Since a sunny day was expected for October 2, 2004, I decided to head out to the Lakeside sub for the morning and migrate to the Seattle line in the afternoon.  After loading up my stuff I headed out the door around 7:30am.  The first train I found was an eastbound E-CECSCM that was stopped in Babb siding (BNSF 8291, 9453 EMD 9007).  After almost an hour wait a whistle was blown in Cheney, WA and a westbound C-SCMCEC came slowly grinding into view (BNSF 8240, 9435, ATSF 608).  Both of these coal trains sported the new BNSF coal cars in the 651... series.   Then just as it cleared I heard another train approaching.  Riding on the coal train's block was a westbound manifest (BNSF 4938, 764, ATSF 6709(patched)).

     After that I headed to the east end of Babb siding to shoot the eastbound coal train as he pulled out.  After getting my shots I met up with Ted Curphey (funnelfan) for the rest of the day.  After dropping off my car we continued west.  Ted had seen a loaded grain train and a Z train heading our way.  We headed for the Fishtrap area to stake out a shot but were surprised to run into the eastbound hopper train, X-KALGSD9-01A at Tyler (EMD 9015, BNSF 4412).  After arriving in the Fishtrap area we decided to try shooting from the top of one of the surrounding hills.  It was a shoot that neither of us had gotten yet but we both wanted.  After a 60 minute wait the Z-CHCPTL train came barreling around the curve out of Fishtrap siding (BNSF 5452, 4540, NS 9181). 

     Since we knew there would be a loaded grain train on this guys heels we quickly headed closer to the tracks on the hill to get a different angle.  At noon, it rounded the corner with a mixed up set of hopper cars (BNSF 5435, 5261, ATSF 906(patched)).  All this time we had been hearing interesting things about UP trains going into emergency and such so we headed over to the UP line to see if they were still around Wells.  The siding was empty though and so after checking around a bit we headed back to the BNSF line.  We knew about another westbound train but were a little surprised to find it was already at Missile Base.  After a quick turn around we raced back to a small knoll to shoot it from.  It was the G-RYMRGT9-01A in 2x2 mode (BNSF 5167, 4884, 4122, 4009).  After it cleared we decided to head up to the Seattle line since the scanner was dead.

     On the lineup things looked really good for later day westbounds passing through Spokane bound for the Seattle line.  The first train was a late M-EVESPO with a CN in the mix (BNSF 4596, 4662, CN 5757).  After that train cleared Ted showed me several more spots along the line that I had not seen yet.   We finally settled down at a good spot to wait for a train.  After a frustrating 3+ hour wait the next train finally arrived around 5pm.  It was the Z-SSECHC with quite a mixed up consist, BNSF 6371, BN 7812(patched), NREX 5458(ex-CR).   After that the light was starting to fade so we drove over to Bluestem, WA for the finally light of the day. 

     After exploring a cut on the double track we heard a train in the distance.  This is the top of a grade so the units were working quite hard pulling its train.  It finally rounded the curve in the glint light.   It was the P-TACKCM with stack and autoracks (BNSF 706, 7337, FURX 8097).   After watching it snake its way along the S-curves in the tracks we headed back to the car.  Then just before we reached it I heard a horn way off in the distance.   So we decided to stick around and try our luck with another glint lighting shot.   After a few minutes of wait an eastbound stack train came chugging around the corner (BNSF 4983, 6809, 1046).  The sun was almost gone but it still glinted off the sides of the cars and engines making for a fantastic photo.  As it rolled by us it slowly came to a stop just after the last car cleared the crossing. 

     Since the sun had set though we decided that it would be pretty useless to try any kind of head-on or telephoto shots so we headed back to the top of a hill overlooking Bluestem, WA.  Ted set up his tripod for a blur shot but since I didn't have mine (left it in my car) I just settled for watching the train pass.  It was the V-CHCTAC with mostly stack cars and a few autos (BN 7072(patched) BNSF 132).  Next we followed the stack train east to Edwall where it went into the siding to meet a westbound stack train (BNSF 4934, 6762).  From the conversation between the two engineers we finally learned why the parade of westbounds didn't materialize like we thought it should have.  And the answer was that the crew changes had just been switched from Yardley to Hauser, ID and it was making chaos of the railroad.   Some trains dropped down the lineup as much as 16 hours!!  Anyway it was still not a bad day of railfanning even though Hauser messed up the trains.