Amtrak #7 Plight to Cross Stevens Pass
Вставка
- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- This video taken 12/22/2012 when Amtrak's #7 Empire Builder had to back down off the 2.2% grade to Merritt that morning because of so many fallen trees on the tracks. The lead unit had run into a bunch of trees on the trip which took out the headlights, one ditch light and the engineers windshield.
The original plan was to Wye the power at Merritt so Amtrak could use the trailing unit as the leader, so BNSF crews worked to clear the east and west switches for the Wye (As seen in the opening scene).
The video starts off in Merritt as the conductor off the M-SPOEVE works to clear the east switch of the Wye with a shovel he borrowed from us. From there the snow dozer works to clear the Wye as the conductor moves on to clear the derail.
A BNSF Hyrail and supporting crew get on the tracks at Merritt and try to reach the trees, but derail at the west switch at Merritt. That blocks all train traffic so Amtrak cannot Wye the power. The MOW crew asks to have the snow dozer out on the main so it can plow the mainline so they don't risk derailing again. During that time the engineer on Amtrak with 180+ people on board changes his mind about Wyeing the power and asks to continue on to Everett with the locomotive as is.
The final scene at East Berne was taken after snowshoeing in from Highway 2 at about 4:22 pm. Amtrak made it to Seattle about 7 hours late.
At 6:30 PM that night Washington State DOT closed Highway 2 from the summit of the pass east to Leavenworth for days because of falling trees. The DOT stated it was the worst conditions in 30 years.
Love hearing how cool the dispatcher and engineer were to each other. Would be so nice if more people approached problems like that. Just enjoying hearing the respect and hey we're on the same team attitude. 🙂
Agreed that dispatcher is one of the coolest cats on the sub. Keeps the line running and crews happy. Another super grumpy one counter balances this guy saying things to crews like, “And you’re just realizing this now?”
Absolutely beautiful winter shots, my heart goes out to those having to work to keep the tracks clear, I know it's tough work.
4:54 - So breathtakingly beautiful, like it looks on a postcard.
1. Great teamwork fellas
2. Fabulous scenery and video
3. Like most track work, one Indian and many Chiefs supervising ;-)
Well done trackside! It is cold and miserable up there I am sure. Fighting the weather is tough business! Great video! And awesome photos! Love hearing the radio traffic!
Brrrrr! Winter railroading is definitely not for sissies! Thanks for sharing.
I took # 7 from Chicago to Whitefish, Montana. 30 hours, deluxe sleeper. What a beautiful ride. I would think the RR would bring in heavier equipment to clear that amount of snow. Beautiful video, thanks from Cody the sheltie.
Former rail here.
Boy, does this bring back [sometimes not so] fond memories! I'd rather wrestle with the snow than to fight the brutal -25/-30 degree below zero actual air temps any day!!!
I watched this on my 40 inch Samsung TV.Excellent work here. And the still photos at the end are awesome.
Wow incredible train movie with all that snow!
Enjoyed the Radio chatter,tough day on the Rails this one.
Yeah definitely not the easy trip over the pass on this day. The poor engineer of the train must have tried to copy a form B 10 times before he gave up. Obviously Amtrak doesn't do that much.
Chanson pourquoi t dans la lune
Je suis fatigué
Great video. Thanks for braving the weather. 👍🏼
WOW! WOW! WOW! what a nice video man those are hard working people, thanks for sharing this video.
Beautiful
nice video and that was a lot of snow on the track's.
Fantastic work, this video!
Fantastic video, damn what beautiful nature around, winter has its own magic.
what state or near town is this ???just wondering kinda looks like Montana
Stevens Pass is located in Washington State.
Such Awesome scenery
well done, Trackside NW, well done, indeed! Thanks to you and BNSF!
+1 of exposure compensation in snow will fix the underexposed look.
This is some incredible footage! The snow is just unbelievable. Nice job producing such good work in the elements!
Arkangel Productions
For you folks on the camera crew, massive thanks for your efforts in this undertaking. You are a dedicated bunch. We could never have had these scenes of rail road work without your efforts, and of course the cooperation of BNSF. What beautiful winter scenes, all appearing so black and white, with the colorful safety wear of the rail road men.
They plowed the right track but the train came up the unplowed left track?
DesertDigger1 the plow and highrail were just getting out of the way after cutting the trees off of the main.
The snow looks beautiful. Great job.
The BEST Cascade Mountain Winter Railroad Video Ever. Makes me miss Washington State!
Thanks for the kind words.
🧐
Excellent camera work !
Thank you, it was a lot of fun getting these shots.
Nice👍🇾🇪🇪🇺😏👋
The landscape looks beautiful. But it must be an absolute hell to keep those tracks clear of snow an debris. It looks to me like a never ending story.
Excellent footage
I would absolutely love to see trains through the snow! always been a dream of mine to drive them in snow but we dont see much down south!
aussietraindriver: I guess you have not seen the videos of Kiwi rail trains blasting through snow in Arthur Pass. That might be a fine holiday for you.
Michael Dougfir I have seen some of those videos, unreal!
Why don't people put Hyrail wheels on their personal cars and use the railroad as a shortcut to avoid congested freeways or for long distance travel to other states? And do it without permission? People need to buy up my "Impact" a James Grider novel on Amazon and any subsequent sequels so I can accumulate enough money to move out of the desert into a forested area like that.
Your last name is fitting Mr. Dougfir, with the scenery in this video. :)
Kieran Lepley that's a funeral waiting to happen.
These pictures are beautiful!
DralionROBLOX
Difíciles condiciones y trabajo duro. Gracias por el vídeo y fotos
I really miss home. I was raised in Snohomish and Arlington.
You should come back here for a while this Christmas! Also, you should get ATCS Monitor for your stay here. It's a program for computers that allows you to track trains and monitor signals and switches along the tracks.
Awesome video!!!!
Thank you.
Thank you for all you do to keep our tracks safe, BNSF GUYS! I remember that snow. It was a doozie!
Just absolutely beautiful photos! The lighting, the snow, trains... what's not to love about these pictures? Outstanding job! Thanks for sharing!
Great video, ty for sharing :-)
Great railroad video in all the right ways. Demonstrates all the production values that mine didn't have. Thanks for sharing the shovel w/ the conductor and the video with us. And here I though all the conductor had to do was sit back and look out the window . :)
YOU NEED TO WATCH THAT CHRIS PINE AND DENZEL WASHINGTON FILM: "Unstoppable!" c2010..CHRIS's Conductor Character, Will, gets injured trying to save a runaway train...with Engineer Denzel...great action movie, good editing, although a more TV MOVIE Feel. That point was disappointing...can't put my finger on it why?
Excellent work! I know I have spent many hours tracking through that same snow and it is not easy. Remember countless times being in waist deep snow trying to get that great shot. Living in Colorado we get a lot of snow. But the snow storms in the Cascades are really something special. The creepy fog that always rolls in at night always gave me chills.
Yep, global warming .... LOL
Fort Worth Texas making orders for rail lines in Washington 2000 miles away?
That's the where the BNSF headquarters is
no sightseer lounge car on #7 ?? Wow ! ! !
Great video, the snow covered scenery is amazing!
Ugh I had many days like that. Being tired and trying to copy EC-1's and not being able to repeat it back to the dispatcher for the life of me. Wanted to just toss everything out the cab window.
Love these American Locomotives
what??- no heaters on the turnouts?? WTF???
Great video and stills. Thumbs up and subscribed!
Thanks Dennis it's appreciated.
01:32 min EMPTY Video ☹️
I took #7 from Seattle to St. Cloud, MN and then back to Seattle during the snow season. Absolutely beautiful scenery on this trip. Highly recommend taking this train if you ever decide to travel by train
Thanks for the kind words. I stood out in the cold for hours waiting for that train and it just kept getting darker. Another 15 minutes and it would have been too dark. When Amtrak rounded the corner throwing some snow off the plow it was an amazing site! Typically I can shoot 5 to 10 trains a day. This time it was only 1, but so worth the wait.
Traveling by train is the best! You can walk around, have a decent meal, get plastered, sleep in a bed, and meet amazing people. Too bad that Amtrak is going to be deleted. Of course, high speed rail would make a world of difference here in the U.S.; we have such long distances to travel. Airplanes are the most inefficient way there is to move people, and very little fun for the passengers.
Awesome Kontent!!!
Awesome .. lol .. was just messing around with Merrit on TS18 and adding trains in there when i found your vid .. lol
gold train video collection))
Thanks for showing...Quite the bad storm from the looks yet clearing crew did a great job!
Ugh, I don't care where you lived in the US this yr, Winter just plain sucked!
We
Wo ist das aufgenommen wurden? Colorado ?⛄☃️❄immer wider schön anzusehen
.
Dies wurde in den Cascade Mountains im US-Bundesstaat Washington aufgezeichnet. Stevens Pass ist der Name der Route und Bern Washington ist der Name der ehemaligen Stadt. Sie sollten es auf Google Maps finden können.
That shot of Amtrak No. 7 is a Christmas Card
that is a nice video and i love the pic and video of amtrak with the signal bridge. btw what kind of font did you use? I like it.
Sensational and superb. Excellent technically and aesthetically but -- even better -- we have a bit of drama, and all are saved thanks to the heroic, cooperative train crews! Really fantastic. I agree with all the strong, positive comments here. I was satisfied with the Snowdozer and the road-rail truck, but when the wounded AmTrak train came sweeping around that corner, it was just an exceptional moment. Please get some more snow shots!
digging out rail switches… it might have better to build a canopy with a high peak to protect the areas from snow...
Got to admit that in all my years this is the first time I've ever seen a v-plow on a ballast regulator. We got snow in the midwest and here in northern IN where I live now but we always used a v mounted on a ballasted old gon or a flat which had long since left revenue service!
+ShastaPacificRoad BNSF uses the V-plow until the slow builds up enough on the banks that they have to break out the big plow. Too bad because the plow is much more interesting with 2 geeps pushing it.
+TracksideNW I'd have to agree! We have NS, CSX, CN and CP running through northern IN and the few times I've seen them come through with a big v-plow the show was something! Big problem is that they tend to come through at night when everything is socked in. CSX and NS lines run fairly close by but by the time I can get out to them the plow-train has already passed. Still, there's this winter coming......
ShastaPacificRoad
Very awesome video! Do you remember how much snow this area received?
Wow. This is why im taking the train this winter but i just realized Stevens pass is on the Seattle route to the east on the EB and im transfering in Spokane from the CDL shucks well i get to see glacier Natl park and go over Rockies
Just a thought, does anyone remember reading a series of books called the Amtrak Wars?
Great video
Nope not for the wye. It's rarely used and at this elevation there typically isn't this much snow.
Still one of my favourite railroad videos on UA-cam!
That is one beautiful scenery!...Great video!
amazing!
work that is beeing made and nobody knows about . thanks
Thank you. I'll have to look it up, but I downloaded it for free off of a dafont.com.
BNSF - BEST IN THE BUSINESS!!! TOTAL PROFESSIONALS GETTING IT DONE.
Beautiful place to work but I am sure the fellows there would like a little less snow!
Stuningly beautiful photography. Great to watch on a hot summer day. Wouldn't want to be stuck in it though.
Sehr guter Kameramann super bilder. Von meiner liebsten Amerika .Dankeschön 💝💝💌💌🌹🌹
Wir danken Ihnen für die freundlichen Worte. Es war ein lustiger Tag, auf dem Berg zu sein.
@@TracksideNW i Look 2 times the best Film in schneebedeckten Berge wo ist das aufgenommen?
2 best Film ist der donner Pass im winter⚡☃️⛄❄
i love winter with hard snow fall,so,big like for video.
I really hate snow and cold weather but that is beautiful.
That is some serious snow railroading right there. Awesome video and photos!
Wow. I think I remember this day a few years ago!
god it's summer and just watching this vid i can't wait till winter comes
A gorgeous landscape, but I'd certainly be wary of driving or working in it. Nice video! ^^
Excellent vid and explanation. Thanks!
Oh my god! Awesome picture of that amtrak, honestly thats one of the best ive seen in my life!
Great video, thanks for all the effort in shooting this. Like that you included the radio.
Awesome winter scenery and great footage!
Fine video, thank you for posting it. It looks like BNSF should have gotten out the Jordan Spreader and sent it up there. Hi Rail vehicles don't stay on the track anywhere near as well as the old A-5 and A-6 speeders used to. I had Hi Rail pickups and 6 ton trucks come off where the A-5 that we had never had a problem. Of course, you can't take the A-5 on the freeway unless you put it on trailer.
Great video, well done!!!
Where is that?
Miserable conditions to have to work in.
Absolutely fantastic movie. Between the snow, mow, trains and radio chatter you had it all covered.
Thanks I enjoy hearing a little chatter from time to time in videos too.
I love video's like this, thanks for the upload and greetings from Ireland.
Stevens pass, site of one of the worst train disasters in American history, march 1 1910, and avalanche swept 2 stranded passenger trains into a ravine at Wellington, Washington
97 killed
We would have loved to see the big plow out on this day.
The stills are great. Nice job
great video! thanks for sharing.
What is the guy doing with the shovel? Looks like snow is falling at 1 to 2" an hour or more. It's a no win situation.
He’s digging out one of the switches on the wye at Merritt. The original plan was to use the second locomotive on Amtrak to continue west but the locomotive was facing backwards. Using the wye would allow the locomotive to be turned in a forward facing position.
It was all for not. The Amtrak crew couldn’t correctly copy the track warrant information from from the dispatcher which would have allowed them to use the wye. So they ended up scrapping that idea and running over the pass with the damaged locomotive as the lead unit.
Loooooooove your video.
Thank you.
Well that doesn’t look like a lot of fun.
Superb filming, good to see everyone mucking in to help.
Shades of Wellington...