Well my dad and I were finally able to get away for an afternoon and do some railfanning.  School has kept us both busy (me as the student and him as a teacher).  Anyway on Sunday October 12, 2003 we got everything together and took off for Spokane, WA around 3:00pm.  We arrived at Yardley where we found a westbound grain train (BNSF 4548, 827, SF 692).  It finally departed Yardley about 4:20pm with 79 cars.  We drove around to see what was in the engine area and to our surprise and joy we found BNSF 4723 the Microsoft Train Simulator unit!!  Also in the yard were BNSF 4858, 6144, 3646 and several others.  The day's Kettle Falls Turn power consisted of 6 GPs including both green and heritage paint schemes.  Over the scanner we heard that a UP train was going through Cheney and that a southbound Boardman coal train was waiting for the line.  So we decided to head out to Marshall, WA.

     On the way we sighted Amtrak 178 sitting at the Amtrak station in Spokane.  We arrived in Marshall at 4:45pm and just as the northbound UP M-HKSK1-11 started down the connecting track.  I quickly jumped out and was delighted to find that 4 SD40-2s and a GP38-2 were leading the train (UP 3436, 3467, 3663, 3626, 544(re#)).  After getting several shots with both my Sony digital and Mamiya 35mm SLR cameras, we walked across the road bridge and over to wait for the coal train to start moving.  Shortly it got the light to proceed and started creeping out of the siding and onto the main.  It passed with 3 SD70MACs all running elephant style! (BN 9662, 9676, BNSF 9401).  Next we headed back into Spokane.

     We caught back up to the UP train at Napa St. Jct. where I took several roster shots.  Next we headed back to Yardley arriving there around 5:15pm.  For about a half hour we just watched them jockeying cars and listened to the scanner until we heard of a westbound coming into the yard.  We decided to shoot it down at Argonne Rd. with the Argonne mall in the background.  We got there in plenty of time to set up for the photo.  I used my film camera and my dad took my digital.  The G-ULEKAL8-08A finally came and passed with 3 units up front leading 110 loaded grain cars (BNSF 5461, 5262, SF(BNSF) 804).  Arriving back at the yard the grain train changed crews and then started to leave just as the H-PASGAL arrived (BNSF 766, 4747, 7905, SF 631).  The sun was just setting on the western horizon which made for some interesting photography.  We decided to follow the grain train west since the engineer had said that they only had .83 horsepower per ton and we figured that would make for a great sound coming up the hill towards Cheney.  Well before we left we saw the M-LAWPAS pull into the yard with a long string of manifest (BNSF 5230, BN(BNSF) 7050).

     Finally leaving Yardley at 6:30pm we head out towards Marshall, WA.  We caught up to the westbound grain train which had gotten stopped at Lakeside Jct. to wait for a downgrade manifest.  Quickly turning around we drove back to Scribner to a crossing where we waited momentarily for the eastbound manifest (BN(BNSF) 3125, NS 9199, BN 9215).  The only thing I had wished was that this consist could have come through in the light!!  Anyway after that we drove up to Anderson Rd. to wait for the grainer to come.  After waiting about 10 minutes we heard him call up the dispatcher and inform him that they had stalled directly over the UP rails around milepost 12.  The DS just told him to hold on a second and he would get back to him.  When he came back on the air he said that we would be stopping an eastbound empty grain train in Babb siding and then take the power off the train to help him get moving again.

     The make a long story short the three engines from the eastbound finally showed up around 8:15pm (BNSF 5475, 1108, 1025).  After coupling up to the stalled train the original engineer informed the new engineer that he had 110 cars and 141 tons.  They started moving and soon the new engineer asked the old one if all of the engines were working because his was pulling at 1000 amps!  The original engineer said that his unit was pulling at 981 amps and that he thought all of them were working.  Well he went and checked and found out the SF(BNSF) 804 had tripped the reset and quite working.  He tried to get it started again but it just would not work properly.  Finally after talking to the mechanic they decided that it was a bad alternator and so they isolated it from the rest of the consist.  Well the train finally pulled past Anderson Rd. chugging for all it was worth.  I tried to get a long exposure of the gates going down and the locomotives going through but the train was moving so slow that the 30 sec exposure was over before the locomotives even got into the picture!! Well they finally got the mainline cleared after 90 minutes and so we headed home.  It was a fun and exciting day although there wasn't as much traffic as I had hoped for.  Well have a great week and see you trackside!