On Saturday, April 10 about ten other members of the FoamersNW Group met up on Providence hill in Eastern Washington for a day of railfanning.  The group included Roger Hepkema, Brett Gray, Jonathan Glanville, Casey Harman, Drew Mitchem, Aaron Hockley, Brian Ambrose, Robert Gatchel, Matthew (didn't catch his last name), Ted Curphey, my dad and myself.  Our family was invited out for lunch so my dad and I got kind of a late start.  The first train we saw was the eastbound hopper train X-VAWMIN3-08A in Cheney at 2:45pm (FURX 7939, BN 9252(patched), ATSF 871(patched)).  We were going to try to work a shot of him and the PCC into the same frame but there were lots of extra hoppers cars in the way (PCC 4229).  So we headed out of town towards Providence Hill.  At Babb we found another eastbound hopper train stopped in the siding (BNSF 5356, 4025, 4059, 4665).

     Reaching I-90 we headed south to Ritzville without seeing a single train.  Finally we met the eastbound V-PTLBLU8-10A at Paha, WA with only around 40 cars (FURX 7213, BN 6377(patched)).  Continuing on south we met the eastbound H-PASCWY1-10A at Lind with an interesting lashup up front (BNSF 4371 ATSF 917(patched), NS 9568, 6699, SOO 6048).  Arriving at the top of Providence Hill we met up with the rest of the group around 4pm.  And within 5 minutes yet another eastbound came chugging upgrade to the top of the summit.  This time it was the eastbound X-KALWIL1-10A (ATSF 665(patched), BNSF 5420).  Just after the end of the train was out of sight about 5 people who were off shooting it somewhere else arrived.   This enlarged our number to 12 which was the largest our group ever got.  With so many Ted Curphey decided it was time for a group photo since there wasn't a train currently there.

     After the group photo we talked for over an hour interrupted only slightly for a brief moment when the scanner would wake to life with some tidbit of information about a westbound and an eastbound.  We weren't sure which would come first but eventually around 5:30pm the westbound could be heard grinding upgrade.  We had plenty of time to pick our spots trying not to get in the way of another foamer's photo and were ready when the train poked its nose around the corner.   We were quite surprised to find that it was a Centralia bound coal train the C-SCMCEC1-06A (BNSF 4007, 4990, 4960, BN 9260).  After the head end passed we all migrated over closer to the tracks to get a going away shot of the DPUs.  Not more than 10 minutes later the eastbound H-PASKCK arrived with three SD75Ms up front (BNSF 8210, 8265, ATSF 8227(patched)).  And just as the sound of the train was fading into the distance the sound of another westbound could be heard battling uphill.  It arrived just before 6pm and proved to be another grain train this time the G-HWMINB9-07 (BNSF 4777, 4937, 4572, 5722).  Again most people moved over to get a going away shot of the DPUs on the tail end. 

     By this time it was 6pm and five people still had to make it back to Seattle that night.  So the group split up with almost everybody deciding to leave heading back to their place of lodging for the night.  Casey and my dad and me decided to stay for a while longer as we talked on about the history of several railroads and engineering.  At 6:40pm another westbound grain train crested the top and headed down the other side to Pasco, WA (BNSF 4365, 4980, 4459, 5265).  At 7:10pm the H-KCKPAS topped the hill with BNSF 780 in the lead and NREX 5083 trailing.  As I heard this train coming I decided to head a little farther up the hill to get a better view of the train.  After snapping that shot I decided to see what the other side of the hill would look like for a going away shot.  After running quite a ways up and over I finally reached the other side only to see the M-PASLAU passing the westbound and heading my way.  I quickly turned on the camera and shot several shots before running down the hill closer to the tracks for some more.  Finally I headed back to the car and we left just after 8pm.  It was a great day and BNSF kept trains moving with 7 total in the 4 hours I was at the top of the hill.  I had lots of fun and thanks guys for all the good times.