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.

Mobile Moment - The Local Scramble

Mike Bjork, our WARail fan on the street, is by his own definition "batty" over trains. Sometimes the lengths to which he goes for getting a shot are just plain crazy. But he's batty. He'll tell you so.

When asked about these shots, taken October 9th in Pullman WA, he offered up this reply:

"I like rambling stories and I have a lot of time on my hands. I'll make a good old guy when I get there. The short story behind that shot: I was bored after class and it was nice weather yesterday in town. I decided to take my camera to class and afterwards, go snap some shots of the wig-wag and some center beam flats that have been sitting in town. I've had to get creative w/ trains over here. Taking shots of the cars in the weeds, I hear a splattering horn that couldn't be anything but a train. After crapping myself in surprise, I booked it about 100 yards to the place to take that picture. She was slowly rolling town with another unit and some grain. Snapped a few pics, then ran about 1/3 of a mile across town to try to beat the train to another crossing. The engineer was nice enough to slow the train down so I could get in front of it. He probably took pity on me when he saw me running like a fool w/ my backpack. The train is the weekly local though Pullman, and in my 15 minutes down taking pictures, I was lucky enough to catch this rare train on one of the last nice days of the year."

Back in my day Pullman was where both Uncle Pete and BN both ran through town. Both railroads had tracks in front of my apartment, blowing their horns at all hours. Back then I didn't appreciate it as I would now. Those days are gone, and now Palouse River RR operates the largest regional railroad in Washington through the town. Grain is the primary shipment, as Pullman is in the Palouse Region known for bushel after bushel of wheat and lentils. Look for more from Mike, a fellow railfan and WSU Cougar. And remember...he's batty.

Mobile Moment - King Street Station

This week I've been on jury duty in downtown Seattle. Imagine my excitement when the bailiffs announce a two-hour lunch break; and here we are so close to tracks and trains! I skinned out the door and into the rainy Seattle streets to do what any railfan would do - eat my sandwich while looking for trains with my Treo 750/Camera Phone in hand. Sure, the quality of the photos taken by the Treo aren't up to snuff compared to even the most rudimentary 35mm SLR cameras, but frankly with some tweaking the photos end up looking better than those taken with a disposable. Sometimes you have to separate yourself from the desire to always be 100% and spot-on; I would have liked using my Olympus but the Treo does fine for what it is.

Closest venue for my Mobile Moment was our own King Street Station, recently sold to the City of Seattle by BNSF for the princely sum of one dollar. This will allow Seattle to get state and federal grants for renovation that were not available when it was privately held by the railroad. In any case, the station was potentially a great place for me to catch some trains and take some pix during my lunchtime - rather than sitting cooped up in the Jury Room.

Seattle Times wrote a great news story in 2005 about it; Trains magazine also wrote a sensational article recently about King Street Station, done in the style of a hard boiled detective novel from the 1940s - presumably because the wet weather and dark winters. It left me wanting more, because the article focused more on the way it was written rather than what it was written about. Much has been written about this station, so it's pointless for me to reinvent the wheel. But I can take pictures and poke around. The above view is pointed north towards the two-track tunnel that runs under the city to the waterfront. Below, the camer is pointed south toward the sports stadiums.

4th Avenue S runs on the left-hand side in the photo. In this part of the city, the railroad is literally underneath everything. On the other side of 4th Avenue is what's left of UP's Union Station, which has now been renovated into the headquarters for Sound Transit. The UP and Milwaukee Road ran out of Seattle's Union Station on a "stub track," which means the trains essentially backed up to the station and took on passengers. UP did not run on its own track north of here.

At this point, you might be thinking "doesn't this chowderhead take photos of actual trains?" Well, the best ones for last:

Amtrak 457 is an EMD F59PHI. On this day it was providing power for Amtrak Cascades, with the control car at the other end. Just before I took this photo a couple of homeless people walked across the tracks and then disappeared into the concrete maze on the other side. Some people just never learn about crossing tracks.

90230, for some reason, is called a "Cabbage Car." Essentially an "engineless engine," 90230 functions as a control car for Amtrak Cascades trains. Power is on the other end, usually in the form of an F59PHI like the one above but painted differently.

No BNSF trains came through at all while I was there, which was long enough to relax, eat, snap some pix, and even get close to Amtrak 457. But as I left and walked back towards 3rd and Yesler I could here the all-familiar howl of a BNSF horn coming up the track. Oh well...I should have stuck around another five minutes but who knew? That aside it was a great way to spend my lunchtime. I now know how to navigate around there on foot, so I should be able to take my boys along for the next tour of King Street Station!

Until next time, see you trackside...