Friday, March 25, 2016

The Most "Over-Railfanned" Train in the PNW?


Two classic EMD SD-40-2 locomotives pull an average-size Byron Turn into North Richland in late winter 2016.
Not too long ago, I remarked on the Pacific Northwest Railfans Facebook page that between my efforts and those of friend Richard Olson, BNSF’s “Byron Turn” may be the most over-railfanned train in the Pacific Northwest.  Determining whether this assertion is true would not only be impossible, but also a complete waste of time.  So just accept it as fact while I explain what I mean, then judge for yourself.
For this statement to make any sense to the uninitiated requires a couple definitions:

A railfan is an individual who is interested in railroads as a hobby, and pursues that interest by going out and watching, photographing, or video recording trains at work.  This is a slang term usually only used between the railfans themselves.  When describing myself to non-railfans, I prefer the term “railroad enthusiast”.  Meanwhile, professional railroaders may derisively refer to railfans as “foamers” because we can get very agitated, almost to the point of foaming at the mouth, if we happen to see something unusual, to us at least, about a particular locomotive or freight car.
Within railfan slang, the term itself can be used as a verb to describe the activity of watching and photographing trains, as in, “Let’s go railfanning” or “I ‘fanned that steam special a couple years ago” and so forth.
The Byron Turn (or Byron Local) is the daily train that BNSF Railway dispatches out of its Pasco, Washington yard to serve industries in nearby Kennewick and Richland.  It gets its name from a siding located just west of Prosser on BNSF’s former Northern Pacific mainline, which the railroad named Byron, probably for one of its long-forgotten shareholders or officers.  In theory, that siding is the westernmost extent of the territory served by the Byron Turn, but I don’t believe the train ever runs on that line beyond Kennewick today.

An eastbound Byron Turn traverses several miles of Union Pacific-owned tracks as it heads back to Pasco Yard.  This line through a mostly residential neighborhood provides a connection between the BNSF Yakima Valley Subdivision at Kennewick and the Port of Benton tracks at Richland Junction.  Here, GP-28M 1508 leads two cars.  The GP-28M is a BNSF-only model; the product of an extensive program in the BN days to convert old GP-9s to more modern standards.  May 2015
Instead, it exits the mainline a half mile west of the old Kennewick depot and enters Union Pacific’s old Yakima branch.  Using running rights on that route, the train continues west as far as Richland Junction, right next to the Columbia Center mall in far western Kennewick.  At this point, the train moves onto rails currently owned by the Port of Benton.

The US Government originally constructed the PoB line to serve the Hanford Nuclear Reservation several miles north of Richland.  As the Hanford Site’s mission shifted from plutonium production to environmental cleanup after the Cold War ended, the Department of Energy had no use for its railroad.  Local interests, however, were eager to restructure the local economy and infrastructure so they no longer focused so heavily on a single industry.  To this end, the Port of Benton acquired the DOE’s railroad.
GP-38-2 2334 hauls an average sized Byron Turn into North Richland, just passing the spur to the Lamb-Weston potato plant. April 2013
In addition, PoB, the City of Richland, and private interests have teamed up over time to develop additional business facilities in North Richland, several of which depend heavily on rail access.  The most obvious rail user is the Lamb-Weston potato processing plant.  It receives its spuds by truck, fries them in vegetable oil received by rail, flash freezes them, and ships them out as frozen French fries in refrigerated boxcars that keep it extremely cold while in transit.
Port of Benton's two tenant railroads, BNSF and the Tri-Cities RR, often work in close proximity in the N. Richland industrial area.  The newly constructed Preferred Freezer Services warehouse is, for now, the world's largest refrigerated storage facility, and a customer of both railroads.  BNSF 2630 is a rebuilt former GP-35 and TCRY 15 is a MP-15AC.  November 2015
Additional rail customers in North Richland include two grain transfer facilities and the world’s largest (for now) cold storage warehouse.  This warehouse both receives and ships loaded cars of French fries and other refrigerated foods as its many different customers require.  The grain facilities, meanwhile, receive grain cars, and often entire “unit trains”, loaded with cattle feed.  They unload the cars and send them on their way, and then load the feed onto trucks for delivery to many cattle feed lots in the surrounding region.
When PoB first obtained the rail link to Richland, they sought a contract operator to run the trains.  Tri-Cities Railroad (TCRY) was organized by private interests, and by purchasing DOE’s two surplus locomotives (both EMD model MP-15AC) and hiring crews, the TCRY went right to work serving customers – primarily the Lamb-Weston plant at first.
A well-matched pair of former Union Pacific SD-40-2s pulls the TCRY's daily train out of their N. Richland yard, headed for the UP interchange at Kennewick.  March 2016.
When I arrived in Richland 14 years ago, the TCRY was the only operator on the PoB line.  At first, the two MP-15s pulling strings of white look-alike refrigerator and black look-alike tank cars did not seem very inspiring.  It still isn’t, but when the TCRY also acquired and rebuilt a small fleet of SD-40-2s for use on its route, things got a little better.
But about 2009, I started seeing occasional splashes of green on the rails.  It appears BNSF suddenly remembered it had inherited rights from its Northern Pacific progenitor to run on the former DOE tracks.  BNSF already received some of the traffic that TCRY was hauling to Richland Jct.  But, by cutting out the middle man, BNSF expected to earn a greater share of the shipping tariffs – enough to offset the cost of running its own train out to Richland and still make a profit.
TCRY balked at this notion, believing their contract with PoB gave them an exclusive right to operate the line.  They took the issue to court, but lost, and BNSF trains have been sharing the use of the PoB line ever since.  TCRY still dispatches the line, and communicates with both crews using cell phones (I believe) to ensure neither train encroaches on the other while running.


The Kennewick Irrigation District's main canal provides a very scenic element for trains that cross it near Steptoe St.  Admittedly, it's less scenic during the 3-4 months of each year that the canal is empty.  BNSF 3186 is a GP-50.
October 2014
The reason I made my original statement was to jokingly imply that between Richard and myself, we have probably taken photos of that particular train from every imaginable angle, in all sorts of weather, and probably have photos of every locomotive that has ever been used to power that train.  And we have probably posted all of those photos somewhere on the internet as we have shot them.
What makes the Byron Turn so interesting to us?  Proximity, for starters.  I live in Richland, only a couple blocks from the PoB line.  Richard lives elsewhere in the Tri-Cities, but commutes out to the Hanford site daily along a route parallel to much of the PoB line.  Most weekdays, we both are at our respective work locations during the day.  But, we both work on 9-hour-per-day schedules that permit us to take every other Friday off.  So, Fridays are my big day for chasing trains (and lots of other domestic tasks), and I believe the same goes for Richard.  In addition, if I have doctor’s appointments, I will sometimes schedule them in the mid-morning, so I can hopefully see a train moving on my way to or from the appointment.
Totally by accident, I managed a nice pan shot of this former ATSF GP-39-2 heading toward North Richland.  I must have moved the camera while shooting, leaving the backgound and foreground "speed blurred" while maintaining focus on the forward facing end of the engine (acutally the rear end).  October 2011
Variety is another interesting aspect of the Byron.  You never know for sure what locomotive (or locomotives) will show up at the head end.  Most often, it’s a single 4-axle EMD GP-series model, but 6-axle SD-40-2s have been known to appear.  Also, with two possible BNSF paint schemes on the “geeps”, with the round or the “swoosh” logos, plus a few still wearing ratty former BN Cascade Green schemes, you never know what you’re going to get.  I’ve even seen blue and yellow Santa Fe locos on the Byron.  Depending on how the engines are used between assignments to the Byron, and whether they need to use the wye track at N. Richland, it’s anybody’s guess whether they’ll be running long hood or short hood forward on either leg of the run.
It's not that we have a problem with the daily TCRY trains.  Their red, white and blue paint scheme looks pretty snappy and there’s an ongoing hope that they’ll rebuild and roll out their former SP “Tunnel Motor”.  Also, although BNSF may have an inside track (pun intended) with certain customers, the overall traffic balance between BNSF and TRCY appears to favor the little guy, for now.  TCRY trains seem to be considerably longer than BNSF’s Byron Local trains.  Even when you factor in BNSF unit trains once or twice a month, I would still wager TCRY hands more total carloads off to UP in Kennewick than BNSF gathers from North Richland.
Ignoring the railfan safely standing on the opposite side of the street, two BNSF crewmen handle a switching move near the Kennewick depot.  BNSF 2185 is a former Penn Central GP-38, while the GP-39-2 2772 is an ex-Santa Fe unit.  March 2010
So how does the Byron crew feel about their two “groupies”?  Richard seems more comfortable conversing with them when the opportunity arises, and he has had fairly positive contacts with them.  My policy is generally to stay out of their way and let them do their job.  I have one BNSF-employed friend who sometimes has worked the Byron, and he doesn’t seem to mind a couple responsible railfans.  Either way, I know the occasional waves I get from the passing BNSF crews appear more friendly than those from the TCRY guys, but that’s an entirely subjective assessment.
There’s an unwritten rule among railroad historians that the smaller and more obscure a certain historic railroad actually was, the larger and more enthusiastic will be its fan base.  The Rio Grande Southern and New York, Ontario & Western are two examples of long-disappeared railroads that still have large followings today, far out of proportion to their actual importance.

Does this same line of thinking apply to modern railroads?  I think the Byron Turn and its two dedicated “foamers” prove the point – the amount of attention paid to, and the total number of photographs taken of, BNSF’s daily train to N. Richland far surpasses its significance in the grand scheme of American railroading.

So, here are more images of the Byron Turn in action:

Once named "Pacific Pride", GP-38 2075 has been demoted to service on the Byron Turn.  One of the first diesels delivered to the then-new Burlington Norther Railroad in 1970 (it had been ordered by predecessor Spokane, Portland & Seattle RR just prior to the merger), 2075 was later re-decorated in a special scheme that carried the emblems of all BN ancestor roads.  BNSF is satisfied with placing those emblems on grain hoppers these days to "honor" its heritage, leaving 2075 to keep gathering dirt and grime, while the weather does its best to obliterate the logos of long-gone railroads.  December 2010
The Port of Benton-owned rail line crosses the mouth of the Yakima River on its route leaving Richland Jct.  The wetlands alongside the river and the rails are part of the Chamna Wildlife Refuge, and even in easy to access locations, they provide lots of interesting photo angles for passing trains, this one behind GP-38-2 2094.  March 2013


GP-39E 2628 pulls its train eastbound across the large steel bridge that crosses Interstate 182 on the south end of Richland.  March 2015

GP-39E 2910 rolls through Richland Junction on its eastbound run.  This is the point where the original US Government Railroad diverged from the Union Pacific Yakima branch.  For some time this was the interchange point between the TCRY and Union Pacific, but arrangements have since been made allowing TCRY trains to run farther east for interchange at Kennewick.  Now, the tracks in the foreground have been removed (the Yakima Branch beyond this point has been gone since the early '90s).  With rights all the way through to N. Richland, however, BNSF trains don't give that situation much thought.
February 2011
Perhaps not the most compelling image I've ever taken, but notice the World War II-era fighter plane taxiing for takeoff at Richalnd's airport as GP-39-3 2866 passes.  September 2015
Here's that large bridge across the Interstate again, seen from a parking area for the Chamna Wildlife Refuge.  2866 again has charge of the train, with a long string of refer cars on the drawbar.  There is a significant grade in both directions to reach the elevation of this bridge, and heavy trains struggling over this hump can often be heard from quite a distance.  December 2015
A Yellowstone Ave. resident holds his son up to wave at the train crew as SD-40-2 1836 hauls its train past.  April 2014


Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Riding Amtrak's "Pioneer" - April, 1985

De-training at Hood River, OR.  This was as far west as I travelled on the Pioneer.  To travel from here to my home in Spokane, I had to catch a lift across the Columbia River and board the eastbound Empire Builder.
 
My freshman year at BYU was winding down, and in talking with my folks, we decided the train would be an acceptable way for me to get home.  I called the 1-800 number for Amtrak and arranged the itinerary, and then I went down to the Rio Grande freight office in Provo to purchase the ticket.
I had accumulated a lot of books and stuff during the year, more than I would be able to take as checked baggage, so I boxed them up and hauled them up to Salt Lake City – probably on a reading day before finals – to send them as express packages on Amtrak.  I drove up there in a friend’s VW Beetle, but the clutch cable failed just as I was coming off the 6th South exit in SLC.  I pulled into the first available parking lot, found a pay phone to let my friend know what had happened and to call for a taxi to take me the rest of the way to the depot.  My friend assured me it would be OK as his folks lived in SLC and could take care of his car from there.  The taxi took me to the depot to drop off the boxes, and then I walked up to Temple Square, looked around for a while, and took a UTA bus from there back to Provo.
On my “somehow” list, I managed to get my bike shipped up to Spokane as well, and it must have gone with the boxes shipped earlier, but I don’t remember for sure.  Another item I could not take with me was Mom’s little manual typewriter.  That one I asked my friend Laurie to haul up as far as her home in Yakima (or Selah), which I then picked up later that summer.  Maybe I arranged something similar with my bike?
My journey began here, at the D&RGW depot in Provo, UT.  I arrived early on the departure day, and snapped this moody image of a Rio Grande freight while waiting for my train. 
On the departure date, I found my way down to the Provo depot (the real one that got demolished while I was on my mission).  I arrived there plenty early to watch freight trains before catching mine.  But, I soon found out there had been a derailment or something in Colorado, and that my train, the California Zephyr, had been re-routed through Wyoming.  So the first 40 miles of the trip was by bus.  At SLC, the train must have still been running behind schedule, because I seem to remember a fairly long wait at the depot.

Anyway, it was dark when I got on, so there wasn’t much to see.  I have a better appreciation now for the “rare mileage” I earned on that trip in the dark:  north of Ogden on the UP line to McCammon, ID and then across Southern Idaho, including the Boise branch.  Boise was about where the sun came up, and my trip west from Ontario, OR along the Snake River and up the Burnt River canyon at Huntington was in full daylight.
By the time the sun was up, I had traversed most of Southern Idaho.  The first decent photo I could manage was this, of our train preparing to cross the Snake River at Huntington, OR.
I spent some time down in the vestibule of the Superliner cars with the window open, taking in the sights and snapping a few photos.  I have shots of the train crossing the Snake just above Huntington, passing the old cement plant at Lime, and meeting UP freights just west of LaGrande and the BN local train at Pendleton.  My trip along the Columbia Gorge west of Boardman was pretty spectacular too.

From trips along the same route by freeway, I knew to look for this abandoned cement plant at Lime, OR, deep in the Burnt River canyon just west of Huntington.

A Union Pacific crewman gives our train a "roll by" inspection while his freight holds in the siding just west of LaGrande, OR

At the time of my trip, I didn't know that Burlington Northern served Pendleton, OR on its former Northern Pacific line south from Attalia, WA. So, I was a little surprised, pleasantly, to catch some "hometown" Cascade Green as we rolled through.
One question on my mind was what would happen when I got to Hood River, OR.  Per the schedule, the westbound Pioneer did not arrive at Portland until after the eastbound Empire Builder had left.  The reservation agent had informed me that I would need to de-train at Hood River, and then take a taxi across the river to the Bingen/White Salmon station and await the Builder there.  I assumed/hoped a taxi would be available when I got off at Hood River, but this caused me a little anxiety.

Fortunately, there was another BYU student on board, who helped me out.  He was a guy from one of the upstairs floors on my side of Hinckley Hall, so he had even been in my ward.  Still, I’d had no reason to speak to him at all during the school year.  When I saw him on the train, I said something about having seen him before, and we struck up a conversation.  It didn’t take me more than a few minutes to realize he was a lot more “geeky” than me.  He was ultra-smart and highly focused, more so than I had been at school (which isn’t saying much), and he told me the secret to his focus was repeating in his mind a mantra of “six figure income.”  Well, good luck to him with that.

However, when I asked him if he was going all the way to Portland, he actually told me he was getting off at Hood River too, where his dad would pick him up and drive him home to White Salmon.  So, as much as I disliked asking this guy for a favor, I suggested maybe his dad could give me a lift, too, and he agreed to ask.

Phase 2 of my journey began here at the former Spokane, Portland & Seattle depot in Bingen, WA.
Sure enough, once at Hood River, his dad threw my bags in the back of their station wagon (living up to its name) and took me over to the BN depot with no questions asked.  I hope I thanked him enough.  Anyway, now I had about three hours of wait time in the former SP&S Bingen depot, with no one else to bug me and nothing to do but watch BN freights pass the depot.  Darn!  I stood out on the platform most of the time, and left my bags inside while I walked up to the little store to buy some jo-jos and get a soda.  And, there was still enough light left to get a couple decent photos, including one of the depot while it was still active as the Amtrak stop in Bingen.

It was still light for most of my time in Bingen, allowing for photographs of BN freights while I awaited Amtrak.  The third unit in this power consist is GP-38 2075, one of several ordered by the SP&P but delivered in Cascade Green after the BN merger.
The rest of the trip was mostly in darkness.  I had notified my friend James of my arrival plans, and I imagined I may have seen his car pacing the train in from Marshall.  Whether that was him or not, I don't recall, but James was there with my folks at the Spokane station to welcome me home.

Luckily, there was still just enough light in the sky to catch this shot of my eastbound Empire Builder arriving to carry me the rest of the way home.
I did travel on the Pioneer one more time before its demise.  This was an eastbound trip back to BYU at the end of Christmas break.  My folks drove me down to Hinkle, OR on an unusually warm New Year's Day, 1989, and we waited in the car for a little while before the train showed up.  I remember a fairly relaxing trip, but due to the time of year, the trip was in darkness for most of the time and I didn't take any photos.