Photo - UP Georgetown Dustbowl

At Lucile Street, just west of Airport Way, you'll find a little piece of switching track that runs between businesses and a park, then ends abruptly at a brick building. This is the world just outside the Union Pacific's Argo Yard. Regularly you can find UP switchers moving back and forth assembling trains at this spot. The engines used are a blend of old and sort-of-old GP38s and GP15s. The number boards might change but the activity never does, day or night.

I shot this with film; 200-speed film to be exact, using a nearly 30-year old Canon AE-1 and a 135mm lens. With the dust and the cowboy hat, one might think the photo was from Texas instead of Seattle. I'm here to tell you it's the latter. Click the photo to see a larger view.

Argo Yard sits just west of the BNSF Mainline the runs under Airport Way. UP 669 was once owned by the Missouri Pacific before that road was bought out by Uncle Pete in the 1980s.

View Map of 8th and Lucile