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Not having been up to the Scenic Sub in quite sometime and wanting to get photos of the ex-GN rotary and ex-NP F9B power car now stored at Wenatchee’s Appleyard, I headed out on Saturday morning 6-26-10 and was soon on Highway 2 headed east.  It was very overcast out of Monroe but I was going on the hope of sunshine on the east side of the Cascades.  As I passed by Skykomish a sunbreak came out at the east end of the siding so I pulled over and walked up to the ex-GN signals since it has been reported BNSF is replacing the old GN installed CTC searchlight signals with three color lights for PTC operations.

Someday these signals will be just a memory.  As I continued up the pass I heard the dispatcher call the Z-SSECHC and tell them they would be at Scenic for Amtrak and a stack train right behind them.  The Z was already sitting in the siding waiting as I crossed overhead on the highway and looked over at the 3 H2 C44-9W’s leading the train.  Not worth the stop as there was no sunshine so I kept on going and soon crossed over Stevens Pass summit and headed down the east side knowing Amtrak was underneath somewhere in the tunnel.  Coming into Berne I heard the MP 1695 detector report so I knew the westbound was close by.  I pulled off at the railroad overpass and waited.  After the MP 1697 went off I waited outside and photographed the BNSF 677/675/4733 heading upgrade at 0915.

The clouds really thinned out the further east I went.  At least the thicker clouds did.  There were still high clouds floating around all the way down to Cashmere but it was looking like the afternoon would be really good.  There were no trains around but I stopped east of the Cashmere depot to take some photos of the signals and depot at the west switch from the grade crossing.  There was a work crew here and I noticed new signals were being installed.

Knowing the Z-train was a long ways off I drove over to the Cashmere Museum never having stopped to take a look before.  For one thing I wanted to see the GN caboose on display.  It was just about 10:30 AM, the opening time so I got lucky there.  After paying an admission fee I took some photos of the GN X494 on display.

Maybe it’s just me but that semaphore looks more NP than it does GN!  Just south of the caboose is this old passenger car which according to one website is former Great Northern.  Looks like some more research is in order.

The caboose was open so I took a look inside.  A plaque stated it was built in 1922.

And for fun here is a photo of me on the back of that caboose.

And here I am wondering why the Mission depot is not open to sell me a ticket. 

It seems Mission was renamed Cashmere in the early 1900′s!  I little fact I didn’t know.

After spending around an hour enjoying myself at the Museum I headed back to the truck and over to the BNSF again figuring the Z-train must be getting close by now.  Most of the high clouds had moved out (and the temp creeping up towards 80) so I took another photo at the grade crossing looking west.

And I was right, the BNSF 4603 East soon called the Foreman on the radio to proceed through his work limits.  Lots of bell and whistle was the request.

I followed the Z-SSECHC into Wenatchee and decided it was time for lunch, especially as the inbound crew was told the outbound wasn’t on duty for another 35 minutes.  After getting my lunch I headed out to Appleyard to wait on the Z-train but that’s the Columbia River Sub so I will end this report on the Scenic Sub here.

Kind of late in coming but I finally got to see some snow! Lots of snow up in the Cascades overnight and as there was some showing on the webcam at Skykomish, WA on BNSF’s Scenic Sub that’s where I went. East of Monroe the detectors behind me at MP 1778 and 1776 went off with an axle count of 42. That kind of threw me and I thought maybe a work train was headed east. I wanted a GN looking shot (this is former Great Northern after all) so I waited at the west switch of Gold Bar to frame the train between the ex-GN CTC signals.  I was hoping for a couple of Geeps and got a dirty H2 C44-9W instead leading an empty Boeing train.

I photographed the train again west of Baring crossing Barclay Creek.

My last shots before Skykomish were at the gravel pit east of Grotto.

The train slowed and came to a stop at Skykomish. The snow I had seen on the webcam this morning was gone. Now it was just rainy and wet! Over the scanner I could hear the dispatcher telling someone they were halfway in. This turned out to be the dispatcher talking to an eastbound waiting at Scenic for a westbound that was in the tunnel now. Now I knew why the Boeing train had stopped. I drove up to Scenic as quickly as I could and halfway there heard a rollby. Just missed the westbound but as I got up to Scenic saw an eastbound still waiting for a signal to leave and there was lots of snow on the ground and it was still coming down! Here are a few shots of the empty grain train starting out of the siding at Scenic.

I then headed back down to Skykomish to see what I had missed and arrived just as the Z-CHCSSE with 4 H2 C44-9W’s came into the curve east of town. 

The BNSF 4876 then got the signal to leave Skykomish and started up the grade.

I then started up for Scenic again and at Deception Creek thought I could drive up to the bridge and was able to make it there without much trouble except for a number of “truck swallowing” potholes encountered on the way up.  After a bit of a wait (all while watching the snow melting off the trees, it was 39F down at Skykomish) the train finally showed up.

I then started west for home. Enjoyed the day and finally got some snow shots!

On Saturday 3-6-10 I drove out to Monroe, WA in hopes of seeing a few BNSF trains as well as photograph some former GN bridges and the CTC signals at the east switch of Monroe.  There is talk of BNSF replacing these CTC signals with newer versions so I decided that this sunny Saturday would be a good time to complete my goal of the eastward signals at the east switch.

I got to Monroe around 12:30 PM but the sun had not yet some around on the signals.  I had at least an hour before the sun angle would be good so I headed out to Startup and photographed the ex-GN bridge over the Wallace River at MP 1758.0 as the sun angle was nice there.

I continued east towards Gold Bar and stopped at a pullout and photographed the bridge at MP 1757.2 as I had never photographed this bridge before.  It too crosses the Wallace River.  That’s the Highway 2 bridge to the left.

I hadn’t heard any trains on the scanner at all which kind of surprised me.  But I figured the light would be good now back at Monroe so I headed west and got this photo of the eastward signals.  The siding signal is on the right and constant lit.

Here is a view of the siding signal.

I noticed the bridge just east of the signals and as I had not thought of photographing it before decided to get a closer look at it.  This is bridge 1768.3 and it crosses Woods Creek.

I also discovered a former Milwaukee Road bridge here I had not noticed before.  This view from it shows how close it is the the former GN line.  I am guessing the Milwaukee had trackage rights on the GN from here to Everett.

I then waited to see if any trains would show up but as the afternoon grew late and the shadows long I called it a day and headed for home.

I would soon learn there had been a derailment of a loaded westbound grain train at the east switch of Wilson Creek this morning in eastern Washington and this was the reason I had not seen any trains.  One of the grain cars had broken a wheel which split the switch causing the pileup of 25 cars.  Here is a Railroad Forums thread about the derailment.

http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31919

From the photos I have seen on this thread the eastward signals at the east switch of Wilson Creek are buried under grain cars.  If these were former GN signals it looks like a bit more GN history has been lost.  Another reason to photograph as many of them as I can!

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!