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Driving home this afternoon I stopped at South Seattle seeing a colorful BNSF lashup sitting at the north end.  From the south end of the lashup was SOO 6061/CSX 7868/CSX 5271/BNSF 5388.  With the various shades of colors a rainbow came to mind.

Looked like it might be Z-SSECHC power.  Walking back to the truck I noticed a northbound train coming around the corner so I drove up towards Argo to photograph it.  This shot of the BNSF 2134/BNSF 2883/EMD 9020 was taken just south of Argo along Airport Way.  Note all the birds in the sky.  I tried counting them but lost count after 50.

Here is a back shot of the northbound.  You can’t help but notice how large the SD60 looks compared to the two Geeps.

Headed back towards home I stopped by South Seattle once more for a photo of the rainbow lashup led by BNSF 5388. 

Looks like all of the “peaches” have yet to be repainted. 

As today was August 8, 2008 (better known as 08-08-08) I wanted to try and photograph something on the way home from work to remember it by.

EMD 9002 (actually photographed here earlier in the day) was sitting at Argo along Airport Way and was an inviting photo subject, especially with that primer patch in the center of the locomotive.

Here it is again later in the afternoon on my way home.  Notice it even has an intact EMD emblem on the nose.

There was an interesting set of power at South Seattle consisting of BNSF 5509/SOO 6061/BNSF 8149/SOO 6032.  Here is a photo from the south end of the lashup.

Also interesting seeing two SD60M’s from different railroads coupled together.

The power with BNSF 5509 leading pulled out to the main line to head north and waited for a few trains to go by first.

While it was stopped I had the chance to photograph BNSF 8149 which is the ex-BN 9249 and the only SD60M from the first order of BN SD60M’s to be painted in H2.

A northbound BNSF local with a couple of geeps rolled by so I headed up to Argo and try and get a photo of it from the Albro Place overpass.  Things were pretty busy at the overpass.  A southbound BNSF garbage train was on main one and a UP northbound was on main three as a BNSF double stack train was started moving north towards me with BNSF 7724/5216/5515 leading.  The EMD 9002 can be seen on the far right.

And the last photo shows trains on Main 1, 2 and 3 plus the northbound stack train and set of power as well.  It has been awhile since I have seen it so busy here! 

The local had BNSF 2889/2189 for power.  The BNSF stack train also had a DPU set of 5183/806 on the rear.  Not a bad selection of trains for 08-08-08!

Wednesday 8-6-08 started out sunny and very warm in the Seattle area with temperatures expected to get up to around 90 today.  Around 09:15 AM I was crossing the BNSF main on Horton St and saw a yellow signal set up for a southbound so I pulled over for a few moments to wait and see what was coming.  There were some clouds floating around with a few blocking the sun from time to time so I was figuring getting a photo could go either way.  Bright or dark.  Soon enough a headlight appeared and I saw a colorful collection of locomotives coming my way on a stack train with an NS GE in the lead.  The sun was out as the head end approached.

Power was NS 8951/BNSF 6352/BNSF 7817/NS 2777/EMD 9099.  Quite a bit of variety in there.  Here are rosters of the NS SD70M-2 2777 and EMD SD60 9099.  While I am not a big NS fan I’ll take one of these over a BNSF H2 GE any day.  And as I do like the old Oakways SD60′s the 9099 rounded out a nice looking lashup.

Then I turned for a photo of the two BNSF SD40-2′s.  Not long ago I read someone calling these “vintage power” but when you consider the  7817 was built in June of 1977 as the C&S 947 making it 31 years old I guess that this isn’t too far fetched.

And then one last back shot of the entire lashup of power.  Not a bad looking set of locomotives! 

Train appeared to be a S-CHCSEA with a number of China Shipping containers.  In a few hours it would be completely overcast but still very hot.  But at least I managed to see one decent looking train before that happened. 

Monday afternoon 8-4-08 I photographed a few trains around the Seattle area.  First was a back shot of the northbound American Orient Express at Horton Street headed for Seattle at 1:16 PM.

A few hours later while driving by Horton St again I saw this light engine movement headed south.  Note the rear door is open.  There was a crewman inside watching the backup move.

Down at South Seattle a Tacoma bound stack train was leaving with units 4951/8179/4581/5262 at 4:27 PM.

And the last photo is of SD60M 8179.  This was originally the BN 9279.

After watching the train leave I headed for home.