Kalama, Washington trip report
Railroads: BNSF Railway, Union Pacific, Amtrak
Location: On BNSF Seattle Sub (joint with UP) in southwest Washington on the Columbia River about 30 miles north of Vancouver/Portland.
Radio: Channel 66: 161.100 mhz
Date: Sunday, May 6, 2012
Beautiful day for anything in Western Washington, so why not do some railfanning? It started out a bit foggy but that soon burned off to wonderful blue skies and shirt sleeve temperatures. I met up with Bruce from Salem, Oregon at the City Park, then we climbed up the stairs to the pedestrian bridge over the BNSF double-tracked mainline. I’m sure the bridge was intended for folks at the marina to easily get to the businesses in Kalama on the other side of the tracks, but it makes for a handy railfanning platform. Like most overpasses, it’s covered in cyclone fencing, limiting photography, but both Bruce’s and my own camera were able to peek through the mesh. I decided to climb down the stairs to a landing on the east side of the tracks and had a completely open view to the north that was still high enough for a nice shot of the trains. It’s a good idea to bring some warm clothing as there always seems to be a cool breeze coming off the river, especially when you’re up on the bridge.
First train showed its headlight from the north about 09:55. We were in for a nice surprise since as soon as it got within camera range a horn blast from behind us trumpeted the arrival of a northbound. A meet between the two trains occurred right in front of us. Too bad we can’t take credit for planning it!
Southbound: UP 7748 (GE ES44AC), UP7084 (GE AC4400CW) manifest freight
Northbound: UP 8154 (EMD SD90/43AC), UP 4922 (EMD SD70M) manifest freight
A few minutes later, another northbound came around the curve at about 10:10. This time it was a BNSF manifest led by locos 4048 and 4840. Keeping good notes on locomotive road numbers is hard enough without putting together two units like that! As can be readily seen, shooting northbounds can be tough as the position of the sun throughout the day tends to shade the nose of the lead unit.
BNSF 4048 (GE C44-9W), BNSF 4840 (GE C44-9W) manifest freight
We then moved south to Toffett Road, where the large concrete grain elevator is located. Two units in a northbound light power move came through about 10:50. Also the plant switcher was on hand waiting for its next task. This one took a little scrambling around to find a vantage point high enough to clear the chain link fence.
BNSF 2724, NNSS 168 Light power
Plant switcher (former BNSF 3529) at Harvest States Elevator
Our next stop was the former depot site at the Kalama station sign on the east side of the tracks and just north of the pedestrian bridge. We waited for awhile, but finally gave up in favor of getting some lunch at Subway. Here’s where the First Law of Railfanning kicked in: A train will come when you are least prepared for it. Nonetheless, we managed to race back trackside and get off a quick shot at 11:59 just as Amtrak streaked by.
Amtrak 90340 (Cascades, Talgo equipment), southbound
During lunch, the southbound Coast Starlight sneaked past us, but sometimes you just have to stop to do things like eat. We didn’t feel bad, since we were seeing trains everyplace we stopped. Our scanners weren’t picking up the detector broadcasts, though, either the one just to the south at MP 113.5 or the one to the north at Castle Rock, MP 87.4. This meant trains kept taking us by surprise, like this Amtrak we saw after lunch from Kalama River Road.
A second grain export facility (“Peavey”) is located on the north end of town. This one stores grain in covered hoppers instead of silos and uses a large loop of track to facilitate the unloading of rail cars directly into a ship’s holds. Power for the trains is stored in an adjacent siding and is called when the cars are emptied and need to be moved out to make way for the next train. A third set of power occupied the center track earlier in the day, so we figured a train was ready to go. Strings of cars often block the road here, requiring a hop back to the freeway to get to the other side.
Before we could leave, a southbound BNSF blasted across the Kalama River, adjacent to the grain export facility. Again, no warning on this one, either on the radio or by hearing it coming.
13:37 BNSF 5211/5461/5128 (All C44-9W’s) southbound
Sure enough, the missing power was found to be on the other end, waiting for its conductor to finish walking the train.
BNSF 6822 (GE ES44C4), 6974 (GE ES44C4) + Rear DPU 7563 (GE ES44DC) Grain empty, southbound
Before 6822 South could leave, a northbound arrived with more grain to be unloaded. This meant a delay in the train’s departure, but we didn’t mind.
14:05 BNSF 7614 (GE ES44DC), 5098(GE C44-9W) + Rear DPU 5142 (GE C44-9W) Grain loads, northbound
After all the action we’d seen, we were so spoiled we decided to call it a day after a 30-40 minute lull without any trains and more sunshine than we had seen so far this year. Kalama is a great place to railfan, with lots of traffic, and amenities like food and public restrooms close at hand. In between trains, there are also plenty of other sights to keep you occupied:
World's tallest totem cut from a single tree.
Blue heron
Ocean going ships pass on the Columbia to get to Portland and Vancouver.
