Nostalgia & History > E Unit Friday: Amtrak #345 in Seattle

I recently acquired several slides taken by H.E. "Buck" Price at Seattle's King Street Station in the early-to-mid-1970's, including this one of Amtrak E8A #345 in October 1974.  The #345 is on the innermost of the 3 run-through platform tracks, with a short 4 car train, which is either the Portland-to-Seattle or Seattle-to-Vancouver, BC local.  The first car is a leased GN 56 seat chair-8 seat smoker, originally built by P-S for C&NW. GN, NP, and CB&Q all bought several of these cars secondhand, and none were acquired by Amtrak. Today, there are at least 3 surviving examples: 2 GN cars at the Minnesota Transportation Museum and a NP car down in Oregon.  As for the engine: it was built in August 1950 as CB&Q #9946B, later BN #9952, and then Amtrak #345 (1st).  In 1977, it was renumbered to #465 (2nd), and it is listed in "Amtrak by the Numbers" as retired in July 1981.  However, a Tim Vermande photo on RR Picture Archives shows that the engine was retired sometime before December 1980 and stored in Brighton Park, Chicago.  The BN business car seen on the far right is most likely the #A4 (1st) Kootenai River (1st), which was built in 1947 by P-S in Lot #6719 to Plan #7535 as GN #A28, and was renumbered in 1969 to #A4.  The car was refurbished/remodeled in 1974, and was renumbered in 1977 to #A8.  In 1982, it was renamed Canadian River (2nd), and later had #800142 applied.  It is now on display at BNSF Headquarters.  Of the 3 run-through platform tracks: the track which #345 is on is still used by Amtrak, mostly for both the Empire Builder and the Coast Starlight, while the 2 stub tracks where the Kootenai River is parked are used for the Cascades.  The 2 outer run-through platform tracks with a shared island platform (the roof of which is seen on the far left behind the #345) are now used by Sound Transit for their Sounder commuter trains north to Everett and south to Tacoma and Lakewood.

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What I love about your posts is the details you provide.  Maybe not a great photo, but the
details are just outstanding.  Thanks for posting.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA