Railfanning Washington State

[Sokramiketes]

We bailed on Wishram and drove up the road to Maryhill. We caught (smelled) the garbage train cutting through town. I had a nice angle lined up until the crossing gate came down in front of the camera! So in the rush to scoot over, I either didn't get the camera level, or didn't notice that the crossing gate wasn't plumb... Though the signal box looks squared up in the shot?

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After Maryhill, John took us down a gravel road that runs on the old ROW for the SP&S, that is basically a signal maintainers road now. It was one cool road, as it passed through all the basalt rock cuts that the railroad originally blasted out along the shore line. The end of the road gave us a great vantage point, so we stuck around for a few trains. It's a little after 11:00am by this point, and we hung around about an hour here. The breeze off the river killed the heat, and the trains kept on parading past.

[Sokramiketes]

Caught this CSX unit playing DPU with a Warbonnet on the rear of a grain train.

[Sokramiketes]

So, a little after Noon, we made the call to drive Northeast to the Steven's Pass line. We had been in the gorge before, and with a successful morning, decided it was time to explore new territory for us. We arrived in Trinidad around 4:15pm.

Trinidad was HOT. This is the parched desert, and rattle snake territory, and the temperature according to the car dash was 100 degrees. Stepping out of the air conditioned car was stifling. But in 15 minutes, it was all worth it as we caught our first train on Trinidad Loop.

[Sokramiketes]

Trains travel slow around the loop, even this down hill train. Looking at the map, the loop looks to be about 1200 ft in diameter. There are flange greasers in play, but the flanges still sing all the way around the loop.

This picture doesn't look like much, until you realize that the train on the left is the same as the one on the right. We were completely surrounded by train at this point! Pennsy's horseshooe curve is neat too, and has more traffic... but here in Trinidad, there are no trees in the way, and it feels much more intimate. Yep, this is my new favorite horseshoe curve.

[Sokramiketes]

And here's a glam shot of our trusty rent-a-wreck. Baird Springs Rd is a gravel (well, mostly rock) road with a lot of washboarding. I was driving at this point, and found that 20mph was about the right speed to keep the shaking at a minimum. Later, while chasing a train back to the loop on Sunday, McCarthy figured if 20 mph was ok, that 40 mph was even better. The laws of multiples and harmonics did him well, and we didn't miss that train! Boy, was the car ever dusty at the end of 3 days though...

[Sokramiketes]

Our streak of "not having to bail on a spot before a train came" was in tact. But, we were hot and wanted to scope the rest of the line into Wenatchee before checking into the hotel. On a tip from an internet guide to this line, we drove back and forth on the highway trying to find one spot in particular. We finally found it, just off the highway at a big sand quarry (big sand pile?). The sand pile overlooked one of the most spectacular set of S-curves I've personally seen. Check this out! There's two, since I couldn't make up my mind which was better. And both are a little hazy... but just wait for Sunday's photos. We kept coming back here while chasing trains up and down the line.

[Black Diamond]

Awesome pictures! I'm taking the Empire Builder to Portland in a few weeks and this has just sent me into orbit. I can hardly wait. Thanks for posting.  I love the Pacific Northwest

[Sokramiketes]

Ok then, we're back. It's bright and early Sunday Morning. We had just spent the night in Wenatchee at the Red Lion, and are packing the rental car. I had to snap a picture of a new Shelby parked in the lot.



It's no Shelby Dodge, but I'd still drive it.

[Sokramiketes]

We headed back east first. The sun hadn't broken from the clouds yet, so we decided to scout the bridge over the Columbia River first. This is the famous 'bridge within a bridge' with the extra superstructure added to handle heavier loads. This was about the best spot we could find without a long hike or any tresspassing.

[Sokramiketes]

As the sun began to peak through the haze, we headed into Wenatchee, figuring if we saw anything headed East that we'd have time to chase it out to the bridge, now that we knew where to ditch the car and camp out. We also hadn't explored the station area yet, so we parked and walked the platform. Here's a shot of some GE power sitting just beyond the platforms.

[Sokramiketes]

This fruit warehouse was really neat! This is shot from the station platform... perfect vantage point. That's a GP39m rebuild on the point, still showing pieces of it's original GP30 shrouding. I'm surprised these are still around, and in the latest BNSF wedgie paint to boot! Still waiting for that cloud cover to burn off, but it does add some drama to the shot.

[Sokramiketes]

Another anarchronism it seems. Still unpatched Big Sky Blue wood ship hoppers. There's some NP floating around too! This paint is going on 40 years old here in 2007:

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And, spinning around to the West we catch a manifest headed East. Here's our ticket to catching a train on the bridge. The foot is a game!

[Sokramiketes]

Wenatchee is across the river from the highway, so we had to race ourselves out of town and over the highway bridge. Here's the manifest pulling out of Wenatchee, shot across a budding apple orchard on the near side.