Video: Vintage Amtrak Commercials

Not a bad view, considering someone pointed a camera at a TV screen and recorded these vintage commercials onto YouTube! At least they used quality sound.

As a side note, I'm interested to see how Amtrak will fair in 2009 - with a new administration, uncertain financial times, pain-in-the-ear lines at the airports, and fuel currently trading at their lowest levels in years.

BNSF Connects PNW Freight with Expanded Hubs in Memphis, Chicago

BNSF is beginning a new express service to its hubs in Chicago and Memphis, which will allow it to use the expanded intermodel terminals there. The Ports of Seattle and Tacoma apparently bring in a lot of cargo; the railroad's take on it is this freight can go East faster, more reliably, and in an environmentally responsible way.

Fed Financing For UW Link Up To 40 percent

Wow! The federal government has now assigned over $800 million to the project that will bring Light Rail to UW Stadium. Incidentally, it looks like we're going to have a whole lotta digging in the Central Puget Sound over the next few years, for this project, other Light Rail projects, and replacement tunnel for The Viaduct.

We'll need to start calling Capitol Hill by "Mole Mountain" instead!

Milwaukee Road's Tacoma Yard - Then and Now

Photo Courtesy of Sid Vaught

The Milwaukee Road's Tideflats Yard in Tacoma was the end of the line for the nation's last transcontinental railroad. EMD F7 #81-A was one of the heavily-used "covered wagons" owned by the Milwaukee, photographed here by Sid Vaught in 1975. After the MILW abandonment in 1980, the yard eventually became part of Tacoma Rail's Tideflats Division and the rest is history.

Fast forward 32 years for the photo taken below at the same yard during Tacoma Rail's Open House in 2007. Believe me, those red & white switchers look better in person than they do on a on film shots taken during an overcast day!

Chelatchie Prairie Railroad Project Advocates Hopeful

Chelatchie Prairie Railroad project tops commissioners’ wish list - Columbian.com

It's a story of the "Little Railroad That Could...if it had the infrastructure." Last year WARail reported on an article in The Columbian (article has since been taken down) describing the line as one worth saving. Advocates say the CPR can be beneficial to the community. Commissioners agree, but want the Temple family (who owns the line) to pony up more money to make it happen.