Talgos Return to Service Delayed

The Amtrak Cascades trains have looked a bit different in recent week; seems that stress cracks were found in the suspension of theTalgo car sets being used for the regional service, so they were taken out of service for repair. There is a delay, however, because the Feds need to approve the work. Meanwhile, eagle eye tracksiders like myself have seen standard Amtrak equipment taking up the slack.

Sources say the trains will be back in service mid-November.

Seattle-Tacoma Interurban Railway

The Seattle-Tacoma Interburban Railway made its debut run on September 25th, 1902 - 105 years ago today. Originally it only ran between Tacoma and Seattle, but eventually expanded as far as Everett before it ran into financial trouble in the late 1920s. The final trains ran between Seattle and Everett no later than 1939. Much of the line has been reclaimed as a regional trail now. Thankfully a lot of the right-of-way remained, because it was shared with the power company. As a kid I remember riding minibikes over the old grade in places throughout Shoreline. Even back then we called it "The Interurban" without knowing why, other than some people knowing that a train used to run there.

As I write this, Sound Transit is bringing what used to be called "Interurban Transportation" back to the Puget Sound Region in the form of a light rail line that will eventually reach between Tacoma and Seattle. In some places, the new route and the old route are close enough to eyeball each other. In fact, at the Boeing Access Road in northern Tukwila, the new Light Rail line crosses over the old Interurban right-of-way. Was the Interurban ahead of its time? In my opinion yes, by about 100 years. In the early 1900s it was built to span the rustic distances between two urban centers. Now, the light rail spans the traffic congestion that is caused by having two urban centers, brought on by the cars that signaled the demise of the Interurban 70 years ago. While the focus is different, the result is the same - move people from one place to another.

Today we can sit back and celebrate rail history of our region by thinking about the Interurban and it's forward thinking mission to move people. I personally am looking forward to Light Rail, and hope to see it expand to my part of the region.

Ride the WHAT?

And this trolley line isn't even in service yet!

The South Lake Union Streetcar wasn't always called that; beforehand "Trolley" was used in place of "Streetcar." That made for a very unfortunate acronym - S.L.U.T. Not that SLUS is any better, but hey at least it isn't derogatory!

As a side note, a couple of regular joes are being overwhelmed with t-shirt orders for their special apparel

Tacoma Rail GP20 - Old Loco, Old Camera

Tacoma Rail has one of the more colorful paint schemes in Western Washington. Evidence is in this photo of their Red & White GP20 against dull grey rail cars. Some sources say that TMBL 2006 is a GP10 while others say GP20. Generally speaking, it's older than 1963 and it has four axles - which at the very least makes is an EMD GP series locomotive. Look around North America and you'll find Short Lines, Regionals, Rail Museums, and the like still running these soldiers of steel. The GP series locomotives were built between 1953 and 1994, with the GP60 being the most recent (and possibly final) version.

Look at the photo and you'll see a beautiful excursion train. But don't look at the graininess of the photo. Yep I said grain, as opposed to "noise." Noise would indicate that I am using a digital camera. Grain? That means I shot this photo old school, with a 35mm camera! Say hello to my trusty 1970s era Vivitar 220SL. This shot was taken through a 175mm lens. The camera kit includes elements of my late grandfather's photo kit; his camera body wore out about 8 years ago - my Dad said he took thousands of photos with it - so I replaced body with an identical one off eBay for a whopping $45. It even has an internal light meter. I have lenses ranging from 28mm to the 175, plus some kind of "2x converter" lens that apparently turns my 175 into a 350. Haven't tried that one yet but I'm told it degrades the image somewhat and also doesn't allow the same amount of light through. We'll see what it can do on a nice day sometime.

By taking this and some other photos with the 35mm SLR camera, I've rediscovered the interactive nature of photography in this old school kit that I don't feel with my digital. Maybe I'm sentimental because it was my Grandfather's, or maybe I just remember the enjoyment of taking pictures with a hand-me-down 35mm (now deceased) that served me well for about 8 years when I was younger. My Olympus C4040 is a 4 megapixel model that has been truck-strong and versatile, but as I have become more experienced with it I've discovered it's not as flexible as I would like. Not the fault of any camera, the big enemy in the Pacific Northwest is poor lighting. Finding any sort of situation with the right amount of light around here is difficult. At least with a film camera I can work more with the shutter speed than I can with my digital. That's why suddenly my old Vivitar has made it back into my kit. I'll probably try slide film, tripod, and remote shutter release the next time I head out; this would allow me to try even slower shutter speeds, at least on static subjects.

Posting railroading photos on the Internet has nurtured my desire to experiment with the equipment I have, since I really don't have the budget to replace any of it. Think about all the "off-brand" SLR cameras that may be languishing on shelves or garage sales; they may not be a Pentax, Nikon, or Olympus, but they are cheap and can take good photos with some practice.