Boeing 737 fuselage train in Monroe, WA, 2-22-2015
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- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
- I hadn't been able to railfan much at work lately. So I decided to head out on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon to see if I could catch a train.
I went to a new location in Everett that I haven't been to before. After about 90 minutes of sitting around with nothing happening, I saw a westbound train pop out of the Cascade Tunnel headed my way. I use ATCS Monitor to allow me to see what's happening on the railroad.
The train was 80 miles away from me, so I decided to move east about 15 miles to the small town of Monroe to catch it there.
I set up trackside and waited. I figured the train would be a stack train or a vehicle train, as they're common on this part of the Scenic Sub.
To my surprise, it turned out to be a Boeing fuselage train! Lead engine was BNSF 6519 (ES44C4). With two engines and only four fuselages, this is one seriously over-powered consist. With 8800hp and less than 500 tons in tow, it must have accelerated like a Ferrari!
Delivery of the fuselages are very time-critical. The Boeing plant in Renton, where the 737 is assembled, doesn't have a lot of space to stockpile fuselages so they must arrive on schedule.
Most of the time, these fuselages are found on the head end of a regularly scheduled stack or vehicle train. Sometimes, though, a special fuselage train must be used to make the delivery on time.
6519 / 5203
ES44C4 / C44-9W
Very very cool catch of this move. That's pretty cool to see
Well that's something you don't see every day. Nice catch! Thanks for sharing.
Actually, here in the Seattle it's something we see all the time. Boeing just ramped up production to 42 737's a month. Each shipment is 4-5 fuselages, so we see 10 or 11 shipments per month. Usually they're included on stack or vehicle trains, but sometimes as a fuselage-only train.
I have always loved trains, must have been an engineer in a past life. Thanks for sharing.
Probably replacement fuselages for the ones that went into the river some months back. Good catch!
Great to see a new video from you, it's been too long.
I have never seen one of those fuselage trains in my 6 year railfaning there... lucky, nice catch!
Dash 9 Railroad Productions That's odd. We get, I'm guessing, 4-5 trains with the fuselages per week. You'd almost think it would be automatic to catch a couple per year at least.
SeattleRailFan lol Guess I don't have the timing.
Saw that same train go by in Mukilteo, cool stuff. Those fuselages come from Wichita, Kansas and are sent to the Renton Boeing facilities...
Yes, they come from Spirit Aerosystems. That plant used to be part of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, but they sold the Wichita plant to Onex Corp in 2004.
The fuselages come into either Balmer Yard or South Seattle Yard (seen them in both places). Then a local switch job called "The Renton Rocket" (best switch job name EVER!) takes them down the Renton plant.
SeattleRailFan The renton rocket eh? Haha. See those every time I go to Interbay.
Im closer to the line that used to run through Everett, Woodinville and Renton. Stupid freeway had to have extra lanes or whatever and a bridge was taken out...
FirstDJtoMars You must be referring to the Woodinville Subdivision. The line that from Snohomish down the Eastside to Renton. That line has been out of service ever since BNSF decided to sell the track. That was at least seven years ago. I'm pretty sure they stopped running on that line because it wasn't bringing in very much revenue and was costing a lot of money to maintain.
To think I might be flying in one of those some day.
That was cool.
+SeattleRailFan I could get some more of these, I live really close to the site as seen here. :)?
aren't those normally inclosed
Nope, the 737 fuselages have always traveled exposed like this.