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Friday night there was a 500-1000ft snow level in the Washington Cascades so Saturday morning, 11-14-09 I was on my way to Skykomish to see how much snow there was around Skykomish.  Left the house around 0830 and was soon heading east from Monroe on Highway 2.  Instead of being cloudy it was a clear and sunny morning.  No falling snow shots today!  Very quiet on the Scenic Sub but I started to see snow on the ground and in the trees after Index.  But no trains.  Coming into Skykomish the detector at MP 1730 went off as I passed the town exit.  Got to the east end of the siding in time to see the end of a westbound doublestacker.  Any eastbound it might have met at Scenic would be long gone by now so I turned around and headed west after the stacker.  I was well ahead of it by Baring where I pulled off at the west switch for this one and only shot.

Leading were BNSF 5226/696/5173/4882/5086.  It was by Baring at 10:16 and I continued to follow it down to Gold Bar.  By a detector it showed having 350 axles and a temperature of 40 degrees.  Kind of warming up now.  I waited at Gold Bar awhile and listened to the progress of a following high-rail making its way west from Skykomish down to Snohomish.

Noon arrived so I headed east to Zeke’s Drive-In for a burger.  After eating I took a few photos of the caboose outside the drive in.  The ex-NP caboose is painted red with no markings on the north side.

I noticed the number 1242 above the door on the west end.  Stands to reason this was the former NP 1242 that was built in 1908!

The caboose has a GN emblem on the south side making it kind of GNP I suppose.

The average person stopping here for lunch isn’t going to be thinking about the history of this caboose anyway.  To them it’s just a little red caboose.  And this is better than getting cut up for firewood.

Leaving Zeke’s I headed east to Index.  I wanted to explore around the GN built bridge here.  I had seen photos in a GN book with F-units crossing it and the caption saying this bridge at MP 1746 had been modified to allow for curved track on a straight bridge.  I found a road and trail leading right to the west end of the bridge and got a good look at what the caption had explained for myself.  Pretty cool!

The bridge does look wider to accommodate the curve.  Appears to be in need of some new paint however!  I headed back up to Skykomish (it had clouded over) and waited to see if BNSF was going to run anything else.  By 14:30 I figured no and before heading for home photographed the GN caboose X228 on display here at Skykomish in a homeowners yard.  It sure does look nice!

The snow adds a nice wintry look to the scene.  I then headed west on Highway 2 to Monroe without seeing any BNSF trains.  Just one train in 5 hours was pretty disappointing.  Good thing I was just as happy to be photographing old cabooses and a GN bridge.

I knew it had been a long time since my last day trip up to Stevens Pass but I did not realize it had been March!  No springtime or summer trips?!  So I decided to spend the afternoon at Skykomish leaving home late in the morning Saturday October 11.  I was past Monroe around noon and a few miles out heard the MP 1751 detector east of Gold Bar go off.  I did not know if this was east or westbound but before getting to Sultan heard the MP 1740 detector so it was headed east.  Should have left 30 minutes sooner!

I had some goals in mind such as photographing some of the CTC signals along the way to Skykomish as well as GN built bridges.  Always kind of ignored them all these years.  As far as the signals I was curious to know if the current ones were GN installed or BN.  Most if not all of the GN signals between the sidings had been replaced years ago.  I should have payed more attention to them but they are gone now so I wanted to check out the CTC controlled ones at the sidings. 

First stop was at Gold Bar where the east end of the siding is right off a side road.  The signals from Scenic east are the tri-light type but the ones on the west side are searchlights such as the ones at MP 1754, East Gold Bar.

Then I went on to the railroad overpass just west of Zekes Drive in.  This bridge is very unusual.  Note how the supports are spread out over highway 2.

Another view of the supports and girders.  This is better photographed in the morning when it is sunny. 

All these years and I have never photographed a train crossing it!  The west switch of Baring at MP 1740 is also right off the highway. The siding is on the left with the main on the right.  It looks like the siding signal is constant lit. 

Note the heads of the two signals are different.  The siding has a large round shield while the main line has a much smaller one.

And here are the two signals as seen from highway 2.

Next I moved up to East Baring and took a few photos here at the east end of the siding.  Note how the signal here is on the left side of the tracks compared to Gold Bar which in on the right side.  Plus they have smaller signal shields.

Done with signals and bridges for now I headed on up to Skykomish to check out the town.  The clean up goes on and the top of the Skykomish Hotel is all bundled up.

A detour is set up after crossing the bridge from Highway 2 into town.  Sure looks a lot more open now!

And one more view of Skykomish.

I then settled down hoping for a westbound but the signals were dark and the scanner very quiet.  Eventually I heard a detector go off but it was MP 1740 at West Baring.  This was another eastbound.  The light here at Skykomish was pretty backlit, the best light was at Baring, and the train was there right now.  So I had little choice but to wait right here and get a broad a view as I could.  The empty grain train X-TACULE was by at 2:25 PM with units 981/684/4081. 

BNSF 981 is painted in the new image scheme, no longer in H1.  If Stampede was not shut down this train would probably have gone that way.  The back shot shows the relocated Skykomish depot in the background.

I could see traffic starting to build westbound out on the highway so I decided to start west after the train had departed Skykomish.  No westbounds would be met here today.

Below Index I stopped to check out the GN bridge at MP 1750.  I had seen many photos of it taken from river level but had none myself.  So I walked over to the rivers edge for this shot.

And facing east is a nice view of the Skykomish River and Mt Index.

Then it was back up to the truck and west on Highway 2 where traffic came to a stop at Gold Bar and we slogged all the way to Sultan in stop and go traffic.  Some things never change.  About 45 minutes to get from Gold Bar to Sultan.  Sunday afternoons are always bad up here.  I believe the Leavenworth Autumn Leaf festival is this weekend and probably had a lot to do with it.  Still it was a sunny nice day up in the Cascades and I enjoyed exploring the former GN a little bit more closely than I had before.

Not having gone up to Stevens Pass at all this year waiting for a sunny weekend I realized waiting for a sunny Saturday was wishful thinking.  It sounded like there might be some snow on Saturday 3-28-09 so I headed up to Skykomish in the morning.  It was raining pretty hard past Monroe and was really pretty dreary all the way up to Skykomish.  No scanner action so I kept driving up to Scenic and waited there reading some GN material I had brought along.  A number of railfans from the Everett area showed up telling me a westbound was in the tunnel.  Sounded good to me!  It was snowing lightly when the train exited the Cascade Tunnel and headed past us at 11:37 AM with units 7420/7207/4561/4335.

With all the JB Hunt containers I figured it must be a late running Z-CHCSSE that normally runs earlier in the morning.  I then headed down to Foss River and photographed the 7420 West coming around the curve towards the Foss River bridge.

One of my goals was to try and photograph something from the GN era still around today and I think the Foss River bridge itself qualifies as being former Great Northern.

I then left the Foss River area and was up with the head end at Skykomish.  I thought about where I wanted to photograph the train next and decided on ex-GN bridge 1741.1 west of Baring crossing Barclay Creek.  It was raining softly as the Z-train came around the curve but I thought the shot came out pretty good.  Plus I was able to photograph something built by the Great Northern so I was happy.

From here the rain fell harder and I ended up going all the way to Gold Bar for my last shot of the Z-train.  Here the BNSF 7420 West is at the east end of Gold Bar as the rain is coming down pretty hard. 

I then headed for home well behind the Z-train that made better time to Monroe than I did.  It may have been a cool rainy Saturday but I did enjoy spending a little time on the former GN on the west side of Stevens Pass.

30 years ago today

On Wednesday 3-14-79 I was railfanning the former Great Northern line on the west side of Stevens Pass.  It was a mostly sunny but hazy day with high thin clouds.  At 09:50 AM train #88 departed Skykomish eastbound for the Cascade Tunnel.

Up front were units 6314/6470/6510/6909  (SD40/SD45/SD45/SD40-2)  Running mid-train were helpers 6450/5636  (SD45/U25C)

The 6450 was no stranger here being the former Great Northern 420.  It probably was never in a helper set over Stevens Pass though before the BN merger though.  The 2nd helper unit was no doubt a stranger in Stevens Pass helper service. 

BN U25C 5636 is the former CB&Q 556 built 9/65.  Caboose on #88 was BN 12055.  #88 arrived Scenic at 11:00 AM and is seen here moving up to the east end to meet a westbound.

Train #97 met #88 at Scenic and headed down the hill at 11:07 AM arriving Skykomish at 11:45 AM.  Leading was BN 6504/5726/6444/1790  (SD45/U33C/SD45/GP9)

Both the 6444 and 1790 are former Great Northern locomotives.  The 6444 the former GN SD45 414 and the 1790 the ex GN 717.  Mid train came helpers 6903/6485.

BN caboose 12042 was on the rear.  After removing the helpers at Skykomish #97 continued down to Gold Bar where the entire train was set out.  It picked up 32 cars from another yard track and continued west at 12:55 PM. 

It is interesting to note that both #88 and #97 were train numbers used by the Great Northern before the BN merger so it was rather fitting to see these two trains this date.  However train #97 in GN days was probably the hottest train on the system called the West Coaster.  It commonly ran with three 3 big SD’s, was fairly short and did no work between Spokane and Interbay.  I made a note 3-14-79 that #97 was no longer a hotshot.  I was planning to go up to Stevens Pass today to compare 2009 to the same date in 1979 but it rained most of the day so that did not happen.  If nothing else I am positive it was not nearly as wet in 1979.

After I had photographed the train in Everett Thursday 1-15-09 in my previous post I read that the two trailing units EMD 9047 and BNSF 8175 were placed in storage at Interbay! After hearing this I decided that whenever I saw any older BNSF power in service I would try to photograph it even if in poor weather.

Exactly one week later on Thursday 1-22-09 it was really foggy as I drove into Everett, WA and noticed a BNSF local with a pair of geeps was slowly moving southbound under Pacific Avenue by the Everett Transportation Center. I parked on Hewitt Ave as I did last Thursday (about the same time too) and photographed the BNSF 2889/2189 as it moved towards me at 10:14AM. I had photographed trains in fog before but this seemed to be a bit extreme for this time of day.

BNSF 2889 is a former Southern Pacific GP35, the ex-6551 and was rebuilt for the BN in August of 1991 as GP39E 2889 and after the BNSF merger kept the same number.

I figured it was highly unlikely I had ever seen the SP 6551 until I checked my SP roster book and sure enough it was marked off on 12-2-78. I found the notebook entry for that date and see it was at Roseville, CA in the company of GP35 6659. I had photographed a number of the SP units seen that day (think I had gone to Winterail that year) but the SP 6551 was not among them.

The locals power stopped under the overpass and after a few moments I saw the reason why. Amtrak Cascades #513 from Bellingham was arriving at the depot. In moments it whistled off and continued on towards Seattle with AMT 169 leading.

And bringing up the rear was Amtrak 90340.

With the passenger train gone I decided I would head out too. It may have been really foggy making for poor photographic conditions and the trains just a BNSF local and a Talgo but I figured it was worth stopping for.

Thursday morning 1-15-09 was a gloomy gray day as I drove north to Everett. Exiting from I-5 to Pacific Avenue I noticed a moving train coming towards me from the north and saw it wasn’t led by BNSF H2 C44-9W’s. All EMD’s and what looked like an M-EVEVAW.

I hurried up Pacific Ave and set up on an overpass facing the Everett depot with just moments to spare as the train entered the Scenic Sub for the trip down to Seattle.

Trailing was EMD SD60 9047

And SD60M 8175

The engineer throttled down coming under the bridge but then throttled back up as the power moved around the curve and towards the tunnel under Everett moving at a pretty good clip. It sounded great! The EMD’s seemed to be working pretty hard as it was a good sized train. Seems it wasn’t too long ago these units were hauling coal trains. Now I guess they’ll take whatever work they can get.

On Sunday January 2, 1972 I drove up to Skykomish to watch some trains. Arriving at Skykomish first thing I saw was a local with BN GP9 1807 and GN caboose X303 in the yard.

An eastbound with units 6619/9863/5762 (F45/SDP45/U33C) soon arrived and added helpers 720/669/661/676 (F7A/F7B/F7B/F7A) for the run over Stevens Pass. BN 6619 being built 8/70 was already a year and a half old. Here is a photo of the 6619 taken at Skykomish 8-7-79 looking pretty good.

On the rear was BN 10229 still in GN red paint. Speaking of which the 9863 was still in sky blue paint and the helpers were in order, NP/GN orange/GN orange/GN blue colors.

A westbound arrived a bit later and had plenty of power up front. BN 6492/5729/6485/5749/2217/806 (SD45/U33C/SD45/U33C/GP30/F9A) Like F45 6619, BN SD45 6492 was built the same month 8/70. Here is the 6492 at South Seattle, WA 6-4-85

The 2217 was still in Burlington red and the 806 in NP black/yellow. The helpers were cut out 680/671/687/692 (A-B-B-A F7’s in ex-GN blue/orange/blue/blue) and the train then left for Seattle with BN cabooses 10372/10064, both in ex-GN sky blue paint.

Just a couple of trains seen but some of BN’s newer power was certainly getting a work out over Stevens Pass!

Yesterday 11-27-08 was Thanksgiving Day. Just for fun I checked today’s date in 1974, 11-28-74 to see if I had gone anywhere to see trains. It turns out 11-28-74 was a Thursday and Thanksgiving Day! And I had indeed gone out to see some trains.

I arrived at Interbay close to 11:00 AM just as train #148 was arriving with units 2532/2533/4246/4254/849/676/2534 (GP35/GP35/C424/C425/F9B/F7A/GP35) with caboose 10412 on the rear.

After #148 cleared southbound BN #139 pulled out with BN 2509/4362/4363/4360/4366 (GP35/C636/C636/C636/C636) and caboose 10797. I don’t recall too many times of seeing a quartet of C636’s so this was something special. The big Alcos were almost always filthy but still great to watch in action. I photographed the same BN 4366 in an all Alco lashup headed south out of Seattle 11-13-79.

With those 4 big Alcos I have the feeling I paced #139 south out of Argo along Airport Way and then headed for home, no doubt for Thanksgiving dinner!

Later that evening I was back at Interbay. #148’s power seen earlier that day was about to be broken up and I watched the 2534 move away from the rest of the lashup onto another set of power. This is the 2534 on another day at Tacoma, WA 3-10-79.

At the time I thought little about this GP35 and its heritage but now I know this was built as CB&Q 988. It survives even today as the BNSF 2936, a rebuilt GP39E. A short while later the BN 2223/2228/2221 was moved out of the service facility to the yard. All three of these GP30’s were ex-Burlington units. And here is the 2223 at Interbay 6 years later on 9-16-80.

This was the ex-CBQ 946 and it too survives today as the BNSF 2936.

Train #77’s power was waiting at the north end of the service facility to be moved in. BN GP40 3018 was leading 6 MRS1’s all lettered for the US Army! The lashup was BN 3018/USA 2059/USA 2055/USA 2054/USA 2053/USA 2049/USA 2050. The 3018 is an ex-CB&Q GP40 built as the 188. However the 3018 was not as lucky as the other two as it was destroyed in August of 1979 after being involved in a head on collision on the eastern end of the BN system.

I took a break from watching locomotives as Amtrak #10 rushed by headed east at 6:28 PM with this consist:

SDP40F’s 564/565
1) NP 223 baggage
2) AMT 4488 coach
3) CBQ Silver Bluff dome
4) AMT 9813 dome
5) BN 455 diner
6) CBQ Silver Dale sleeper

Around 8:00 PM I headed down to Black River for awhile to see what was going on there. MILW 1-262 was leaving when I arrived (all I saw was caboose 992226) and BN #146 went by at 9:24 PM with units 2507/2220/2514/2508 and caboose 10577 before I headed for home. Not a bad Thanksgiving Day in 1974 at all! A bit more interesting than Thanksgiving 2008 anyway.

39 years ago on Saturday 11-22-69 I was 14 years old when my dad drove the two of us up to Skykomish, WA for the afternoon. Arriving at the depot first thing I saw was GP9’s 724/734 leave eastbound at 2:30 PM with a local freight.

About 90 minutes later at 4:00 PM a westbound arrived with the 474A/464D/472B/466A (F7A/F7A/F9B/F7A) Both the 474A and 466A were in sky blue paint and the other two were in orange and green. F7A 273B was noted back in the train dead.

Though it was probably dark by now we waited for the eastbound Empire Builder which was by at 5:25 PM with units 329/350B, both in sky blue colors and then headed for home.

Today, Saturday 11-22-08 I drove up to Skykomish again to see if things were busier than it was in 1969. The weather was not going to be good, showers and temps in the 40’s but I left home close to 10:00 AM and between Gold Bar and Index I heard the detector at MP 1740 at Baring go off. I did not know direction the train was going but I gambled and drove into Index to wait by the grade crossing. I found it humerus that the town still had Halloween decorations up. After a few moments of waiting I could hear the rumble of power echoing off the mountains which was kind of neat. Then the crossing bells started and I photographed westbound Z-CHCSSE at 10:51 AM with the BNSF 7555/7405/4809/4728.

The train was mostly JB Hunt and other 53′ doublestacks which I found different. No TOFC. I realized back in 1969 we would probably not have known a westbound was coming in advance like this as we did not have a scanner in the car. Technology can be good. I then went back out to Highway 2 and continued east hearing nothing on the scanner up to Skykomish where I took a look at the clean up work going on. The poor town really looked torn up considering how it used to look. I see the trees and bushes west of the depot are now gone. I really liked how the town put Christmas lights on that tree by the crossing over the holidays. Not going to be the same now that it is gone. The signals west of town were dark so I crossed the tracks and drove east on the old highway and noticed GN caboose X228 was off its track and appeared to have been dragged a ways as there was damage to the end steps. I took these two photos from the car. Kind of sad looking.

I could see there were no eastbound trains coming so I started towards Scenic and on the way decided to check out the GN caboose at the Interpretive Center. It was closed for the season but I parked outside the gate and walked up for a look. The X294 looks really nice and I took a few photos of it.

I checked my notes on it and after the BN merger it was painted and numbered BN 11319. I saw it in BN green but did not photograph it. I saw the trail leading out and wanted to see the old Snowshed Wall which was just a 1/4 mile walk. I am glad I did. It was pretty impressive.

Then I decided to head over to the tracks and see if any westbounds were coming. I saw the ex-NP caboose as I was leaving and went over to get a couple of photos of it since I had never seen it close up before. I liked the Scenic sign on the building behind it even though an ex-NP caboose here in GN territory is kind of out of place.

Driving up the old highway to the tracks I noticed the signals were green for a westbound. As I waited I could soon see a faint headlight far inside the tunnel. As it got closer a fellow from Moses Lake drove up as did BNSFhogger. He was headed east and waited for the westbound as well. That makes two Saturdays in a row I have seen Greg now!

The westbound exited the tunnel with units 847/7040/4307/5492 leading a doublestack train.

With more of BNSF’s SD40-2’s now leaving the roster I figured I should chase this train with the 7040. I headed down to Skykomish and waited near the town crossing in the rain for the train to arrive. This location is just not the same without the depot in the shot.

My next location to photograph the train was the grade crossing west of Baring. This photo shows how Western Washington’s weather really is as the locals see it this time of year. Wet.

The rain ended as I then headed west of Index to MP 1751 for one last photo of the BNSF 847. This bridge has always been a favorite photo prop of mine.

From here heavy traffic from Gold Bar to Sultan prevented me from catching the stack train again but I was happy with the photos I had taken today. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we see some snow fall around Skykomish making for some nice winter scenes. It should not be too long now.

This morning on a drive up to Everett,WA I noticed a stack train sitting underneath the I-5 overpass near the Pacific Ave exit.  After exiting onto Pacific Ave I crossed the tracks and noticed it was a westbound with a number of BNSF SD40-2’s up front.  Although it was raining softly I thought it might be worth waiting a short while to see if it would leave.  I knew it was about time for the southbound Amtrak Talgo so I set up on Hewitt Ave just west of Pacific Ave overpass and only waited a few moments before I saw Amtrak stopping at the depot.  A few toots of the horn at 10:21 AM and it was soon on its way to Seattle with Amtrak 456 up front and cabbage car 90340 on the rear.

I watched to see if the stack train would start moving but instead heard horns straight out near I-5 and Hewitt.  Must be something following Amtrak I figured and then I saw headlights to the east and heard the sound of GE’s.  Not the stack train but the westbound Z-CHCSSE passing it at 10:28.

Leading was the 5510/4927/4631/6987.  That trailing SD40 was the ex-BNSF 7327, CN 5024.  The odd looking numberboards also caught my eye.

As the train was going by I saw a headlight reflecting off the side of the Z’s trailers.  It wasn’t the stack train but a local with BNSF 2375/2093 leading 4 cars. 

That was the horns I had heard after Amtrak left.  The local continued under the overpass I was on and stopped at 10:31 AM.  I figured the stack train wasn’t going to come with him blocking the way so I left.  Still, three trains in 10 minutes was not too bad!