Western Railroad Discussion > Seattle - The City of Steel

After living in West Seattle for just over a year, I have realized that the most regular locals closest to home revolve around Seattle's light and heavy steel industries. Two outfits close to downtown produce steel and utilize their connection to the railroad to receive and ship products. The large outfit is Nucor Steel in West Seattle which has been producing several million pounds of finished steel products annually for over a century. The mill takes in several pellitized chemicals in covered hoppers, empty flat cars for rebar, and plenty of scrap metal gondolas. I'd guess the NUCOR turns through at least 100 freight cars from BNSF every week, making it the largest customer in West Seattle aside from container traffic at Terminal 5.

Another steel producer in Seattle is Seaport Steel located at "Champion" the fueling racks just south of Stacy Street Yard. This operation is much smaller than NUCOR and takes in finished steel plates that are then turned into marine and construction steel products. Seaport Steal takes in just 5-8 weekly cars of steel loads which are interchanged for empties by a unique yard job out of Stacy which utilizes a caboose to protect shoves. 

1. With a short train of empty cement hoppers and empty scrap metal gondolas, the West Seattle job crosses the Duwamish River from West Seattle and onto Harbor Island enroute to Stacy Street Yard

2. The local can be seen crossing over the double track raceway on Harbor Island. While the trains are never moving quickly here, this little stretch of track on Harbor Island sees through anywhere from 15-20 daily movements with long stretches out of Argo on the UP and Stacy on the BNSF. All harbor island traffic back to the mainline also has to navigate this stretch. In the scene we see the West Seattle local from Nucor traveling directional east, while a garbage switcher from Argo Yard stretches out on the racetrack. 

3. About an hour later, the local has dropped their outbound cut at Stacy and has picked up a much larger train of mostly loads to bring back to NUCOR in West Seattle. The grade crossing at Horton Street provides a great spot to safely watch trains working the old NP Stacy Street Yard, which still features a car shop!
 

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1. The local can be seen making a move along the racetrack before crossing back over to reach West Seattle

2. With several horn sequences down the racetrack, the bridge tender is called into duty and confrims that a train does truly need to cross

3. The local rattles and rolls across the bridge, originally built in 1911 for Northern Pacific - note the NP herald still in amazing condition on the motor housing. 

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7. A different yard job handles the work at Seaport Steel which can be seen departing Stacy Street Yard with a short train, hitting the wye towards Harbor Island.

8. The local barely enters the racetrack, but just to shove back towards 'Champion' in order to work the steel industry

9. The local works the south leg of the wye in order to gingerly drop two bulkheads of plated steel at the industry. 

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Thanks for the detailed photojounralistic report on the West Seattle steel locals, I always enjoy posts like this.

I wonder whether that NP herald is so well preserved because Seattle doesn't have as many annual sunny days as other parts of the country.

Great bunch with lots of variety, you certainly have knack for finding all the 'nooks and crannies' of the local industrial scene. BTW, good point about the steel industry in Seattle, it goes back a long way and most folks don't realize there once was a blast furnace (starting in 1881) and fully integrated mill in Port Townsend at one time. Nucor itself has 5 facilities in the area if you include the service and fabrication centers...

JG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/24 10:14 by jgilmore.

Those covered hoppers inbound to Nucor are carrying lime and dolomite.  Those are the slag-forming minerals that bind with impurities in the steel.

Ted Ferkenhoff
Flagstaff, AZ

That lift bridge looks like an engineering marvel.  Any pics of it raised?

Great shots as usual Andrew!

The West Seattle industry switcher handling “The Avenue” and Nucor, transferring cars to and from Stacy is Job 239. Gotta have big whiskers to work that one.

Seaport used to get serviced everyday back when…there was a job on duty specifically to handle that customer…it was Job 109…long gone now.

I had heard something about them going out of business not long ago…but looks like they’re still hanging on!

Great series and narrative from, I'm guessing, a not very often photographed area.  Thanks for sharing.

Kent in CArmel Valley

Interesting compositions, lots of details, lots to see.
There's been a few posts on TO about the Steel mill, I had no idea. Lots going on in that area, the history of the Duwamish River, the container port, the Alaskan Rail Ferry, the Shipyards and so on.
I tried to photograph the drawbridge many years ago, that sucker moves really fast. When my family lived in Seattle in the 60's we would drive through there to hang out at Alki Point, watch the traffic on the water, there's been some changes.
t4p.

Interesting and detailed urban captures!
GK

Excellent post and photos!

Andrew, always a treat to see your experise in chasing locals translate into great photo essays - you've transplated that skill from the Silicon Valley to Seattle!

I personally like catching trains crossing bridges, and you nailed a couple of great shots here. 
 

cchan006 Wrote:
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> Andrew, always a treat to see your experise in
> chasing locals translate into great photo essays -
> you've transplated that skill from the Silicon
> Valley to Seattle!
>
> I personally like catching trains crossing
> bridges, and you nailed a couple of great shots
> here. 


Thanks Charles! I learned from the best neutral light shooter in the west. In California I could afford to be a fair weather shooter, but Seattle has forced me to use the tips you taught be long ago on neutral light shooting. 

Thanks for the kind words.

I noticed that the NP logo was in suprisingly good condition. I believe it is well protected with an overhang, and is north facing in Seattle. The lack of sun is always good for painted artifacts.

Great series of shots!!! Thanks for sharing them.

Looking at a partial copy of a Northern Pacific ETT 79B October 1962, this was apparently the West Seattle Line and Drawbridge 36-8.
Don't know why though.

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Interesting that Seattle, unlike the Bay Area, has held on to it's heavy industries in the wake of Microsoft and Amazon coming to dominate large amounts of the region's GDP. (I automatically think of Boeing as a major manufacturing player in the region as well, and I'm sure there are numerous suppliers feeding into them.) Those 3 companies alone are 1/10th of the Dow, even if Boeing isn't headquartered in Seattle any more. The bascule lift bridges are great. Glad you're continuing to explore and enjoy your new home.

Sick coverage of these local movements! I really like the human element you captured in that bridge tender shot as well as the following local crossing it. On a few of my California delta bass fishing trips, while on the boat fishing around railroad bridges sometimes the tender would come out and chat with us. They always seemed chill and happy with their job.

In that first photo, I wonder if during "king tides" the sea water hits or covers that lower part of the bridge steel?