Thursday, 17 March 2011

Stevens Pass with the Leavenworth Snow Train on December 18th, 2010

(I know that the description is really detailed, but bare with me so you can understand how my chase went) Personal Note: This is one of my best Snow Train Chase that I have ever done before. With good locations and good weather, it's couldn't have been a better day for a train chase. Me and my dad woke up at 0700 to get a heads start on my trip of chasing the Alki Tours' Leavenworth Snow Train with the train provided by Amtrak. After I had a good breakfast at the Buzz Inn Restaurant at Monroe, we headed off to Index. As I set off at Index, we had a Railroad Traffic Jam at Gold Bar, with a WB Z Train, a EB Empty Coal Train and the Leavenworth Snow Train. As I was hearing the dispatch chatters, The Snow Train actually have to squish in the siding at Gold Bar behind the Coal Train, while the Z Train took the main line. Instead of seeing the Snow Train first, we ended up seeing a 556 axle Empty Coal Train shattering the quietness at Index with 4 ES44AC's on the point and no DPU power on the rear. About 10 minutes after the Coal Train went through, The 74-axles Snow Train rounded the bend at Index at approach medium signals speeds (meaning that trains can not exceed 40 MPH due to train/signal traffic ahead). The mammoth train is pulled by 2 GE Genesis P42DC (194 and 137), a fleet of Amfleet Coaches and Horizon Cafe Cars, The Ocean View Amtrak Dome Car, and 2 California Zephyr Dome Cars (Silver Lariat and the Silver Solarium Observation Dome Car). After that, we gave chase to ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOH8Lv_9QL8&hl=en

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