I was up without a wake-up call and hurriedly packed then checked out. I walked to the MAX station, bought my one-way ticket and within a minute came a Green Line train. It was a quick trip back to Portland Union Station, where I checked in and received my Business Class seat assignment and I read most of the current issue of Trains Magazine as I sat at Gate 6A. The train arrived from Eugene and I walked to Car 1 at the south end.
Amtrak Cascades Train 500. We departed on time but stopped at Willbridge for a few minutes.
Mount Hood.
The Willamette River.
Columbia River ship channel.
The crossing of the Columbia River before we stopped in Vancouver.
The Columbia River. We were delayed by a BNSF track gang that was not off the rails before we arrived and we had to wait until they cleared. After passing them, we burnt up the rails to our next stop of Kelso-Longview.
Mount St. Helens. Our next stop was Centralia and since it had been quite a while since I had last been on the Talgo equipment, had forgotten how much I enjoyed the ride.
Business Class on the Amtrak Cascades.
Mount Rainier before we arrived at Olympia-Lacey.
The journey along Puget Sound including the Tacoma Narrows bridge. In the near future, all passenger trains will be routed to the Point Defiance Bypass and will not come this way. I will certainly miss these views in the future.
Tacoma Export Marketing Company (TEMCO) Sw1200 175, ex. Continental Grain 175, exx. Burlington Northern 175, nee Northern Pacific 175:2, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1958.
Tacoma Export Marketing Company (TECMO) GP9 1611, ex. BNSF 1611:1, exx. Burlington Northern 1816, nee Great Northern 664, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1954.
The future route that the Sounder already takes.
Mount Rainier. From here we stopped at Tukwila then it was on into Seattle, although we were delayed again at Auburn by another BNSF track crew and arrived in Seattle at 12:23 PM {12:00 PM}. It had been an excellent trip north aboard Amtrak Cascades.
The Talgo at rest at Seattle's King Street station. I went inside the station and was very impressed with the incredible multi-year restoration that had occurred. I found Bob and Elizabeth Alkire waiting for me and we walked to the parking lot and put my luggage in their car's boot before we walked over to the First Hill Streetcar, but alas, that is in the next travelogue.
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