Saturday, July 24 dawned clear blue skies with the promise of yet another hot day.  I finally got my license and bought myself some wheels and so by 3:00pm I decided to go try my hand for the first solely railfan trip.  Gathering my gear together I pulled out and headed for the Lakeside sub around Sprague, WA.  As I rounded the corner into Cheney, WA I saw the tail end of an eastbound Z-train clearing out of town.  I decided not to waste any time trying to shoot a train that was coming out of the sun  and so I headed west.  Well I didn't get but about 3 miles when I met another eastbound.  I quickly turned around and headed back to Cheney to get the numbers of the eastbound auto train (BNSF 4186, 755).  Then it was back west in hopes of catching up to a westbound.

     Well I was quite happy when I caught up to the tail end of a westbound grain that had been stopped in Babb siding for the eastbounds.  The train was making tracks though so I hoped on I-90 and headed out to Sprague, WA.  I had seen one of Ted's (funnelfan) shots looking back into Sprague, WA and so I decided to check it out.  Although instead of staging a breakdown I decided to try the rest stop out.  I easily beat the train there and waited five minutes until it came down the hill into Sprague (BNSF 4880, 4311, 4886).  After grabbing a couple of pics I drove on down to Tokio were I set up for it again.  It had a diverging signal and went into the siding to wait for an eastbound.  I drove down to the end of the siding and got there just as the eastbound manifest train was entering (BNSF 5465, 4568, NS 9834, CSX 682).  The NS unit was still in its primer paint but unfortunately with the sun being were it was it made photography out of the question.

     I decided to follow this train back east to Sprague area.   Hitting the freeway I met a westbound grain train somewhere in between.  Then getting off at Sprague I headed towards Fishtrap on the old hwy and found another westbound grain train.  I quickly made a U-turn and set up for a shot coming down the hill into Sprague (BNSF 1044, 970, NREX 6403, 6414).  I knew that the eastbound was still on the move and would meet this westbound in Sprague so I headed up to Fishtrap to see what was in there.  I arrived just as a westbound vehicle train came to a stop in the siding (BNSF 4764, 4553).  Then around 6:05pm the eastbound manifest train rumbled up the hill and past the westbound.  It soon came to a stop and the westbound got the green light out of the siding.  I waited around 10 minutes until the next westbound arrived.  It was the M-LAUPAS with a clean warbonnet on the point (BNSF 746, 4315).

     Next I decided to follow the same eastbound with hopes of getting a decent shot around Empire siding were the tracks curve north and west for a little bit.  But when it went into the next siding at Babb I stopped to see what was coming.  And I was a little surprised to see a green BNSF and blue MRL leading a westbound stack and auto train (BN 8021(patched) MRL 358).  I decided the power was good enough to warrant a good shot out at Fishtrap with the setting sun.  It started to slow down as it arrived in Fishtrap and came to a stop just short of the signals.   then about 15 minutes later an eastbound manifest train rumbled up the hill (BNSF 4883, ATSF 8226, 8209(both patched)).  I was a little surprised and yet happy when the eastbound rolled to a stop in the siding meaning that yet another westbound was on the way.  The westbound stack and auto train pulled out of the siding and I raced back to the freeway to beat him down to Sprague for a final shot.  I got down to the crossing just to the west of Sprague with just enough time to park the car and get out and take the shot!!

     The light was really getting low and I decided to shoot the next westbound on the hill rolling down into Sprague.  With that in mind I headed up to get set up at a grade crossing.  After waiting only about 5 or 6 minutes I heard the train coming and quickly turned on the camera.  It round the corner and proved to be another westbound hopper train (BNSF 4843, 5401, 7321, EMD 9050).  After shooting a couple shots of this train I decided that since it was 7:35pm I should start to head back towards home.  I got up to Fishtrap were I found it to finally be empty with dark signals on both ends for either direction.  Continuing on towards Cheney, I was almost to Babb and in a section of road were it doesn't parallel the tracks and I heard the EOT frequency going off on the scanner.  I immediately thought that I was missing another westbound but when I arrived at Babb I found one of the eastbounds I had seen earlier stopped in the siding.

      I headed over to the tracks to await the westbound.  Soon it showed up and turned out to be the Lind Turn barreling down the tracks at around 70mph!! (BN 3149, 2890(both patched)).  After getting a picture of the train in the last rays of the sun I headed on into Cheney.  But the trains were still rolling.  Upon my arrival in Cheney I found a southbound Boardman coal train slowly creeping through town.  I headed back a mile or so west to a crossing to wait for it and watch it go by.  Next I again headed back for home but just after I crossed the BNSF tracks I heard a horn and quickly pulled over to see what was coming.   It turned out to be a westbound military move (BNSF 6912, BN 7044(patched)).   After that I was finally able to get home without turning around again.  Not a bad afternoon for the Lakeside sub with 14 trains in just about 5 hours!