Pertaining to all railroad subjects, past and present, in the American West, including California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, and The Dakotas. For specific railroad topics, please see the Fallen Flags and Active Railroads categories.
Pertaining to all railroad subjects, past and present, in the American West, including California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, and The Dakotas. For specific railroad topics, please see the Fallen Flags and Active Railroads categories.
i will be going out to washington this August and have a couple questions. first can you railfan at the king street station in Seattle? second how many sounders and amtraks go into threre a day? and does BNSF or UP fo by the station and if so how many? fourth are there any shortlines or regionals around Mt. Vernon? thank you for the help any info will help.
Username
GLC 392
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61
Joined
Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:28 am
by Vincent
There are plenty of look-outs for rail fans around King Street Station and near Qwest/Safeco Fields. The commuter trains are all stored and serviced south of KSS during the midday and you can get pretty good look at them. You can also see lots of trains from the SAM Sculpture Park at the north end of the downtown waterfront. Another excellent viewpoint is Carkeek Park in the north end of Seattle. There is a pedestrian bridge that goes from the park over the BNSF mainline and allows access to the beach. You can stand on the bridge and watch the trains pass underneath you or just hang out on the beach and wait, you'll see them coming.
Railroad wise, I can't think of much to see in Mt. Vernon. There is some sort of shortline up there but I don't think they see much action.
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Vincent
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979
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Sun Jul 02, 2006 12:01 pm
Location
Seattle WA
by westernrrtx
At King Street you can watch the tracks from the Weller Street pedestrian Bridge.
The sidewalk on the Garfield / Galer Street bridge give good views of the Balmer Yard, as does the W Dravus Street Bridge.
You could rent a bike and follow the bike path from Myrtle Edwards Park at the corner of Alaskan Way and Broad Street, north to W Emerson Street Bridge. This route will take you by the main, through Balmer Yard, by the hump yard, by the car shops and finally over look the round house.
Not much goes on in Mount Vernon, but you could make an all day Amtrak round trip to Vancouver B.C. It’s a beautiful trip, in August it will be day light for the whole trip, and you will have a four hour lay over in Vancouver. Bring your passport. Trains 510 and 517 are the two you want.
You can do plenty of railfaning in Vancouver too.
Username
westernrrtx
by GLC 392
ok, thank you for the information i wont be going out to washington until August but i wanted t oget as much info as i could before hand.
