White Pass & Yukon #114 - Then and Now

Today's Then and Now segment is a bit different from previous ones, focusing this time on a locomotive project that some shops wouldn't even attempt...

The White Pass & Yukon 114 was involved in a 2006 derailment that injured three crew members and tragically killed one. When photos of the poor mangled engine were first posted on the Internet, people were shocked. "Hard to believe that there's much left worth saving..." is what one person wrote in Railroad Forums about this special engine. The entire body was crushed end to end. The cab had been pushed over to one side so badly that a huge chunk of it had to be cut off in order to transport it over the road from the Seattle docks to the Tacoma repair shop. Most large railroads would have scrapped something that had incurred this much damage, electing to pull the motor and generators in favor of a nicer replacement. But thankfully White Pass is not a large railroad. Either out of necessity or tradition, they chose to rebuild.

So what makes the 114 special? Well for starters the WP&Y runs on an unusual 3-foot Narrow Gauge track (Standard Gauge railroads place their tracks 4-feet 8 1/2 inches apart). Given that the majority of North American railroad equipment is built for Standard Gauge you can imagine that Narrow Gauge equipment is pretty hard to find, especially when you consider that much of the Narrow Gauge stuff in the world is vintage steam rather than modern diesel. Add to mix the rarity of this particular engine. The DL 535 shown here was built by Bombardier in Canada, being one of maybe four or five in the world. White Pass is a traditional railroad and probably found more benefit in having it repaired instead of searching out new equipment. Insurance paid for the repairs and the work was done here in Washington, at Coast Engine and Equipment in Tacoma.

The forum post about this engine provides back story, making the whole experience into something more than a mere rebuild. Allegations of ineffective low-priced labor, reuse of scrap-worthy metal, corner cutting in the project, and wiring issues keep the story juicy if somewhat off-base. Are the allegations true? It's not my place to surmise their validity, since I'm neither a mechanic or a railroader. Considering what CEECO had to work with coming in the door, I'd say they had their job cut out for them. Did the WP&Y get a good locomotive back? Well see for yourself....

CEECO accomplished something amazing here. We can marvel at the sharp metal work and paint that took this machine from a mangled pulp to a shining example of Narrow Gauge Goodness. Nice work CEECO! The shops in Skagway AK will apply the White Pass lettering and numbers. While some wince at the green and yellow paint scheme, I'm a huge fan of it. Finding a way to incorporate the WP&Y Thunderbird on the front would be a nice addition.

Thanks to Steve Carter for these great Before and After shots!

The Impossible Shot

If there were ever a picture that could benefit from editing, this would be the one. The edited photo is impossible, mostly because it doesn't exist in real life. Allow me to clarify.

When The Clark Boys and I set out on before church Sunday morning to get Egg McMuffins and take train pictures, I was hoping for a shot that I could post on WARail. We pulled off Holgate Street to investigate an older Geep sitting on a siding; as I had just taken my third picture of the engine and its two company cars, I turned around to the tell-tale sight of a high-powered headlamp and a couple of ditch lights. Perfect spot, I thought, as there were no buildings or abutments in the way of this shot and the Seattle cityscape was behind approaching train. I was thrilled! Several shots were taken, and the engineer even waved as they passed by with their load of piggy back trailers on flat cars. Everything seemed to be aligned to make this the shot.

Downloading from the camera told a different story.

In my efforts to capture the photo quickly, I didn't see what was right in front of me until I saw the photos on the computer. Once again the nemesis of old and young photogs alike - pesky electrical wires, reminder of an industrial society - ruined an otherwise fun photo. Everything else in the photo captured Seattle well. The colors in the buildings and sky, typical to the Pacific Northwest aesthetic, were greyish blue and filled with the demoralizing ambiance that has spawned many hard-rocking bands in and around Seattle. In the center, a bright orange freshly-washed GE on the point of a hard-pulling train. Exhaust smoke curled into the sky as a signal that this train was going places with horsepower to spare.

All topped off with a heaping dose of electrical wires crossing over everything.

So in the end I am now more thankful for the free "Wire Pilot" tool from the folks at Color Pilot. It pretty much saved the photo, as you can see below. You just move across the page and remove want you want gone. Will I try posting this to RailPictures.net? Heck no. First, I don't think the photo captures the true nature of the scenery, since the wires are actually there, even if I like the wireless photo more; it's an impossible shot, because in order to make it look good I had to fabricate what was in my head at the time I took the photo. Second, RP's focus tends to be photos beyond what Seattle has to offer most of the time: "Common Power" and grey skies. My difference of opinion on that subject is an argument I'll leave to anyone else familiar with RP's stringent policy of photo acceptance.

So for now I'll continue taking the shots that I see in my head, because now I've got the tools to actually show others what's going on in my brain!

Mobile Moment - Foggy Day

Yesterday the boys and I got some donuts for church coffee time by heading over to the Krispy Kreme in Seattle. October is a foggy month around our house, but usually the fog around Seattle has lifted even if our house is engulfed. This was not the case yesterday morning.

The entire area was wrapped in fog. It's another one of those weather conditions that we get here, other than rain. Natural occurrences like this can make even the photos taken by a camera phone look interesting. Granted they're dark and somewhat pixelated, but that fog just makes dark and pixelated into something that can be palpable.

These were taken with my Treo 750. The first photo was of possibly the dirtiest switcher I've ever seen. It was idling, warming up presumably to start moving double-stacks around. The second photo is of BNSF 2334, a standard-issue GP38 road switcher that gets plenty of local use (better photo here). It was idling in the fog as well; when they are parked right along the road like that, I still get amazed by the overall size of even the most rudimentary examples of switchers and road switchers. Recently there was a story about a switcher running from Harbor Island back to the Stacy Yard; a tractor-trailer rig ignored the warning horns and drove right into the path of the engine. The truck ultimately was flipped over and pushed 75 yards and into a Volvo. And the switcher? It was doing 5 mph at the time it impacted the truck. That tells me these things are big. And heavy. And dangerous. Keep off, kids...

The final shot was taken at the UP crossing at Lucille, as UP 561 was shuffling cars back into the yard alongside the BNSF Mainline that runs under Airport Way South. Better photo of this GP38 can be seen here. 561 has a hand-painted number sign on one side held on by duct tape. Certainly not the poster child of road switchers, but filled with character nonetheless. There is a playground nearby where the boys and I can go hand out. One night we were there for the better part of an hour. 561 rolled back and forth on this switching track about four times during our visit. It's heavily used and very urban.

That morning I also shot a video of a passing double-stack train at Holgate, but the soundtrack of the video is so saturated from the horn blast that it's simply not usable. Oh well.

Heritage One Paint Scheme

BNSF 7155 is an EMD SD-40. That means it has six axles as opposed to four (which would be a "GP" series locomotive). Built in 1979 for the Burlington Northern, it has never been renumbered.

7155 was repainted in the attractive "Heritage One" paint scheme sometime in the 1990s, possibly during a rebuild. Heritage One blended colors and logos of some legacy railroads that made up the new BNSF in 1995; the cross logo on the front and BNSF font style on the side were lifted directly from the Santa Fe, while the colors were common on the Great Northern Railway (folded into the Burlington Northern in 1970). Since 1995 there have been a couple of changes to the paint scheme (called "Heritage II and Heritage III" not surprisingly).

Check out the heavy clouds behind the locomotive. Yeah, that's Seattle for you!

Last Run of the Dinner Train to Woodinville

This isn't earth-shattering video, but for a railfan in the right place at the right time it was nice to catch the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train on its last run from Woodinville to Renton on July 31, 2007. The right-of-way between Renton and Bellevue - at the time of this writing - is being abandoned (I think it's a bad idea, but that's a whole other subject that I have already fought). Without the right-of-way, the Dinner Train had to relocate. It is currently running from Tacoma out towards Lake Kapowsin in the shadow of Mount Rainier, with plans to operate a total of three: Tacoma, Snohomish/Woodinville, and Vancouver WA.

Now that's my kind of trifecta!