Railfanning Stevens Pass

For their birthday, one of my friends planned a day on BNSF's Stevens Pass and invited me along. We luckily hit the pass on one of it's busy days, catching a total of 10 trains. We started by chasing the Morning Z train east from Monroe up the pass all the way to the East Portal of the 7.8 mile long Cascade Tunnel. Completed by the Great Northern on Christmas Eve of 1928, this tunnel allowed the abandonment of the original line over Stevens Pass along with the original Cascade Tunnel. At the east end of the tunnel, a large fan system blows air to the west end, filtering out the large amount of exhaust belched from the trains. After chasing the Z, we chased a westbound vehicle train back to Skykomish where it met an empty coke train heading east. After chasing the empty coke back east we drove back west to Skykomish where we spent the remaining time on Stevens Pass. We were able to hit many of the well known locations on Stevens Pass, and it was great fun watching some of the best mountain railroading in the US. As some foamer bonuses, we were able to catch a GECX Dash-9 as a DPU on some oil empties, and NS 8099, the Southern HU as the trailing unit on an eastbound S-Train. Enjoy!

[@UnlimitedRailOfficial]

I almost wet myself when I saw 8099, at the time this was recorded, I watched the video when it was 2 days old, and just now found it, that same unit was is the tacoma crew change track, manifest that time, I think they swapped power in seattle, or the manifest was the H-PASTAC

[@ILoveTrains]

Spectacular trains and scenery!

[@pugetsoundrailfan7448]

Great video as always!

[@BenAtPlay18]

Thanks Sam!

[@hoitinkholidays118]

What's with the Giant checkered door?

[@BenAtPlay18]

After a train has passed through the tunnel, they close the door at the east end, then use fans to blow air to the west end to filter out the exhaust.

[@hoitinkholidays118]

What's that green locomotive in skykomish?

[@BenAtPlay18]

That was NS 8099, one of Norfolk Southern's 20 heritage units.