Western Railroad Discussion > Tacoma Sounder Bridge Update Courtesy of Tacoma Rail

Stopped by Tacoma Tuesday afternoon with the goal of catching a Charger equipped Cascades stopping at the soon-to-be former Amtrak Station. Instead, after hearing a Tacoma Rail train ask for a light onto the Lakewood sub, I headed to the L street overpass to see what I could shoot.

I was surprised to see TR 3001 and 3000 pulling a short train off the "hill". Still trying to find out more about the train.

1) Looks like quite a journey! In addition to the TR train, you can see that all of the white shrink wrap and scaffolding is down and there is now a lot of Sounder Blue steel. What you can't see is the bottom of the steel bridge section getting the shrink wrap treatment so it too can be painted blue.

2) Through the magic of photography, it appears the train is stopped at the platform. Now Boarding on Track 2! Tacoma Dome to Milwaukee Way, with a stop in Fife. Featuring open air seating!

3) FlatIron (the General Contractor) is getting a lot of landscaping done. The east end is looking nice and the west end even better.

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

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4) This photo shows something that should have been obvious to me, but until I saw it, I just didn't realize. Main 1, on the left, won't be used by Tacoma Rail, because there isn't a way to get there without a backup move. The crossover at C street (in front of the train in photo 1) is main 2 to main 1 southbound. TR can't get to main 1 there. The crossover at L street is the same. So the only way to get home is to use main 2 and the double crossover at Portland Ave. Can't see main 1 between Portland ave and L street getting much use.

5) It's 3:20 pm and the first Sounder is due in at 3:35 (or so). The dispatcher didn't waste anytime lining the L Street crossover. Note the points on main 2 (right).

As I post this on Wednesday, there are only five more days left before all the passenger trains leave the Pt Defiance portion of the BNSF Seattle sub and the beautiful scenery along the Puget Sound. The next day, Cascades passengers will cheer for the 10 minute faster travel time between Portland and Seattle and the convenience of 4 additional trips. They may even stare longingly out the windows of the train at the traffic on I-5, the scenes of Dupont, Lakewood and South Tacoma and forget all about the Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains. I know I won't!

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

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Someone has probably asked already, but why are the guardrails so close together?

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Someone has probably asked already, but why are
> the guardrails so close together?

To allow tamping machines to work.

TAW

DelMonteX Wrote:
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> ...
>
> 2) Through the magic of photography, it appears
> the train is stopped at the platform. Now
> Boarding on Track 2! Tacoma Dome to Milwaukee Way,
> with a stop in Fife. Featuring open air seating!
...

Please don't all sit on the same side or the car might fall over.

I don't know if it's the focal length of the lens or not but that grade southward out of the station looks very steep; any idea the percentage of that grade? If it's as steep as it looks that will preclude detouring freight on this line if something happens to the mainline.

Railbaron Wrote:
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> I don't know if it's the focal length of the lens
> or not but that grade southward out of the station
> looks very steep; any idea the percentage of that
> grade? If it's as steep as it looks that will
> preclude detouring freight on this line if
> something happens to the mainline.

2.85%

Sound Transit owns the line and doesn't want freight trains up there. They said so in the EIS for building it. The ruling grade at both ends is greater than the 1% southward and 0.9% northward on the rest of the line, to which many (most?) trains are powered to within a hair of making, so with that and pilots, it really isin''t practical anyway.

TAW

Thanks, Steve, for the entire history of this job that you have posted throughout its history.

TAW Wrote:
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> Sound Transit owns the line and doesn't want
> freight trains up there. They said so in the EIS
> for building it. The ruling grade at both ends is
> greater than the 1% southward and 0.9% northward
> on the rest of the line, to which many (most?)
> trains are powered to within a hair of making, so
> with that and pilots, it really isin''t practical
> anyway.
>
> TAW


Ah, thank you very much - makes sense.

Nice catch on that TR job, DS was quick to line switch behind in that last shot.
JB

3rdswitch Wrote:
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> Nice catch on that TR job, DS was quick to line
> switch behind in that last shot.


The CTC has a stacking feature. Spatch can line up the next route before the first train is by. As soon as the first move clears the plant, the next one is automatically lined up.

TAW