An afternoon on the BNSF mainline in Kent WA, part3, 06-19-2012

I spent two hours railfanning at the Sounder station in Kent, WA (about 18 miles south of Seattle). I caught 8 trains in total, a mix of passenger trains, local freight jobs and through trains.
This is part 3 of 3.
The eighth and final train was a northbound coal train running on Main 2. I heard the Centralia North dispatcher give them permission to leave Auburn Yard and head north. They came as far as CP Willis, just south of me, and stopped at the signal there displaying a Stop indication. Though they were far away, I could tell they stopped because the engineer dimmed the headlight.
This was unusual, as trains leaving Auburn normally don't only go the 8 or 9 miles up to Kent and then stop.
I listened in on the scanner as the crew called Dispatch to inquire why they had stopped. I recorded their conversation so you can hear Dispatch explain the situation.
Twenty minutes later, they got a Clear signal and proceeded north.
5742 / 5839 / 9935 / 9811
ES44AC / AC44CW / SD70MAC / SD70MAC

[@MakeItSo-ThisIsME]

Its funny how this has come up cuz I think for the first time I just saw a DPU on a Intermodal train. Huh, don't know if that is going to become common place now or not. The DPU's were in use, though I don't see the need, from Seattle to Tacoma there isn't that much of a grade. Anyhow great video and hope to see more soon, oh what about some more Yard action?

[@SeattleRailFan]

I catch action in yards when I can. Problem is, most yards lack good publicly accessible videography locations. I do have some videos of switching operations - look for 2 videos at Nucor, some of Job 130 at Rabanco, 1 at Delta Yard in Everett, the one of the windmill blades on the rail barge, etc.

[@SeattleRailFan]

Seems like many road trains have locos on the rear, generally known as DPU (Distributed Power Unit). Probably at least 3/4 of the road train I see use DPU's.
Those that don't are either local jobs or short distance runs (like Seattle to Pasco) that consist of maybe 40-60 cars instead of 100 or more.

[@staintedcards]

good job by the dispatcher getting him on his way she sounded kinda cute too lol is there a part 4

[@mafarnz]

No, just a K5HL, found on almost every GEVO out there.

[@jnite67]

cool! do they always have locos on the back?

[@SeattleRailFan]

Nope, three parts only.

[@CRAZOR53]

Hey Man Nice Video.xD

[@AMTK510]

No it was not ... it was a Nathan K5HL.

[@SeattleRailFan]

Don't know. I'm not an expert on train horns.