Western Railroad Discussion > A Pleasant Summer Evening at Vader, WA

Spent one of the last nice Summer evenings at Vader, WA on BNSF's Seattle Subdivision with a few good friends on Thursday. Fall is coming, and that means rain and cloudy skies for us up here in the Pacific Northwest. 13 trains passed within a 4 hours period, here are a few of them.

1) Three Canadian Pacific invaders are the head end power on a Northbound oil train.

2) UP 5543 leads the Southbound MPSHK-12, which comes off the Puget Sound & Pacific Railroad in Centralia, WA.

3) The searchlight signals at Vader stand tall and proud, as most on the Seattle Subdivision are being replaced by the newer "Darth Vader" type heads.

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4) As the light quickly fades away, an all EMD consist leads a heavy Northbound coke train from Montana up the Seattle Subdivision.

5) These trains typically run with a solid set of GATX hopper cars.

6) The rear DPU catches a last glimpse of light before disappearing into the trees.

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7) The MFIHK-12 takes its clear signal at Vader and continues south for Portland, Oregon.

Thanks for looking,

Aj

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Looks like a nice place to watch trains except for that god awful tower.

Is that Oil unit and coke unit typical? Granted I haven't fanned that area in years but those are both interesting trains...Do they still run the Garbage Scow out to Roosevelt? I'll have to sim (CTC by Frank Byran) territory Vancover Jct N.- East Olympia...Beautiful country...Steve

the_expediter Wrote:
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> Is that Oil unit and coke unit typical? Granted I
> haven't fanned that area in years but those are
> both interesting trains...Do they still run the
> Garbage Scow out to Roosevelt? I'll have to sim
> (CTC by Frank Byran) territory Vancover Jct N.-
> East Olympia...Beautiful country...Steve


Very common nowadays. At least 4-6 oil trains a day, a coke train a few times a month. Lots of coal trains.

There will be a lot of changes on the sub. They have begun installing high speed switches or in the process of getting the equipment installed for the switches between Ridgefield South up to at least Longview Jct now.

Ridgefield South, Woodland, and MP 113/114 had a huge work window today installing the new switches. Even got movable point frogs. Pretty impressive. Meanwhile in Seattle, another mainline relocation change is occurring. Its now 3MT from Stadium (Under Safeco Field's roof) to Tukwila.

The crew should begin laying the rail and such down for the Vancouver bypass project later this year as well.

All of the searchlight signals are slated to be gone by this time next year.

I LIKE Pics 1, 2, and 4!!!!

Thanks for the info...Sad about the searchlights though...1st time I ever railfanned that area was in the mid 1990s in Oct...trees were changing and it was fabulous watching and videoing the choo choos on those backroads between Kalama and Chehalis...Steve