March 02, 2007



















last updated: 04/01/07


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David.Honan
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After a grueling month of work in February, culminating in a 22-hour all-nighter over February 27th-28th to put the final touches on a submittal, my boss told me to take the rest of the week off. With light snow and cold temperatures in the forecast for Skykomish, I decided to head up to Stevens Pass on Friday, March 2nd.

Grotto, WA There was nothing moving on the line except a Z train coming into Everett, so I headed up the mountain to find a shot. Coming into Baring I heard a westbound approaching Skykomish, so I pulled off US 2 at the Money Creek campground and captured this view of westbound Z-CHCSSE2-28A crossing the Skykomish River against a background of snow-covered conifers on Crosby Mountain.
Skykomish, WA The Z-SSECHC2-02C takes the siding at Skykomish to meet a westbound stack train. Knowing the Z would be somewhat delayed getting over the summit, I jumped ahead to do some offroading and try a shot at the Slot.
Merritt, WA Happily White Pine Road was open, so I put the Jeep in 4WD and trundled on down to the tracks. I had to climb a snowbank to get this shot, but I'm pleased with the result.

I thought the Z would meet a late-running No. 7 at Winton, but to my surprise the meet took place at Merritt and I was already heading back to US 2 when the westbound zipped past.

Gold Bar, WA I headed back over the pass as quickly as I could, which wasn't all that fast given that US 2 was a little slick. No. 7 easily beat me to Scenic, but the railroad's long and slow route between there and Skykomish allowed me to overtake the train by a sufficient degree that I was able to get to the Skykomish River bridge between Index and Gold Bar with a few minutes to spare.

An eastbound grain train met Amtrak at Monroe and then moved up to Gold Bar, so I figured there was another westbound following Amtrak down the hill. I hiked in to a side view of the Skykomish River bridge to shoot both trains. I wasn't happy with the resulting photo of the westbound, so I didn't bother to process the shot.

Gold Bar, WA After meeting the S-LPCSEA3-26E at Gold Bar, empty grain train X-INBMAY9-28A accelerated out of town and crossed the swollen Skykomish River.

By this point in the early afternoon the temperature had climbed into the high 30s, snow was melting off the trees and it was starting to rain, so I called it a day and returned home.

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