14-08-18 PHOTOS: Cascade Corridor - Part 1

2014 was a special year because I took not one, but two big Amtrak trips, the second of which was a unique opportunity to ride the Coast Starlight on a trip from Seattle to San Diego. Unfortunately there was a small problem with Union Pacific track work that would result in a bustitution between Portland and Eugene, Oregon, however this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as our trainset that departed Seattle wound up lacking a Pacific Parlor Car...an amenity that I came to appreciate in the second half of the trip. Still, despite the lack of Parlor Car I had great fun as you can see below.

You can see the full set of photos from Seattle to Portland here. Part 1 will cover the line from Seattle to Olympia.

After departing King St station we passed under the retractable roof of Seattle's Safeco field, home of the Mariners.

The yard for both Amtrak and Sounder passenger equipment is located south of the Stadiums. Here we see Sounder F59PHI #904 waiting for the return to service.

Sounder F59PHI #903 and a large number of P42's laying over at the Seattle engine terminal.

Union Pacific GP38-2's #606 and #667 hanging out at Argo Yard. UP operates to Seattle from Portland on BNSF trackage rights.

BN painted GP39-2 #2723 with a short train south of Argo Yard.

A light engine move with BN painted GP38-2 #2075 and BNSF GP39-2R #2918 waiting for us to cross over ahead of it at TUKWILA interlocking.

The new Tukwila Sounder station was built built with a third track upgrade in mind.

The old Northern Pacific station at Kent, WA is just a few blocks south of the new one.

A large lineup of GE road units at Auburn Yard including CP ES44AC #8841.

14-08-17 PHOTOS: Seattle Reunion

Last August I was planning to attend a computer security conference in San Diego. I had already completed that year's coast-to-coast Amtrak trip and was basically looking forward to some fun in the sun eating fish tacos, but then a travel buddy suggested that we could use this as an opportunity to take the Coast Starlight. Checking the airfare I determined that it would only cost 2$ more to fly out to Seattle and then back from San Diego so after that a call to Amtrak Guest Rewards set up the sleeping accommodation and I was off to collect another leg of Amtrak's national rail network.

I had been to Seattle once before in 2011 prior to my Empire Builder trip and found it to be a wonderful city (seeing as how I went during the 3-week long Sunny season). This trip would present me with far less time due to the Starlight's morning departure, but I would still have about a day to see some old school friends and ride around on transit. I also was able to see the completed King Street Station, which had just been beginning its refurbishment when I was there 3 years ago.

The complete photoset is right here

Flying in via Southwest I took this photo of Mt. Ranier, which will one day erupt and destroy the SeaTac area.

Sound Transit light rail LRV #141A wrapped to promote a concert series at the Tukwila Station. The line to the airport travels a distance that rivals most commuter rail systems.

Here is a video of SoundTransit LRV's #152 and #120 departing the Tukwila train station towards Seattle.



I had no reason to ride the Mono-D'oh, but I was near the Westlake terminal which is surrounded by trolleybus wire.

Here we see BNSF C44-9W #5261 sitting north of Olympic Park. The waterfront was packed with people and access control due to...sigh...Hempfest. I would have tried getting closer to the engine here, but my friend was refused entry because he had a 5 ounce glass bottle of artisan olive oil. Cannabis was fine, but small glass bottle? That's too much. 

Dinner at Ivar's Salmon Shack provided me with excellent views of the University Ave Bridge and Lake Union.

The University Ave bascule drawbridge is notable for supporting a trolleybus line and its associated overhead lines.

One of the control cabins on the bridge. Note the original traffic control signals embedded in the concrete structure.

South end control tower with the trolley wire structure.

I had gotten a good rate at a place called Hotel Seattle. Well, I quickly discovered that you get what you pay for. Despite being downtown the entire building was ratty with infrastructure that had been last refreshed in the 1970's...or before. One silver lining was the creaky old elevator with the clockwork noises that indicated relay logic. After poking around I made my way into the control room where I found this.

Car leveling was handled by this analogue of the elevator shaft, which I guess saves on wiring physical contacts for the car to trigger directly.

I had a friend in the elevator to run it down to the lobby and back while I took some video. The elevator was a Montgomery product.



From the hotel it was on to King Street station to catch the Starlight's 9am departure. Commuter trains were also coming and going like F59PHI #906 on the front of soon to depart Tacoma train.

11-06-15 PHOTOS: Seattle Trains

This week we cast the namby pamby world of transit and light rail aside and move into the world of FRA regulated railroads. While Seattle used to have a number of different railroads serving it including the CMStP&P and Union Pacific, today the city is basically a one horse town with BNSF, having originally been the territory of the Great Northern Railway, which ended up putting the Northern in Burlington Northern Santa Fe. To be fair there are some UP trackage rights on the BNSF main line to Portland to reach one of the ports, but make no mistake about it Seattle is a stronghold of the BNSF.

Seattle has rather significant passenger operations with the Souther Commuter Rail service, Amtrak's regional Cascades service and the termination of two Long Distance services, the Empire Builder and Coast Starlight. These services are centered about the City's King Street Station.

In this section I will start at the Olympic Sculpture Park and move south along the Great Northern tunnel under downtown to King Street Station with a short trip south to the sports complex.

You can view the entire set of photos here in alphabetical order.

We begin at twilight on my first day. While the sculpture park did spell the death of the Waterfront Streetcar, it does contain some pretty cool sculpture. The BNSF Main Line to points north and east cuts through the middle of the park. This line also hosts the passenger train services, but when I got there around 7 or 8pm the rush hour was over and it was time to run some freight trains. A Clear signal was displayed on the eastbound home signal of NORTH PORTAL interlocking and a few minutes later a mixed freight train lead by C44-9Ws #5093 and #5399 rolled by. Also, if you are interested I can un-meta that photos for you

While most of the main line through the city is in a cut or tunnel, the part near the park is actually interposed between the city and the waterfront through a series of grade crossings. You can see the enhancements on Broad St. to prevent people from going around the crossing gates. Since the freight trains can block the crossings for considerable periods as they move slowly through the downtown tunnel it is no wonder that the new Olympic Park included a pedestrian walkway over the tracks.

A few minutes later an eastbound loaded coal train roared out of the downtown area with ES44AC #5968 on point and SD70ACe #9134 following behind.

The train was destined for somewhere steep as a pair of helpers were on the back, but inexplicably facing in towards eachother. The lead unit was BN SD70MAC #9449 and the trail was BNSF SD70MAC #9894.

Stepping over to NORTH PORTAL interlocking I discovered a type of low profile GRS electric switch machine I had never encountered before...and might not again seeing as how they were about to be replaced by US&S M3's.

The next morning I had timed things a bit better and was in place for the morning rush which included an inbound Sounder train with EMD F59PHI #901 in the lead.

While one can't actually see the North Portal of the GN tunne, the South Portal is only a few hundred feet from the platforms at King Street Station and thus easy for all to see. Here is the infobox if you care and here is the portal itself, the lining having been notched for doublestack loads. Note the westbound dwarf signals for, what else, SOUTH PORTAL interlocking.

For all of you who like those Talgo trainsets here's a good illustration of why they suck. Note the space that the coaches themselves are using and then look at Amtrak cabbage F40 90253 for the space they could be using. The Cascades train was making its scheduled departure northbound.

Amtrak's King Street Station is a real gem and you can see the fencing and scaffolding in place for its ongoing restoration that will make it a great public asset.

A quick note about the King Street platform layout. Sounder commuter trains use the island platform with tracks 1 and 2 (Everett trains tend to be put on track 1 and Tacoma trains track 2), Amtrak LD and northbound/through Cascades use through track #3 and the Southbound cascades trains use the Stub tracks 4 through 6 (if track #3 is occupied). The BNSF through freight tracks are to the east of everything. The Sounder platform is own thing and Sounder passengers are segregated from the Amtrak platforms, but also the King Street Station building itself.

Here we see Bombardier Coffin Cab Car #304 on a pull in move from the yard to track two where it would turn and head south to Tacoma.

On the rear of that train was Sounder F59PHI #9 *baited breath* 11 **applause!!*. Interestingly enough you can compare the quality of my old digital camera with my friends new DSLR which was getting a trial workout before his big European trip.

11-06-15 PHOTOS: Seattle Transit

This kicks off the first part of what will probably be a many part series documenting my epic trip on Amtrak's Empire builder last year. The first part of this series will focus on the various Transit alternatives in the Seattle area. These include the SoundTransit Light Rail, the South Lake Union Streetcar, the King County Metro trolleybuses, the now defunct Waterfront Streetcar and of course the Seattle Monorail. I'll also throw in any photos of other non-heavy rail transportation items such as ferry boats, container ships, elevators and retractable rooftops.

You can find browse the entire gallery of transit related photograph here.

Like most people who travel to Seattle my first experience with their transit system was the shiny new light rail link to SeaTac airport. There was nothing wrong with it as it was clean and had cool station art, but as far as light rail systems go nothing really stood out and it was rather generic. Here we see LRV #135B in the region's typical "Wave" paint scheme accepting passengers at the airport station.

The LRVs are of the low floor articulated 2.5 segment type. Again, completely generic. Here is 117B after having arrived at the SeaTac station.

One cool feature of Seattle is that it has a downtown transit tunnel that also counts as a "fare free" zone. The light rail portion of the tunnel runs from the International District Station (on the site of the old Union Station) to the Westlake Center where one can catch the Monorail. Here we see 144A at the International District station looking along the length of the subterranean platform.

Ah the Mono-D'Oh!, one of Seattle's most iconic institutions and also probably the most overrated. Ask most people and they would tell you that the entire city is covered by monorail lines. In reality the system consists of a single line about a mile line with two stations that connect the downtown area with the site of the 1962 Wo--d F-ir. Fortunately, unlike Knoxville, Seattle was successfully redevelop its fair site so it is actually still a fairly robust draw featuring such attractions as the Space Needle, a science center, the usual stable of performing arts centers and an arena that hosts a NBA team.

Here we see the monorail beams at the Westlake Center terminal. When the original terminal was moved to make way for a park the replacement made use of the monorail version of a gauntlet track to save money. Only one of the two monorail can platform at a time or badness happens. The monorails use a 4th rail system as there are no actual rails to conduct traction current back through. Current supplied if 700VDC supplying 4 750hp motors per train.

After paying a $2 fare that is not integrated with the rest of the local transportation system you wait to board one of two Monorail vehicles, the Blue Car or the Red Car. Yup, that's all these are, one car per rail to avoid having to deal with things like...switching. And to think that people thought this was somehow going to be the transit system of the future. Here the blue car on the near beam lines up with the platform screen doors.

When the Red Car arrives a system of folding extendable platforms must deploy.

 Most of the Monorail beam was built down the middle of 5th Ave. I did not have a chance to see if typical "under the El" businesses were also present under the Monorail.

On my first day both cars were in operation so I managed to photograph the meet about 2/3rds down the line.

Going through the S-Curves as the monorail approaches the fairgrounds the cars exhibit some crazy tilting that allows the Conductor to maintain speed.

Here's what that looks like in video form.


The vehicles are the original 1960's Alweg products, one of only a few still operating. The insides retain all of their retro future charm.

Near the Seattle Center terminal the beam passes through the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame which was built as a Frank Gehry-designed museum, but now may be some sort of prison.