster sized train.

Notice the ditch lights are off.  The 772 moved up alongside us and stopped.  There were two reasons for the M-PASTAC to stop. One was to change crews as this crew had been on duty nearly 12 hours already and the 8000+ foot long train had to be put away in the yard at Tacoma. And the next was to let the M-TACPAS leave Tacoma, then they could crossover into the yard.  Luckily they stopped where they did otherwise the 772 probably would have been blocking the M-TACPAS if they’d continued north towards the yard.

But soon it all came together, the M-TACPAS stormed towards us with the three CN GE’s, the 2593/2309/2681 with the BNSF 772 facing them.  More shades of red. Even the automobile seen passing in the background between the two trains is red!

Then one last photo of the two trailing CN GE’s passing the BNSF 772.

BNSF orange and UP yellow may be more common in Tacoma but today it seems like it was mostly seeing red!

Saturday July 23 was a nice sunny day so I decided to head to Auburn for lunch and then down to Tacoma to see what I could photograph.  At Tacoma I first stopped by the Tacoma Rail yard and only thing I saw moving was MP15DC shoving a set of doublestacks into the yard.

I then drove over to Progress Rail where I saw MRL 355 in the yard awaiting work.  But more interesting to me was former BN SW1200 217 lettered for Pacific Rail Services. 

This locomotive is former NP 158 and it has been a goal of mine to photograph for a long time.  True the high sun was harsh but at least I had a photo of it now.  That done I headed over to Temco to see if the ex-NP SW1200′s were out in the open for a photograph.  There were no grain trains in the yard but the two SW1200′s were out in the open for photos.

Not much seemed to be happening (slow Saturday) so I headed down to Steilacoom and saw the sun angle on the depot was really bad.  No good photos here for awhile!  I explored a bit to the north and found Chambers Bay where I had seen some good photos taken by others so I parked and went down to check out the view from the pedestrian bridge.  Really nice for southbounds!  After waiting awhile I heard the grade crossing horns coming from the direction of Steilacoom.  It was a northbound UP grain train with units 8301/8171 on the head end passing by at 1624.

The rear DPU 8028 made for a good going away shot.

Still waiting for a southbound but next train was a northbound UP manifest at 1639 behind 5589/4040.

Note the low UP Wings on the front of the SD70M, as well as the people on the tracks in the background.

Soon I heard the grade crossing horns blowing again for a northbound Amtrak Talgo at 1720 with the 467 leading.

On the rear was 90252/119 with the GE quite dead and being towed up towards Seattle.

After it had been gone awhile I figured there must be a southbound coming now!  But no, another northbound was approaching, this one a UP baretable behind 4404/4648 at 1734.

I figured it was time to go but was quite surprised I hadn’t seen  any BNSF trains at all in the 3 or more hours I spent at Pioneer.  Still I got to photograph trains in a new location so it wasn’t that bad a day. 

Morning shots from the bridge look like they’d be real good too.  I’ll have to consider that in the future.

This past Saturday 6-4-11 I decided to head south on the BNSF’s Seattle Sub as I had not been south of Tacoma for a long time. Plus I had been wanting to photograph the ex-NP Steilacoom depot which I had not been giving much thought to doing. The weather was great and my first stop was Tacoma, WA where I caught sight of some ex-BN Geeps switching the north end of the yard. I quickly parked and set up on an overpass for these photos of BNSF 2720/2883.

The 2720 had its 15 minutes of fame back on 2-17-90 when as the BN 2720 it was the lead unit of three stolen from Interbay in North Seattle and chased BN train #91 to just beyond the South Seattle yard when the over-speed on the trailing SD9 tripped and stopped the locomotives. 

There is a fascinating story on this from Trainorders.com by the dispatcher on duty that day:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussio…php?11,2350325

Next I drove down to Tacoma’s former Union station, which Amtrak abandoned in 1984 and is now a US Courthouse. It is 100 years old this year being built in 1911. 

A regular stop for me in the Temco facility to check on the former NP SW1200′s at the grain terminal. Only two of them are active while the 219 (former BN 219, NP 160) has not run in many years. Still, it is the easiest one to photograph.  Sadly, I’d say it is probably never to run again.

A closer look at the front end of the former SW1200 shows it nosed into that pile of gravel.  Some handrails as well as the bell are missing.

Looking up on the hill over the ex-NP moon yard is the old NP’s headquarters. (building on the left)
Thanks to Richard O from Pasco I was reminded the building on the right is Tacoma’s Old City hall, built in 1893.  Considering Tacoma’s more modern look, these two buildings really do stand out.

I then got out on I-5 and headed south to Steilacoom. I was surprised to find the ex-NP depot out in the sunshine with no vehicles parked around it. I think MOW trucks were once parked here making open photography difficult. The depot looked abandoned with the boarded up windows. Kind of makes me wonder if BNSF has plans of removing it. 

The Washington State Railroad Depots book says this depot was built in 1913.

I had the car parked near the depot and waited inside to listen to the scanner.  Soon I heard the detector to the south go off letting me know a northbound was coming.  I figured it might be Amtrak.  At 10:43 northbound Amtrak #500 with the 41 leading raced through Steilacoom on its way to Seattle. 

I was surprised when I realized the Ferry Terminal grade crossing has automatic horns that blow two longs, a short and a long twice as a train approaches. Trains no longer blow their horns here.  Wonder how long ago that happened, and why?  Southbound #11 came by next at 11:00 with units 10/824, and the grade crossing horns blowing away.

Back at the car I noticed the ferry was returning and I noticed a photo possibility through the covered pavilion on the south end of the depot.

Except for the Amtraks, BNSF and UP did not seem to be running any trains today. I got back in the car and headed south to Centralia. There is another former NP depot there I have been neglecting to photograph as well.  After a stop at a fairly crowded Burgerville USA for lunch I parked at the south end of the Kelso depot and ate.  Then with camera in hand I took a quick shot of the end of the ex-NP depot.  Being just after noon the sun angle was very harsh making this really the only shot right now. 

Inside was a different matter.  There were shuttle buses parked outside the depot with people coming and going.  The depot appeared to be a transportation base now. 

The Depot book says the Centralia Depot was built in 1912 which did not surprise me as the NP depots at Ellensburg and Yakima were both built in 1910 and I saw some similarities on the inside of Centralia. The walls of Centralia have white tile, just as the Ellensburg and Yakima depots do. Centralia also has white tiled columns in the center of the waiting room, just like Yakima.

I was really impressed with how Centralia looked on the inside, just beautiful. However I am not sure if the benches in the Centralia depots waiting room are genuine NP or not. They have a different looking design than the benches at Toppenish and Spokane which I am pretty certain are former NP. I have to say the Centralia depot is really very nice on the inside!  I checked the train time arrivals and saw the next Amtrak due was #513 at 1:08 PM southbound.  I had about 30 minutes so went outside for one more depot photo.

I then drove to the yard and checked out the local power.  BNSF 2307 was on one track and BNSF 2075 another.  It’s been awhile since I last saw the former BN Pacific Pride unit and though the lighting on the side was pretty bad I wanted photos anyway.

And here are the stickers left on the engineers side of the former BN GP38, now classed as a GP38-2.

As soon as 13:00 came I headed to the grade crossing just south of the depot to wait on Amtrak.  It was a bit late but soon showed up with my favorite cabbage car leading.  It stopped for station work and at 13:26 #513 was on the move again.

Power unit 465 was on the other end shoving.

I then got back in the car and drove south to Napavine Hill parking off of Summerville Road.  I figured after seeing a few trains I would stop by Chehalis and Centralia on my way home.  It was a long time before any train showed up and it was Amtrak southbound #507 with 90251 – AMT 41 at 16:12, the same set I’d seen at Steilacoom earlier today.

At 16:51 the crossing gates started down again and I was surprised to see a CN led grain empty!  Units 8851/2577/BCR 4601 led this train northward. 

From what I understand this train was a CN movement down to southern California for unloading.  The tree shadows were crossing the tracks telling me it was getting late so I decided it was time to start north again.  I would wait to stop at Chehalis another day but did head in to Centralia to check out that BNSF 2075 once again.  The sun had come around to the other side and was looking very nice, even the nose was partially lit.

This is the BNSF 2075 at 17:30.

And the stickers on this side of the EMD. 

The GN sticker on the far left is almost gone, the NP sticker looks OK while the CB&Q sticker had gone from red to green.  I parked by the depot again and heard the detector to the south go off meaning a northbound was coming.  It was a coal load headed for Roberts Bank behind BNSF 6183/9332.

The head end was by at 17:35 and I waited on the DPU’s which showed up a few minutes later.  Units 5757/9551 were on the rear end shoving.

Once by the depot I heard the DPU’s notch out and the EMD SD70MAC sure sounded good.  I went back to the car to start home when I hear the coal train get a good roll by.  Southbound coming now.  I headed back to the tracks and shot a BNSF 1 + 2 combination of C44-9W’s.  BNSF 4979 was on the head end of the freight.

And DPU’s were the BNSF 4381/4848. 

After this train was by at 17:46 I headed for the freeway, hearing the 4979 getting a roll by at Chehalis.  Figures the BNSF would be getting busy now.  But what happened to the UP?  No trains at all today.  Still it was a great day and I was pleased with what I saw and photographed.

After picking up some lunch in Renton, WA Monday 4-18-11 I noticed the BNSF’s Renton Rocket about to leave the Boeing plant with a good sized train of empty Boeing cars and doublestacks of garbage picked up earlier at Tukwila. So I headed to the downtown Renton to catch the train coming down Houser Way. Here I have lived in Renton nearly all my life and have no photos of a train coming down Houser Way! So I waited and fairly quickly the train showed up led by BNSF 2874/2724. The sun had been out moments earlier but it wasn’t when the train came by.

As can be seen the parking spaces are pretty close to the tracks. The horns were blaring for the cross streets and in all it was really a pretty interesting experience. I’ll have to try this on a sunny day now. And even see about getting the loaded fuselages heading the other way earlier in the day.

I remember seeing Milwaukee Road trains on either side of the street running but I never actually photographed any trains on Houser Way itself. Really wish I had now. I also have a newspaper clipping with a photo of the NP’s North Coast Limited detouring on the Milwaukee Road through Renton in 1968 after Stampede Pass was closed due to a washout.

After the freight train had gone I drove over to Renton field to see what was about to be delivered. One plane that caught my eye was a sharply painted 737 for China Southern.

With a name like that you’d think they were a railroad! Nice to know that the fuselage for this Boeing 737 arrived on the BNSF’s Renton Rocket.

The skies cleared later that afternoon so I headed down to Argo where I photographed a very short UP U-SEGL leaving Seattle behind 3 SD70M’s.

On the rear were 5 empty USWX flatcars including this shot of the USWX 20189.

I later learned USWX stands for USA Waste Services Inc.  I have never noticed these flatcars before, at least I don’t remember seeing them so I do not know why they were running empty on the rear of the U-SEGL.

Made for a more interesting looking train anyway.  After this the clouds moved back in so I headed for home but had enjoyed a good afternoon.

Next up on the Seattle Sub Blog is an SD60M Monday, 4-11-11.  That afternoon I came south on I-5 through Seattle and got off at Argo where I saw a tied up stack train sitting just south of the Albro Place overpass, with a green SD60M in the lead!  The trailing units were not bad either.  The entire consist was 8125/8276/NS 8725/4159

I was able to get photos of the 8125 from a number of different angles.  BNSF 8125 was built as BN 9225.

The NS 8725 is a rather mundane C40-8 but note the non-typical numbers on the cab.  Very small.

Then I continued south towards South Seattle and saw yet another green SD60M.  Two tied up trains were parked side by side, both with nice looking Warbonnets in the lead, BNSF 799 on one of them.  The other train had BNSF 4700/8256/8128  (C44-9W/SD75M/SD60M)

SD60M 8128 was originally the BN 9228.  Again some various angles of this classy looking EMD.  Sure is great having them back in service again!

That was it for the trains on this date but the next day I was back at South Seattle and though I did not see any green SD60M’s I finally did photograph the Amtrak cabbage car 90278.  Been wanting this one for awhile.

Here the 90278 leads the southbound Cascades #507 at 2:49 PM past South Seattle. 

The 90278 was rebuilt from EMD F40PH 278.

Power unit on the rear shoving was Amtrak P42DC 203.   Things got pretty quiet after that so I called it a day and started for home.

Time to get caught up with some sightings made in early April on the Seattle Sub. 

First is the Renton Rocket, though technically on the Woodinville Sub that branches off the Seattle Sub at Black River Jct south of Seattle.  Primary job for the Rocket is switching the Boeing 737 plant at Renton and on April 8, 2011 had three 737 fuselages in tow as the local with BNSF 2724/2874 came to a stop across from Rentons Landing, an expanding shopping area.

The power was cut off the train to head into the Boeing plant to first retrive the empties ready to head back to Wichita, KS.  Here the power crosses Lake Washington Blvd near the entrance to Gene Coulon Park.

Round is all I can say when looking at the nose section of lead 737 resting on the first Boeing car.

Soon the car will be spotted in the Renton plant and this fuselage will eventually emerge as a completed 737.

Living in Renton gives me the opportunity to witness some very interesting paint schemes on the 737′s coming out of the Boeing plant.  April 2, 2011 this 737 with S7 markings was at Renton Field.

After a bit of research I learned S7 was started as Sibera Airlines in 1992 and in 2005 rolled out its new livery focusing on the brand “S7″, its two-letter IATA code.  You have to admit the colors are different!  By now this plane is probably somewhere in Russia and will probably never return to the United States.  But nice to know that this 737 was assembled in my home town of Renton after a trip here on the Renton Rocket.

Tuesday 3-29-11 I drove to Kent to run some errands and had some lunch near the former NP depot, hoping to see at least one train before heading for home.  The weather was overcast and mild nearly all day, including the time I was at Kent.  Not even a sunbreak. After finishing lunch I walked over to the tracks and noticed a hi-rail sitting on one of the mains to the north.  Single track mainline through Kent.  I took a few photos of the depot from the north end before heading back to the car.

I read a bit and a short while later heard horns blowing.  Finally, a train was coming.  The rain was just starting to fall as I got out and headed over to the grade crossing.  It was southbound Crew 2 behind a pair of GP38-2′s with a long string of autoracks picked up at Orillia.  BNSF 2352/2085 led the train past the depot rather slowly right at 1:30 PM. 

After the head end was by I went back to the car to get out of the rain.  Watching the train go by I noticed it pick up speed and was moving pretty good once the last cars went by.  I figured that would be it for awhile so I started for home but was glad I got to see something during my short stay at Kent.