This trip started early on Friday morning as I headed out of the house bound for the area of Mt. Rainier for the next two days and then Sunday railfanning.  The first train was an eastbound hopper train on July 30th on the way over in Cheney (BNSF 5338, 734).    Then at 6:15am I met an eastbound stack train coming through Tyler, WA (FURX 7291, BNSF 4701, 4810).  Continuing on west I found a meet taking place at Sprague, WA.  The westbound manifest was in the siding (FURX 7247, NS 9419).  An eastbound was just leaving the siding but I didn't see the power and another one was just entering (BNSF 4529, 4724).  After that I didn't see another single thing all the way over.  Upon my arrival I met up with several friends from the west side of the state and I set up camp.  Over the weekend we did a variety of things including playing games, hiking, talking and just relaxing.  One of the highlights was a little trip I took on Saturday morning to photograph Mount Rainier.   The sun was just coming up and there weren't any clouds to obscure the view so it was beautiful. 

     Anyways on Sunday morning I packed up and headed out around 8:30am.  First was a stop for gas and then it was on into Yakima, WA.  As I started to head up the canyon road towards Ellensburg I ran into the tail end of an eastbound hopper train.  I was hoping that there would be a westbound sometime soon and so I hung around for an hour with no luck.  So I got back in the car and headed on down the road.  After checking around in Ellensburg with nothing to be seen I headed east.  Eventually I ended up on the Seattle line at Quincy, WA.  Next I headed east on Hwy 28 following the tracks.  I didn't see a thing all the way to Marlin, WA.  Here I decided to wait for a train and soon noticed that the signal for eastbounds turned green.  At 1:45pm an eastbound stack train rolled through town (BNSF 720, GCFX 6063, BN 9245(patched)).

      I decided to follow this train east since I knew that the road and the tracks don't stick close for 15 miles or so and with this eastbound I knew I wouldn't miss a westbound.  Upon my arrival at Odessa, WA I found a westbound stack train in the hole waiting for the eastbound I saw earlier (BN 7055(patched), BNSF 7329, UP 4663).  In a couple minutes the eastbound came through and then the westbound got the light.  I thought about chasing it back west but decided against it and so instead I headed on east to a non-descript place called Nemo, WA.  Here I waited for just over an hour before a train showed up.  It was an eastbound hopper train which was coming right out of the sun (BNSF 989, 4521, BN 9260(patched), NS 9165, 9449).  I was hoping that this train would meet a westbound at the end of the double track at Lamona and I wasn't disappointed.  Pretty soon over the scanner I heard "Good roll-by" and got ready for the westbound.  It rounded the corner and I started taking my pics (ATSF 657, NS 9219, BNSF 1040). 

    Just before it got to me it went through at detector which read the degrees at 95 although it sure felt a lot hotter.  Unfortunately I don't have very cold AC in my car so I had to drive with the windows rolled down to keep it cool inside.   After this train I got back inside and headed east for the double track.  I continued on with stopping to survey a spot just west of Mohler, WA.  I decided against waiting for a train since I figured that there wouldn't be another for a while.   Well that theory proved to be wrong as about 2 miles down the road I could see a train off in the distance.  I quickly turned the car around and headed back to the spot with plenty of time to get set up for the photo I wanted (BNSF 5222, 1030).  It was a westbound stack train which passed by me at 4:40pm.  Next I headed on east towards Harrington.

       I saw a couple more interesting locations but again kept going for the same reason as before.  In the distance I had been watching a column of smoke rising far into the sky and just beyond Harrington I stopped to get a couple of pics as it was about 4 or 5 miles away.  Just as I was getting to Bluestem I saw the end of another westbound and so quickly turned around and headed back to Harrington, WA.  I was able to beat it back to the other side of Harrington only because it had tripped a detector further east and was having problems with a car brake sticking.  Eventually they got that solved and were throttling back up to full speed as they came past me (BNSF 4949, 4021, SP 138).  It was a nice consist with an unpatched SP unit.  Back to the road I decided to wait at Canby to see if Seattle East Dispatcher would send me yet another westbound.

     Well as luck would have it within 10 minutes I heard a horn and soon a westbound Boeing Special of 8 cars rounded the corner (BN 7050(patched)).   Continuing on to Edwall, WA I again stopped and waited for a westbound.  In about 20 minutes an eastbound arrived with a terrific consist (ATSF 644, 4226(patched), BNSF 330).  After getting my pics I heard that he was meeting a westbound at Espanola siding.  So I headed up the road a tab bit to get a different angle of him.   After that I didn't see anything more and so headed into Spokane, WA.  Heading over the Latah Creek bridge was a westbound manifest train and that was the last of them (FURX 8123, BN 7032(patched)).  It was a really good weekend and quite a busy day for the Seattle line without many large waits in between trains.  Well have a great week and see you trackside.

TRAIN GIFS COMING SOON!!!!!!!!!