BNSF 1030 Night Shot

BNSF 1030 Night Shot, originally uploaded by KDavidClark.

It's not very often that these three items cross paths: The Moon, BNSF 1030, and a passing Union Pacific unit train of hoppers. I took this photo with my $35 Olympus 4MP digital. Despite the age, and so-called 'smaller' megapixel size, it has the handy feature of Night Shot - allowing for the equivalent of a 4-second open shutter.

The conditions outside that night were almost completely dark (short of the moon and stair lighting on the locomotive) and the camera had very little to even grab for auto-focus. The resulting shot had a lot of digital noise that thankfully went away when I converted it to a filtered grey scale and used the Despeckle feature in Photoshop Elements 6.

The cropping is wide and skinny on purpose; it seemed to be the type of border that called out to me based on what was in the shot!

Mile-Long Union Pacific Dead Line

It started with about 15 engines a few months ago. Tired-looking veterans in a variety of conditions. Some were faded, some were burned, and others were tagged with spray paint. They represented models owned by the UP that we rarely see here in the Seattle area. Older boxey GEs, "Triclops" SD60Ms, Snoots (SD40s with long low noses), etc. The line, now two tracks wide, is literally a mile long. Why they are there, I can only guess. My thought, considering the overall condition of each one, is that this is a dead line. Given the economy and reduced rail traffic lately, it would make sense to trim the herd of engines that have become costly to repair.

Here are three examples of what is sitting there, and media from their earlier lives:

2279, 9115, and 2371 sitting together, Sept 27 2009

UP 9115 - GE C40-8 (Dash 8-40C) Built: 12/1987

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1029152

UP 2371 - EMD SD60M "Triclops" Built: 8/1989

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=987148

UP 2279 - EMD SD60M "Triclops" Built: 4/1989

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=155040

Track Fatality in Seattle

A man was killed on Saturday night on the tracks at Carkeek Park, according to this KIRO write-up. The locomotive horn scattered a number of people who were on the tracks, and the one killed was the one who didn't move. The group was not at a sanctioned crossing.

This sad tale is repeated every year along that line, at Golden Gardens and Carkeek. My heart goes out to the family and friends of this man.



View Larger Map

Video - Train Report for School Project

My son was able to do a video report about trains for his class, and this is the result. He picked the media, took a lot of the photos and footage, and even chose the song used for the soundtrack. I edited, but tried to keep his voice primary in the video. You won't find much data accuracy here; David explains switcher movements in the rail yard as "fooling around." It's cool that he has a desire to explain what he sees in terms he understands. What you will discover by watching this is that an elementary schooler knows more about things like Balmer Yard and Amtrak Cascades than a lot of other kids his age!

Bottom line: starting kids early on trains can give them a reason to explore other things like video editing or photography, two areas that my son has already expressed interest in. If you don't see the embedded video below, click HERE to watch it directly on YouTube!

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

Alaskan Way and Broad Street - Then and Now

Today's Then and Now segment isn't as extreme in terms of years as others that have been posted here. It's only a matter of half a decade. Check out the video embedded below (click HERE if you can't see it). It shows a BNSF freight heading south under the Olympic Sculpture Park.

Video courtesy of Citywalker on Flickr

Now compare it to the photos below, taken in 2005 and 2006 before the park was completed. First one - like the video - shows a BNSF freight heading south through Broad Street crossing.

Second picture shows riders getting off Metro's Waterfront Trolley. Where the bridge stands now was once the car barn for these machines. Promises back in 2005 to reinstate the line once a new car barn was built near Pioneer Square have fallen through; thankfully the trolleys are in "deep storage."

The trolley service is the element I miss the most from this spot.

View Area Map

Video - Air Freight and Commuter Trains

Here's some mixed video I shot at Horton St in Seattle. A UPS Plane flying overhead during some of the footage - backed by beautiful blue sky - was a nice surprise!

Electric On The Skagit River Hydro Project

Train at Skagit Project, 1947
Originally uploaded by Seattle Municipal Archives

Nice archive shot from 1947 of what appears to be electric trolley being used on the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project. The photo was posted by Seattle City Light on Flickr; one of the best parts of the Internet lately has been Creative Commons, which allows shots like this to be viewed by a new generation of rail fans. Some more experienced readers here may know where to find info about this car, but my search came up empty!

I love these old photos; black & white has so much emotion, oddly enough, even in the absence of color. For a current color picture of a more famous unit, check out "Old Number 6" in Newhalem:

http://www.railpixonline.com/SCL_6.htm

To find out more about the project visit here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Dam

Photo courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives

Photo - Graffiti On A Hopper

Taken at Interbay, with my lens sticking through a fence! While I don't condone defacing private property, I have to admit this is perhaps one of the most stunning graffiti jobs I've ever seen.

Video - SDRX 904 Pushing Sounder

4/17/2009 - I just barely got out of my truck when this Sounder started blowing its way through the Spokane Street crossing. A quick power finger and a steady hand caught it on video heading north to King Street Station!

Video - Seattle Double Stack Train with Helper

Here's a little video of a Union Pacific double stack train that I shot along Airport Way South at Norfolk Street last January. It was the first time I ever saw something run through Seattle with a helper engine on the back end. While the train took a full four minutes to pass my location, I trimmed 2 minutes out of the middle of the footage because the whole thing looked the same; I may like trains but four minutes of sitting in a computer chair watching a unit train pass on the screen just isn't my thing. On a nice day this location will yield a stunning view of Mt. Rainier looking to the south. This day was more typical of Seattle winter - grey and 40 with some snow still on the ground.

Heading up the train is UP 7727 - a GE ES44AC. UP currently has over 700 of these. This particular engine really gets around; I found pictures on the Internet from what appears taken surfside in California and then also another in Illinois. I guess it's no surprise these things accrue a million miles with little effort.

Car - Train Collision in South Seattle

View Area Map in Google

A car made an illegal turn in front of the LINK Light Rail train as it was running through South Seattle. No major injuries but the driver was hospitalized briefly.

Pay attention people!

Video - Train Meet in Seattle

Captured this video footage along the BNSF Mainline of a Train Meet between Spokane and Horton Streets in Seattle. It was a surprise meet between the southbound Garbage Train and the northbound Coast Starlight (which appeared to be on time).

Montana has "The Night Gas." Powder River Basin has "The Coal Train." I find it funny that an eco-friendly area like Western WA is known in rail circles for "The Garbage Train." Does that resonate with anyone else?

View From The Cab

©2008 Ben Schiendelman

Ben took this shot last October from the cab of the new LINK Light Rail that was being tested in the Rainier Valley. I asked him then if I could use it here, and then lost track of his reply. Good goin' Kurt!

In any case, it's a neat shot that I wanted to share. Thanks Ben!

New Seattle Streetcar Lines Proposed

Seattle passed $600 million city streetcar proposal that would add lines to Capital Hill/First Hill, Ballard, and the U-District. Of course there are opponents and proponents already, within hours of the vote, which is the Seattle way; nobody agrees on how to execute or even fund the work, so it ends up getting delayed and more costly. In the end Seattle will have the most expensive streetcar lines ever, because of warring factions.

Oh, did I go off on a tangient? Sorry...I just want to see more streetcars and few buses on the streets of Seattle!

BNSF 894 at SODO

Spokane and Colorado Streets, Seattle 4/27/2008

This old warrior shot down in SODO is starting to show some age. Despite that it still gets around, as evidenced by the photos at RRPictureArchives for this unit.

It's been 13 years since the BN/ATSF merger, and it's nice to see Warbonnets in a new century - even if they look like they've been through the ringer!

UP gains operating lease to Tacoma port's intermodal yard

Union Pacific recently won a contract to provide service at the Port of Tacoma, starting later this year from a 10 acre site that could expand to 25 acres in the future.

This will allow Uncle Pete to shift some of its Argo Yard activity down to Tacoma, which will free up space to do more International business in Seattle.

ALCO FAs on the BN

The Spokane, Portland and Seattle seems to be the forgotten child of two mammoth parents, but despite its lack of notoriety it still has a very colorful past in Washington. And they loved ALCOs. Kevin Piper shot the above photo in June 1971 while visiting Vancouver with his grandfather. He described the trip like this:

"My grandfather had a thing about Alco FA's. He also had several "Lionel" ones. We went looking for BN FA's still in service on that trip in June '71, but only found one (the one in the photo you mentioned) and it was in dead storage. My grandpa hated Cascade Green, so we ignored all the green stuff we saw. (I secretly liked it though.) Oh well."

You can see the rest of Kevin's great archive shots HERE!

UP Aerotrain Visits Seattle - 1956

Courtesy of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection
Museum of History & Industry, Seattle
All Rights Reserved

In 1956 the Aerotrain visited Seattle's Union Station, where this photo was taken. Lightweight and powered by a switcher engine, the Aerotrain was designed by GM and used modified bus bodies for the car consist. It's still one of my favorite trains, because of its outlandish style and relationship to the classic cars that I already enjoy. Union Station can be seen in this photo behind the train; consists were backed into the line, unlike the run-through style used at King Street Station just a block away. Another view of the station can be seen HERE.

This photo would be impossible today, as all the ground and tracks have been filled in and tall buildings now occupy the site. All that remains is the station itself, now headquarters to Sound Transit.

Bellevue Council Still Studying Light Rail

Despite the November 2007 defeat of the "Roads and Transit" proposition that was put before voters, Bellevue still feels that Light Rail is a viable option for the future in terms of transport between Seattle and the Eastside.

I agree with them.

The are continuing their research on the subject. I think if the fuel prices of today were in play last November that we wouldn't be scratching our heads, trying to figure out how to get more transit to East King County. A lot more people would have beeen behind the measure, had they been paying $4.00+ per gallon at the time.