Spring is one of my favorite times to head over to eastern Washington. The
grasses are turning green before the browns of summer. Plus it is not
scorching hot either. Saturday, April 19 was forcast to be sunny and pleasant
east of Pasco, WA so my friend Robert Gatchel and I decided to head over to
Providence Hill to see if things were "green" over there yet. We left Seattle
before sunrise with Robert driving. The sky was filled with color as we headed
up the west slopes of the Cascades and a few breaks in the clouds appeared just
east of Snoqualmie Pass on the mountains. Both were worthy of photographs. It
wasn't until we got east of Ellensburg before the skies really cleared.
Providence Hill is part of the BNSF's Lakeside Subdivision which extends from
Pasco to Spokane, WA. This is also former Northern Pacific main line to the
west coast. We arrived at Hatton about 9:30am and our first train was a
westbound grain train with warbonnets up front. Then we headed eastward up to
the summit of Providence Hill and were pleased to see the hillside in the
background was quite green. We spent pretty much the rest of the day around
Providence. Clouds drifted in out all afternoon until late in the day when the
sun finally won out. The last three trains we saw came in the final hour and
turned out to be the best of the day. The last one happened to be a military
move westbound to Tacoma, WA and was quite a surprise. It was nearing 6pm
after that last train so we decided it was time to head back to Seattle. Here
are some of the trains that we photographed today:
1) WB G-HURINB BNSF 753/ATSF 813 (DPU's BNSF 5239/ATSF 693) Hatton, WA @ 1004
2) WB C-SCMCEC BNSF 4922/1113 (DPU's BNSF 1036/ATSF 916) Providence @ 1310
3) WB H-KFAPAS BNSF 3019/3014/3133/3136/3020 Providence @ 1527
4) EB X-VAWSTE BNSF 738/ATSF 893/BNSF 801 Providence @ 1717
5) EB H-PASKCK EMD 9040/NS 9250/NS 8384/BNSF 8100 Providence @ 1734
6) WB U-ALTTAC BNSF 6477/FURX 7290 Providence @ 1741
It turned out to be a good day to come over to Providence and I am glad Robert
and I made the trip. That H-PASKCK really had an outstanding lash up and the
BNSF 6477 (SD45-2) leading the military move had to be the highlights of the
day for me.
And now on to the Gallery....
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