14-08-18 PHOTOS: Cascade Corridor - Part 2

Alright, it's time for Part 2 of my trip down the Cascade Corridor on Amtrak Train 11, the Southbound Coast Starlight. We begin at Olympia and continue down to Portland, although there is a fairly large break in the middle where I had to go back to the dining car for lunch. This trip was taken in August 2014 on my way to a conference in San Diego.

Not much need for any additional setup so if you want to find the full set of photos you can do so here.

Like I said we pick up exactly where we left off at the Olympia station with the tail end of a northbound Union Pacific freight train passing on the opposite track. Due to geography only a single rail route existed between Seattle and Portland. Built by BNSF predecessor Northern Pacific the Southern Pacific obtained traffic rights on the line (likely as part of some anti-monopoly regulation) to serve the Seattle-Tacoma area.

Many railroads have shop or yard complexes at towns called Centralia and the old Northern Pacific was no different. Here BNSF C44-9W #5045 is waiting for us to make our station stop so it can cross over and continue on. Opposite the engines is Centralia Yard. Back in the consist is NS C44-10W #7512.

Sitting near the crew office were a couple of BN painted Geeps. GP40M #3015 and GP38-2 #2336, serving as yard power.

Centralia had some of the Corridor's last remaining searchlight signals. The dispatcher was eager to get freight moving again and pulled up the northbound track 1 signal as soon as we had cleared it.

The lovely Centralia Station building.

Here is what we were holding up...a unit coal train with ATSF C40-8W #940 in the 3 slot.

BNSF C44-9W #5926 was pushing on the rear.

The old NP station at Chehalis. It is now a restaurant or other store.

14-08-18a PHOTOS: Eugene Oregon

So some weeks before my Coast Starlight trip kicked off we got one of those Amtrak e-mails explaining how there would be a surprise service modification in the form of a Bustitution between Portland and Eugene due to a UP maintenance blitz on the Brooklyn Sub. Now I have experienced this type of Bus Bridge before and it actually didn't cost much time since buses, running direct without stops, can usually make better time than the train.

I'll get into the details of the bus ride as I get into the photo part of the post, but suffice ti say we made it to Eugene and got rolling again on our new Train 11 where I was able to document at least some of the former Southern Pacific line to San Francisco. You can see the full set of photos here.

We begin with our original Train 11 trainset waiting under the canopies at Portland Union Station with Amtrak P42DC #167 and Heritage baggage car #1721. This trainset would proceed to wye before picking up the group of northbound passengers.

Amtrak "Mae West" Talgo cab car #7911 was sitting at the head of the Cascades trainset that was waiting for the next northbound departure. Not only is it ugly, I doubt it will substantially enhance the safety of the passengers and crew if the train hits anything more than a compact car. Also is it just me or is this transit look extra long?

Starlight passengers wait for their bus or train inside.

Despite the "corridor" type service, the Portland station still features a non-electronic train board behind the ticket window.

You heard the tower...GO BY TRAIN!

View of the station as my bus departed northward across the Willamette River. You can see a better panorama here.

Although it took about 30-45 minutes for our bus to get out of Portland, the 2 hour express run to Eugene still has us less than an hour behind schedule. Note the Southern Pacific style station signs with the terminal mileage.

There the new Train 11 trainset was waiting, having arrived earlier that day with the northbound passengers. 

This train was equipped with a Pacific Parlor Car, #39972 "Nappa Valley", which turned out to be a huge plus. 

In recent months Amtrak had taken to substituting the second P42 for a P32-8WH, but for this trip we were treated to Surfliner F59PHI #461!!! The leading P42DC was #123.