Tacoma Freight

BNSF Railway freight train passing the Temco elevator in Tacoma, Washington.

While returning home from the 2011 "Tracks in the Snow" weekend, I enjoyed tours of Seattle and Tacoma rail facilities thanks to my guides, Steve Eshom and Robert Scott. We made our last photographs of the day at the Tacoma Export Marketing Company's elevator and dock along the south end of Tacoma's water front. Approaching in the foreground is BNSF's daily freight train from Pasco to Tacoma with a long cut of loaded lumber cars directly behind the locomotives. The elevator can hold three million bushels of grain, or about seven trains' worth. The adjacent sidings can hold three 110-car grain shuttle trains, which typically arrive from eastern Washington, Montana, and North Dakota. The bulk carrier Four Mogami in the background can carry nearly five trains' worth of grain.

Despite a lot of rain and no new snow in the mountains, I really enjoyed my first visit to Stevens Pass, and I look forward to returning soon. Thanks again to Steve and Robert for hosting me throughout the weekend, to Ross Fotheringham for organizing the event.

Pineapple Express on Stevens Pass

BNSF empty grain train crossing a creek near Skykomish, Washington.

The Pineapple Express is not the train in this photo, but a winter weather event in the Northwest that occurs when the jet stream is positioned to bring warm, wet air into the region. That's been happening here since the middle of the week, and is supposed to intensify overnight. Snow levels have risen to 9000 feet and up to six inches of rain is expected in the mountains by Monday, with strong potential for flooding and landslides.

I spent another day exploring the former Great Northern Railway's main line with Robert Scott, Steve Eshom, and other attendees of the annual “Tracks in the Snow” weekend, organized by Ross Fotheringham. It was a quieter day on the railroad, with only about half the traffic of yesterday. We first went east to cloudy but dry Trinidad Loop, then worked our way back west, where the rain abated for a few hours. Just before the next deluge started, we caught this empty grain train ascending the west slope of the pass, crossing a creek near the Foss River bridge, just west of Skykomish.

East of Leavenworth

BNSF Railway intermodal train from South Seattle to Chicago passing orchards near Cashmere, Washington.

It's been a surprisingly good first day of photography on Stevens Pass in Washington's North Cascades. I'm traveling with Robert Scott and Steve Eshom, who know the pass well. A warm front has left unseasonably warm temperatures across the region, and the rain came down in buckets this morning on the pass. In the afternoon we went east, into the orchard country along the Wenatchee River east of Leavenworth, Washington, where we found more favorable weather. BNSF's Scenic Subdivision was busy today, making for an eventful day of photography. The Great Northern's mainline hosts primarily intermodal traffic, and we saw several trains of double-stacked shipping containers, including this one near Cashmere, a South Seattle to Chicago Z-train, the hottest eastbound on the line.

And More Grain at Portland

Bulk carrier Premnitz at CLD Pacific Grain's O'Dock in downtown Portland.

Continuing with the recent grain theme, since it is grain season, a swing through downtown Portland today yielded this image of the bulk carrier Premnitz taking on a load of export wheat CLD Pacific's O'Dock. At right is the dock's trackmobile, helping to unloaded covered hoppers.

I'm writing from the Cascadia Inn at Skykomish, Washington, where I'll be for the next three days. The plan was to photograph BNSF's Stevens Pass in the snow, but it looks more like rain, which is what's coming down outside as I type. We'll see how it goes. Off for night photos!

More Grain in Portland

BNSF grain train at East Portland Junction.

The flow of grain continues through Portland at a rapid pace. Both downtown grain elevators, the O'Dock pictured here and Irving just to the north, are currently loading boats. Late this afternoon, a loaded BNSF grain train entered Union Pacific trackage, coming through Union Station and across the Steel Bridge, from whence it proceeded to Albina yard. Plenty of BNSF grain is unloaded on the UP side of the river, as this photo shows, but this was the first time that I have seen a solid BNSF unit grain train take this routing. Usually I have seen BNSF grain cars come across the river in the manifest of the UP's Lake Transfer train, which makes a daily interchange run between the two railroads' yards. Today's competition between the UP and BNSF dates back to era of James Hill on the Great Northern and Edward Harriman on the UP, but cooperation also happens.