Nostalgia & History >

1. The afternoon pool train to Portland loads at King Street Station. It was scheduled to leave at 12:15 PM and would return to Seattle at 8:45 PM. Prior to BN this was an NP train. BN 9804 is an ex-NP F9. A freight train behind a pair of ex-NP Geeps waits on one of the through tracks after coming down from Interbay.

2. An afternoon pool train accelerates out of King Street Station.

3. The 8-car afternoon pool train has two sleepers on the rear.

Jim Lancaster

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4. An SDP45 is the lead unit on the Empire Builder waiting for its 3:45 PM departure for Chicago. There’s still a little snow on the pilot from its inbound trip over the Cascades.

5. The 14-car train loads from its usual position on the outside of the longest platform at the station.

6. The EB leaves with a CB&Q sleeper on the rear.

JL

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passengerfan Wrote:
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> The sleepers on the rear of the Portland pool
> train at this late date leave me wondering. The SP
> Cascade no longer operated through sleepers to
> Seattle at this time and there was no other
> explanation unless they were being transferred to
> Portland for operation over the former SP&S (also
> BN at that time) to connect with the Empire
> Builder at Spokane or North Coast Limited at
> Pasco.
>
> Al in Stockton

I think the two sleepers were pressed into use because of a shortage of coaches. The shortage could have been due to very late transcontinental trains, i.e., some of the coaches normally used on the Seattle-Portland trains had been used on the transcons. JL

Terrific photos once again!

Your pool train image shows a former Pullman built for the first lightweight "North Coast Limited" as the rear car. The car is an 8 Duplex Roomette, 6 Roomette, 3 Double Bedroom, 1 Compartment sleeper, identified by the duplex roomettes on the "A" end, or front end of the car, with the 6 standard roomettes and vestibule on the rear. The rectangular air vents on the roof are also easy to spot.

The 8-6-3-1's were no longer regularly assigned on the NCL or Mainstreeter at that late date, so it is interesting to see this type of car still operating in the BN era.

Thank you.

I really appreciate your posting these images. Thanks for sharing them with us.

In addition to the trains, the photos of the various switch lanterns are also priceless.

B&OB

Very cool. Thanks for posting!!

Another theory might be, depending on how close to Christmas this was, a large load of first class passengers connecting with the SP "Cascades" in Portland may have been more than the BN Parlor Car could handle. But that is just a guess.

I could only imagine if all of those tracks were still in place today.

I remember when the NP pool train operated with an A-B-A set of Fs the same as the North Coast Limited. The NP pool train operated with a full dining car a parlor lounge and four SP sleepers destined for the connection in Portland with the SP Cascade. As a young lad on Saturdays when my brother and I were supposed to be at the YMCA several blocks north on 4th ave. We instead were watching trains the entire day from the 4th ave viaduct. My dad dropped us off at the city bus and we were on our own after that for the entire day until we returned and phoned dad from the end of the city bus line at a pay phone for a dime to come and pick us up (still remeber the number MOhawk 1899). Summers were the best as we had to be home before dark.
We would spend the entire day at King St. and Union Stations watching all of the activity.The 4th ave viaduct was a great place for train watching. We even ventured as far south as Holgate St. where we would watch the trains go through the car washer and on the other side of Holgate they had a covered one track shop where they changed out wheels. We fudged somewhat and trespassed on RR property a bit for a better view but never got to far off the street. Especially liked watching the Olympian Hiawatha arrive behind electric and then be hauled backward to Tacoma. We also watched the UP pool train arrive at Union Station as it required alot of switching. The four arriving SP sleeping cars were shoved under the fourth ave viaduct by a UP switcher and later a NP switcher would come along and from the King St. Station side and pick up the cars and run with them clear to the Y down by the UP yard and return them to Holgate St. and run them through the car washer and then drop them on one of the passenger tracks for interior cleaning for the trip south on the NP pool train the next day. We watched as the North Coast Limited and Empire Builders arrived from the Holgate st. Yard and departed a couple of hours apart for Chicago in opposite directions the NP southbound and the GN northbound. Only the GN pool train operated south from King St. all others ran northbound. It was a great time for passenger train watching.
Your photos stir memories although I was no longer in Seattle during the BN era.
Al - in - Stockton

Al - I enjoyed your post. I have a lot of the same memories from living in Seattle from 1956 to 1962 and again from 1964 to 1968. These photos I've been posting the past week were all taken during a visit back to Seattle for Christmas in 1970. I think you'll enjoy the last set that I will post today or tomorrow. They were taken in and around the coach yard. Jim Lancaster

passengerfan Wrote:
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> I remember when the NP pool train operated with an
> A-B-A set of Fs the same as the North Coast
> Limited.

That is because the pool trains ran with the North Coast Limited power. NP ran their power in very tight 16 day cycles. In a 1959 example, the inbound North Coast Limited from Chicago was scheduled to arrive in Seattle at about 7:30 am, then after servicing, the power was put on the southbound pool train to Portland which departed at 12:30 pm, and returned on the evening pool train from Portland at 9:30 pm. The power was then held in Seattle overnight for a departure the next morning on a local for Spokane. And so on. The rotation varied some over the years with schedule changes and train discontinuances, but the point is that the NP was very frugal and efficient with the use of its passenger power.

Jim's photos are a wonderful documentation of the twilight of private passenger service. It's especially interesting seeing sleepers filling in for coaches; just a few years prior, both GN and NP had plenty of heavyweight coaches to handle the overflow on Portland and Vancouver runs, but by '70 they were gone. And I guess I wouldn't kick too much to exchange a clapped- out coach seat for a bedroom, either! Thanks for these great scenes--Kurt.