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Not Even 2 Train Tuesday

INTRO

It's been a long time since doing any railfanning in Canada or the States. So the plan was to follow the Burlington Northern Santa Fe's (BNSF) Scenic Subdivision which connects Seattle and Wenatchee, Washington, USA. Along this route lies the 7.8-mile-long Cascade Tunnel (referring to the second one in this case), at one time the longest railway tunnel in North America and built by the Great Northern Railway. The Mount Mcdonald Tunnel in our Canadian mountains probably has that distinction now at 9.11 miles long. The days that were available to me for this were Monday and Tuesday in mid-May. During initial planning the thought was that these were probably not the best two days to choose. A post to a BNSF web group requesting data on when most trains would be operating generated no response whatsoever. So, carry on, anyway.

On Monday it turned out that only one train passing over the sub was seen, Amtrak's Empire Builder, which caught me off guard at Monroe, so no photo. Probably an omen of what was to come. Next to discover after the fact was that the tunnel was closed most of the day for maintenance work, so no other trains were spotted anywhere between Monroe and Wenatchee. This left only the infrastructure to be photographed, a poor substitute but what was one to do?

On Tuesday, day two, luck was only slightly more forgiving with just one train photographed east of Everett, exiting the Cascade Tunnel. West of there, trains were nearly non-existent, so to finish up the trip some shots around Everett ended the day.

MAP

WAYPOINTS

Typically, before going out to photograph trains, a search with Google or Bing maps is useful for finding locations for a photograph. It doesn't work every time, as some things don't always show up on the satellite image, such as locked gates blocking access roads, and sometimes the trees just won't cooperate, especially on the Scenic Sub. In this case 20 locations were noted for possible photos. Here are the co-ordinates, you can copy and paste them into Google or Bing maps to view the location.

 
01 Everett Delta Yard N47.998323 W122.186035
 
02 Snohomish N47.907818 W122.098685
 
03 Munroe Xing N47.857640 W121.970779
 
04 Woods Creek N47.856866 W121.962334
 
05 Sofie Road Xing N47.854820 W121.907292
 
06 Wallace River N47.865721 W121.745378
 
07 Big Eddy N47.836937 W121.655851 (Skykomish River bridge)
 
08 Index Bridge N47.818662 W121.554997
 
09 Skykomish N47.708996 W121.360816
 
10 Scenic N47.710869 W121.152061
 
11 Old Hwy Jct to tunnel N47.711795 W121.153512
 
12 Cascade Tunnel West N47.715374 W121.145914
 
13 Cascade Tunnel East N47.771839 W121.001762
 
14 Nason Creek Xing N47.764974 W120.792325
 
15 Winton Xing N47.736086 W120.740987
 
16 Leavenworth N47.606884 W120.643953 (Icicle Station)
 
17 Jct Derby Canyon Road N47.567481 W120.605703
 
18 Derby Canyon Road N47.571123 W120.603027
 
19 Wenatchee River Bridge N47.544358 W120.565526
 
20 Wenatchee River Bridge N47.536173 W120.552606 (Main St.)

A Great Northern caboose is located at the "Iron Goat Trailhead" just west of Scenic and is visible from Highway 2. The trail follows the abandoned Great Northern Railway right-of-way past concrete snowsheds and embankments to the original Cascade Tunnel built in 1900.
 

NEWS

14 Jan 2020 - Winter Weather Hits BNSF Hard in the Northwest

12 Sep 2022 - Wildfires Disrupt Amtrak and Freight Railroads in the Cascades

15 Jan 2024 - Snow Time on BNSF Railway's Scenic Subdivision

LINKS

Burlington Northern Santa Fe

Friends of BNSF

BNSF Railway Wikipedia

Burlington Route Historical Society

Great Northern Historical Society

Friends of the Burlington Northern

Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society

Spokane Portland & Seattle Historical Society

Iron Goat Trail

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A search of Amazon books for BNSF or related railways turned up 25 books on the subject. The book cover shown is just one of them.
 
Click on the book image or this link to visit Amazon books.
This video shows the BNSF Scenic Subdivision during the Winter of 2022-2023. The furthest location west was Sultan while the furthest East location is the East Portal of the Cascade Tunnel. This Sub was originally part of the Great Northern Railway (GN), then the GN Merged with a few other railroads into the Burlington Northern (BN), then BN merged with ATSF to form the BNSF. To this day the BNSF still uses the sub - 5 Apr 2023