On September 8, 2004 I got out of school early so I decided to spend the evening and into the night railfanning.  I originally had planned on heading to the BNSF funnel but when I arrived in Spokane, WA I quickly changed my plans.  The decision to change was made because I ran into two westbound stack trains with talk of a Z-train all heading for the Seattle line.  I figured that this would not happen every day so I might as well take my chance of getting several trains on Columbia River Sub.  Heading out to Espanola I parked near the crossing and waited for the first train.  The light was a high green but it was 30 minutes before it rounded the corner.  It was a westbound stack train (BN 7017(patched) NS 9184).   After that I drove on down to Waukon for the next train.  In town I had seen a westbound with two warbonnets for power so I hoped that was the next train but unfortunately that train headed onto the Lakeside sub so I didn't see it (ATSF 927(patched) 693).

     At 6:15pm the Z-CHCSSE rumbled through Waukon on its way west with a bunch of UPS trailers (BNSF 4587, 5428, 4339).  To my disappointment the clouds started to come up to meet the sun as it sunk lower to the horizon but I decided to try and shoot the next one on down near Canby, WA.  I had just enough time to park the car and set up before it arrived as another westbound stack train (BNSF 4032, ATSF 6713(patched)).  After that I tried out several other options before walking into a new spot.  By this time it was getting really close to sundown and by the next train arrived at the spot the sun was pretty much gone (BNSF 7328, CR 3411(NS)).  This was also a westbound stack train.  I followed it on towards Bluestem where the line branches out into doubletrack.  The sun was shinning off of the clouds making for a pretty good sunset so I quickly got a couple pics of the last car disappearing into the distance.

     Then just 30 seconds later an eastbound stack, auto and baretable rounded the curve and I shot a bunch more pictures of the sunset with the new train (BNSF 784, 7326).  I got back into the car and followed it back east until I got to Edwall where it had a restricting light.  Just on the other side of town I found another westbound stack train waiting just short of the crossing with its tail end still fouling the east switch.  It had a nice consist and I got a couple of low shutter speed shots since it was stopped (BNSF 8006, CSX 8663, RLCX 8542).  After that it was like 7:30pm and I headed into Spokane to see if I could cook up some night shots.  Stopping at Taco Bell I got something to eat and headed to Yardley to finish my supper.  When I arrived I found an eastbound E-SPBBKM train waiting to get a light so it could head out to Hauser yard (BN 9539, 9285(patched) BNSF 8251, 7016).  Around 9pm it got the light and I tried some 30 second time exposures of the cars as they passed by. 

Next I walked across to the other side of the crossing to get some better shots of the westbounds waiting to leave.  In the yard the M-LAUPAS was stopped next to the M-SPOKFA.  While there I had a nice conversation with one of the employees working one of the switching jobs.  An eastbound baretable rolled through at 9:10pm with a mysterious tunnel motor as the second unit.  It didn't stop at Yardley since it was headed for Hauser yard so I followed it out to Spokane Valley to find out what the unit was.  It turned out to be Duluth Missabe and Iron Range 407 with BNSF 4544 up front.   It met a westbound manifest out near Irvin before continuing (FURX 8128, BNSF 7006, ATSF 6209(patched)).  After that I stopped by the UP yard just after 10pm and found UP 528, 1020 and GECX 2867(an ex-UP tunnel motor).  After getting some time exposures I headed home.  It was a fun time and I got to try my hand at some night photography which as interested me for a long time.  Well I will see you trackside!