A beautiful Saturday morning in Seattle, and a great day to take a train trip....as always! King Street Station's cramped temporary layout hasn't changed much since I was there a few weeks ago, but they're still tweaking signage and procedures. The lines for ticketing stretched into the hall, and I imagine there were some folks who thought I was queue-jumping, but I was just going to the business class checkin.
It looks like I might not have needed to check in, though, since the counter folks just printed me an "e-ticket" on the old ticket stock, and gave me the old-style sticker with my seat assignment. But when I got to the waiting area, the conductors seemed surprised that I already had a seat, and were obviously prepared to assign one there.
But they started boarding 501 earlier than usual, apparently because we were leaving from track 5. It looked like 510 was on track 4, and track 3 was taken up by a several-car train of BNSF business cars, including #1, #60, #63, and #65. Those last were called "Raton Pass" and "Stevens Pass" -- I didn't catch all the names.
Track 6 had Pacific Sands and an unnamed open-platform observation car with the LA Railcar herald on the back. All in all, a busy morning in SEA! I've posted a few pics on Facebook, and will add links here when I can.
Despite the busy-ness, 501 left on time, and we had a friendly and talkative conductor that I've encountered before. As we went by, he noted that ground had been broken for the new Tukwila station, although there isn't much to see yet except a few piles of dirt and some construction equipment.
Lots of people got on at Tacoma, and we're now running along the Tacoma Narrows, but it's very foggy here, so we can't even see the bridge. But the forecast is for sun and temps in the mid-80s, so it should be a good weekend.
Unfortunately, we've had some cancellations, so it's likely to be a micro-gathering. But we should have fun nonetheless. If any locals (sorry, no expresses!) want to join us later today or tomorrow, you are still welcome. Just PM me to find out where we are.
It looks like I might not have needed to check in, though, since the counter folks just printed me an "e-ticket" on the old ticket stock, and gave me the old-style sticker with my seat assignment. But when I got to the waiting area, the conductors seemed surprised that I already had a seat, and were obviously prepared to assign one there.
But they started boarding 501 earlier than usual, apparently because we were leaving from track 5. It looked like 510 was on track 4, and track 3 was taken up by a several-car train of BNSF business cars, including #1, #60, #63, and #65. Those last were called "Raton Pass" and "Stevens Pass" -- I didn't catch all the names.
Track 6 had Pacific Sands and an unnamed open-platform observation car with the LA Railcar herald on the back. All in all, a busy morning in SEA! I've posted a few pics on Facebook, and will add links here when I can.
Despite the busy-ness, 501 left on time, and we had a friendly and talkative conductor that I've encountered before. As we went by, he noted that ground had been broken for the new Tukwila station, although there isn't much to see yet except a few piles of dirt and some construction equipment.
Lots of people got on at Tacoma, and we're now running along the Tacoma Narrows, but it's very foggy here, so we can't even see the bridge. But the forecast is for sun and temps in the mid-80s, so it should be a good weekend.
Unfortunately, we've had some cancellations, so it's likely to be a micro-gathering. But we should have fun nonetheless. If any locals (sorry, no expresses!) want to join us later today or tomorrow, you are still welcome. Just PM me to find out where we are.
Fixing to catch #421 for LAX, it arrived into DAL EARLY today, so hoping it'll make AUS in time for Dinner in the Diner on the way to SAS! Hope yall have a blast, it's not the number but the Spirit that counts when it comes to Friends! 
