40 years of North American photography

[jamie92208]

That Stephenson  car could be a twin of the first electric cars built by them for Leeds the year before. I wish I'd known it was there when I went in 2012. We were pkanni g to build a replica after 107 was finished but other events meant that we had to abandon the project, sadly.

 

Jamie

[Johann Marsbar]

I was a bit restricted in what I could do on my last day in SF as I had to be back at the Airport for the early afternoon to check in for the flight home.

The old station building at Millbrae is preserved as a local historical museum and they had a couple of vintage vehicles parked outside on display, one being this fire engine.....

 

 

There was also an REA truck, the back end of which can be seen in the background.

 

I caught BART to Balboa Park station and then ventured off to the seaside with Muni, eventually ending up at the Zoo terminus of the L line, though the tram operations seemed to be a bit disrupted that morning......

 

 

 

I was then able to catch a No. 18  bus northwards along the coast as far as the N line terminus at Judah, where the turning circle is adjacent to the seafront.......

 

 

 

The design of the adjacent "City of San Francisco Public Convenience Station" added a bit of a Blackpool feel to the terminus, so it's a shame they don't use their pair of Boat cars to run services on that end of the Judah line!

 

I took the N line back Downtown, a couple of PCC's - Chicago livery in front, with DC Transit behind - being seen here near Church......

 

 

.....and after a final look around in that area it was a case of catching BART back out to the Airport...

 

 

Check in and getting through security actually only took under 30 mins, so I had plenty of time for some aircraft photography whilst waiting for my flight.  The hotel I stayed in was behind the Marriott, which is the prominent building nearer to the airport.......

 

 

I was even able to get a decent shot of my flight arriving......

 

 

There was certainly plenty to do in the San Francisco area, so I would end up returning there again on a more recent trip, though my next transatlantic journey would be heading back to the east coast....

[Johann Marsbar]

Whilst considering options for another US trip later in 2016 I had spotted that Baltimore were holding their first ever "Fleet Week" event in October, which included an air display over the Harbour area, so I worked out a trip based around the main events in the programme, discovering after I had booked that it also corresponded with the end of Baltimore Beer Week!

As it turned out, the rather shambolic arrangements for the Fleet Week - discovered when I was there - meant that I didn't manage to do some of the things relating to the Beer Week events - and had to make alterations to what I was doing on a daily basis. A weekly Baltimore-Washington rail season ticket was being used again for the bulk of the trip, but that was used more as a means of going to various attractions/museums rather than for the rail photography that the one used on 2014 visit enabled.

 

My flight out to Baltimore on Wednesday 12th October turned out to be "fun" as well, being booked on the late afternoon BA direct service to BWI, so I was able to travel up to LHR on the day, having (luckilly as it turned out....) checked in online before leaving home. On arrival at Terminal 5, the place seemed to be in chaos with seriously long queues and lots of rather lost people wandering about. I duly discovered that the Computer System at Terminal 5, if not the whole airport, had crashed, so they couldn't book people in !    As I had already checked in online, that gave me priority and they seemed to be able to produce some form of baggage tagging for me to check my bag in and proceed through security - but it still rook the best part of an hour before I was airside.

 

At least the plane, a Boeing 787, the first one of that type I had travelled on, was at the gate........

 

 

...but the computer farce and subsequent flight departure congestion at LHR saw us taking off about an hour late.  At least the new automated entry gates at BWI meant getting through US Immigration was very quick, though it then took an eternity for the luggage from the plane to appear.....

I ended up on the 21.10 light rail service to Downtown Baltimore and was able to check in to the Hotel - The Home 2 Suites, as used in 2014 - by 22.00.

 

The following morning dawned rather cool (50F) and misty, but I took an early walk after breakfast down to the Inner Harbour to see what vessels had moored there for the event.

 

There were a couple of Army Tugboats.....

 

 

HMCS Shawnigan (MM 704) - A Minesweeper/Coastal Defence vessel built in 1996........

 

 

...and rather hidden out of the way, and not in the main harbour area, this Spearhead class fast catamaran, USNS Carson City (T-EPF-7) , only a few months old at that time and capable of 45 knots (52 mph).......

 

 

There were also a selection of smaller vessels from the likes of the US Corps of Engineers and other maritime agencies and most were open to visitors between the Thursday and the Sunday, but how many people were actually able to manage to get on board all of them is another matter, as I was to find.......

 

Baltimore Police were keeping an eye on things as well......

 

 

After that I bought an MTA Day Ticket and headed off to Penn Station to buy my weekly ticket (starting on the Saturday) before catching a No.23 bus from Downtown out to the Essex Park & Ride site.  My intention was to visit the Air Museum at Martin Airport that morning and as the bus service was fairly sparse out to that point I ended up walking for about 45 mins along Eastern Avenue to get to the Airport, passing this MTA NFI XDE40 hybrid bus carrying their brand new livery at a terminal point on the way......

 

 

When I got to the airport, I walked up the road to the museum entrance, which also led to the General Aviation terminal and noticed that there were quite a few people standing there, some with cameras. What I didn't know beforehand was that Thursday was the arrivals day for most of the Airshow participants and that some of them would be carrying out pracice flights on the Thursday and Friday. There was zero Security presence there, or restrictive fencing - unlike when I went there on the Sunday morning to have a look around - and the first sight that greeted me was this......

 

 

...all of the Blue Angels than heading out for practice runs over the harbour area......

 

 

I therefore abandoned the Museum visit and just hung around there for a couple of hours to see what happened.....

[Johann Marsbar]

It actually turned out to be quite an interesting couple of hours at the Airport, as apart from various arrivals/departures (and impromptu flybys/performances) by members of the Blue Angels, the Geico Skytypers display team did a quick formation flyby and landed, plus a pair of F22 Raptors from the 94th Fighter Squadron arrived for the weekend......

 

 

 

 

 

One earlier arrival which was parked up on the apron was this RCAF CF-18 Hornet in British Commonwealth Air Training Plan commemorative colours......

 

 

I was able to get a bus back from the Airport to the Essex P&R site and thence into the City for a visit to the Waterfront Hotel in the Fells Point area who were one of the establishments featured in the Beer Week events.

From the (rather touristy nowadays) Fells Point area, a couple of Naval support ships were visible across the other side of the river, and you can just about make out a few masts and flags of the other vessels there for Fleet Week behind them.......

 

 

The replica early 1800's sailing ship, the "Pride of Baltimore" was cruising around the harbour, making quite a contrast to HMCS Athabaskan (DDG 282), a 1972 built Destroyer which was part of the Fleet Week displays. That particular vessel was withdrawn from Canadian service in March 2017......

 

 

From there it was back Downtown and on the LRT out to the Woodberry stop on the line north to Hunt Valley..........

 

 

Since my visit in 2014, another Brewery had set up in this area near the LRT station, joining Union Brewing who I visited on that trip.   I started off with a visit to the new establishment - Waverley Brewing - which is just as well, as whilst I was working my way through their sampler tray, a combination of jet lag and the 22 hour day on the trip out kicked in, so I decided to abort the Union Brewing visit and headed back to the Hotel where I promptly fell asleep and woke up 8 hours later!  It was still only 03.00 though....

[Johann Marsbar]

The Friday was the first day that the visiting warships were open to visitors so an early morning trip was made out to Fort Mc Henry/Locust Point on the bus to find out when the vessels that I hadn't seen so far were actually being opened to the Public.  There wasn't a lot happening there when I arrived at 08.15 and the indications were that things would open up from 13.00 onwards as there was a Commissioning ceremony for a new warship taking place during the morning. It was also rather obvious that security for getting in to the area would be very strict.

 

There was not a lot of activity to be seen in the Locust Point freight yards either, other than some locos parked up too far away from the road bridge for photos, so I walked to Hull St to catch the free ferry over to Fells Point, where the sun was shining on the other side of HMCS Athabaskan....

 

 

Fells Point was an important part of the docks facilities in Baltimore in the past (back to Colonial days) that declined after the 1940's, a lot of which has now been restored as a tourist area or redeveloped.  A lot of old buildings remain, along with cobbled streets, some of which still retain the rail tracks that used to serve the port area....

 

 

After spending the rest of the morning making the statutory visit to M B Kleins model railroad shop out at Cockeysville via the Light Rail, I returned to the Inner Harbour about 12.30 to catch one of the free shuttle buses that were supposed to be starting about that time out to the Warships at Locust Point.

In a way, it was quite appropriate that the main Fleet Week events corresponded with the end of Baltimore Beer Week, as it appeared that the organisers of the shuttle bus service couldn't organise the proverbial in a Brewery, and by 12.50 there was a rather large queue and no buses!  When a couple of school buses duly turned up, it transpired that they were the sole vehicles being used, on a supposed 20 minute frequency,  the journey time being about 15 mins given the traffic congestion....

I managed to get on the first bus, that finally left about 13.05, and when we arrived at Locust Point we had to join another long queue for security checks, which included metal detectors/scanners, finally getting through there just before 14.00.

That wasn't the end of it, as only one warship turned out to be open, rather than the expected two, so another long queue was joined, taking a further hour to actually get on board the ship that was taking visitors!!

 

Whilst standing in the queue to get on the ship, I did gat a photo of the two vessels which weren't open to the public - The newly Commissioned USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) - A guided Missile Destroyer, and the USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55) - A Guided Missile Cruiser, launched in 1986.  The latter ship was supposed to be open on the Sat/Sun, but after todays farce, I didn't bother attempting to go to Locust Point again over the weekend........

 

 

 

The two display teams in the weekends airshow were doing practice runs as well, which turned out to be very useful, as most of the displays over the weekend got nowhere near the Inner Harbour area.....

 

 

 

The ship that was open was the USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109), an Arleigh-Burke class Destroyer, launched in 2009, and, thankfully, all the queuing was well worth it as visitors were given a full guided tour of the ship which lasted over an hour......

 

 

From the ship, there was a good view over to another part of the port area where the preserved Liberty Ship  John W Brown could be seen, partially obscured by a somewhat more modern vessel.....

 

 

The whole episode had eaten into my schedule for the remainder of the day, so I ended up having to abandon a planned visit to an event at Heavy Seas Brewing later on as it was 16.30 by the time I actually got out of the port area.  Rather than wait for the abysmal shuttle bus service, I walked to Hull St and took the free ferry to Fells Point again. After getting off the ferry, I noticed that there was rather a lot of black smoke rising from an area near the waterfront, which turned out to be a building on fire, though by the time I got anywhere near, the Fire Department had thankfully managed to extinguish it with little damage apparent from the street....

 

 

You can just see some scorching on the frontage to the right of the electric supply pole. There was quite a good turn out of fire engines, so the camera was kept busy for a while, before I carried on to the Hudson Street Stackhouse, a rather unassuming looking place, apparently converted from a couple of terraced houses. Apart from a 3 hour duration "happy hour", they had 36 Autumn themed beers on tap as part of the Beer Week events. The food was excellent too, so I returned there the next day as well!

This was one of the vintage beer signs on display in the place, though presumably the marketing slogan used wasn't "Goes down a treat..."

 

 

From there it was a bus back to the Hotel and a rearrangement of my plans for the next few days, given the apparent problems with getting on the ships today, plus the fact I had also found out that it was the Baltimore Marathon the next day (Saturday) and most of the City Centre was shut off to traffic, including buses.....

[Johann Marsbar]

As the Saturday was the first day that the rail season ticket was valid, I headed off on the 07.35 train to Washington Union to have a quick look at the DC Streetcar operation that had finally started running at the end of February 2016 after considerable delays......

 

 

I limited myself to just a quick roundtrip over the line as I was planning to spend a bit longer riding/photographing it later in the week.  No fares are payable - mainly because it doesn't really serve any useful purpose due to the projected extensions to Anacostia Metro Station and other places being shelved.  I did notice that each tram seemed to have its own resident policeman as well!

 

I did take some photos in Union Station whilst I was there.....

 

 

 

When the place reopened in the 1990's after considerable refurbishment it became a shopping/retail hub in is own right as well as a rail station.  Over the years the retail side has shrunk and I believe that there are now a lot of vacant units there since my 2016 trip.

 

After catching a train back to Baltimore, I caught the light rail down to the Inner Harbour to see what the road closure/bus situation was like, as the light rail was the only transport mode that seemed to be unaffected by the Marathon road closures.  Having worked out that it was a complete mess, I returned back to Penn Station and walked to the Baltimore Streecar Museum.  I'd only really intended to make a brief call there to buy a book they had recently published, but I found I was the only visitor so ended up staying for a couple of hours.

 

Needless to say, the only operating car which I've never ridden on, an 1888 built horsecar which then ended up as a cable-car trailer before being converted to an electric car in 1896, was buried in the depot.......

 

 

They had also carried out some fairly impressive rebuilding work on car #554 which dated from 1896. Over the years, the outer ends of the body had sagged considerably due to the long overhang from the truck. The whole thing had been straightened out and the repainting work was still being finished off.........

 

 

The car in use on the day I was there was the Baltimore Peter Witt and I ended up being persuaded to have a drive of it - for the third time when I've visited the place - though it is a very nice car to drive.

 

It was then back to the Harbour on the light rail and a longish walk to Fells Point to join the queue to visit HMCS Athabaskan.  There wasn't much of a queue as it turned out and, unlike the previous days farce visiting the US ships, there were no security checks before boarding of any sort. Touring the open areas of the ship was self-guided as well, so the whole visit only took about 45 mins - rether better than the previous day. It helped that the vessel was a bit more "out of the way" as the Marathon road closures took some negotiating, even on foot, to get to the area.

 

 

 

That was followed by a return visit to the Stackhouse for an hour.   The whole group of Rowhouses that it's situated in have been nicely restored, though they do seem fairly obsessed with dummy stone cladding over there......

 

 

The pub takes its name fom an adjacent rather tall chimney that used to be part of a food packing plant, long since closed. Only the chimney now remains in splendid isolation and is a local landmark.

 

The plan after leaving there was to head back to Penn for another train ride - at least as far as BWI, but the after effects of the Marathon closures ensured problems with getting to the station in time, so I just ended up aborting that and going back to the Hotel.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

I just spotted that this thread has been running for a year as of yesterday.........

 

On the Sunday morning I headed off first thing to Martin Airport to have a look at what was happening at the "Open House" event there. I was able to catch a couple of connecting buses all the way there this time round, but actually got there about an hour before the site opened to the Public.  This wasn't a problem, as the Airport is adjacent to the former PRR main line so I spent some time at the Martin Airport MARC "station" - actually just a low-level wooden platform served by a very infrequent rail service..........

 

 

 

Its actually a very good location for photos and one I'll revisit at some stage, hopefully, though after some time there I walked to the event Park & Ride site, passing this plinthed Grumman Albatross just inside the perimiter fence.....

 

 

...and caught a shuttle bus the short distance to the Airport entrance. Whereas on the Thursday I was able to wander around that area quite freely and without having security checks, the Airshow entrance turned out to be the same as the US warships Downtown, with metal detectors & scanners - all to look at less than two dozen aircraft and other exhibits!!

 

There was so little to see there that I only ended staying for about 40 mins, though they had at least moved some of the preserved airframes from the Museum up to the display area.....

 

 

 

...and there were a few items of the current US Inventory on display......

 

 

 

 

In the event, I was rather glad I went there on the Thursday as I had certainly seen more activity in those 2 hours than I did on the Sunday morning.

Getting away from there a lot earlier than planned I caught a couple of buses back Downtown and went to the Inner Harbour again, joining a slow moving queue to get onboard HMCS Shawnigan, which took an hour to get on board (and as for the Athabaskan there were no security checks) followed by a comprehensive 40 minute tour of the upper areas of the vessel.

During this time, the Airshow was in ptogress, though you would never have known it from the Inner Harbour area as everything seemed to be keeping well away over Ft McHenry and Locust Point, the rare exception being the USAF "Heritage Flight" - consisting of a P51, F22 & F35 - which did venture as far as the City Centre........

 

 

Some of the Blue Angels did get that far as well, but that was it!

 

The remainder of the day was taken up by a quick ned move on MARC from Penn out to BWI and return, before descending on the Pratt Street Alehouse for an evening meal, the pub being remarkably empty considering its closeness to the Inner Harbour events. There weren't any sports events that evening at Camden Yards either, which helped, as the place normally gets wedged before any games taking place there.

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day started with a run to Washington Union where I headed off to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to do one of their Public tours of the site.  The tour guide seemed rather dismissive when I dared ask whether they were ever likely to change over to plastic banknotes in the future - a definite No there - though he was quite impressed when I showed him an example of our then new Churchill £5 notes.

 

From there it was on to the Museum of American History (Smithsonian) which I'd never visited before.  The transportation side of things was well presented, though SR Pacific #1401 was rather boxed in compared with the other exhibits on display. The neutral coloured figures in the scenes were well positioned and made the vehicles on display stand out better and the painted backscenes were extremely well done.

 

"Jupiter", an 1876 Baldwin built 4-4-0......

 

 

Capital Traction Company Washington DC (conduit) car, built in 1898 by the American Car Co......

 

 

 

 

 

 

The original "John Bull" - displlayed on a very early Iron bridge structure....

 

 

After lunch at Capitol City Brewing, I headed off to the Benning Road end of Union Station to ride and photograph the DC Streetcar operation in more detail....

 

 

 

Whilst being a fraction of the proposed network and being subject to many delays, it certainly seems to have acted as a catalyst for the regeneration of that particular part of the City - something desperately needed in the rest of the place, once you get away from the downtown "Tourist/Government" areas.

 

The rest of the day was spent making various rail trips on both the former PRR & B&O routes to Baltimore, the only item of note being the "Veterans" liveried ACS-64 at BWI Airport station......

 

[Johann Marsbar]

The next morning I headed off to Washington again, pausing at Odenton to get some photos of the morning MARC rush hour services - particularly the electric loco powered ones.....

 

 

 

On arrival at Union, I caught a bus out to Georgetown - now more or less a district of DC but a historic town in its own right and which actualy predates the establishment of Washington itself by about 40 years.  It is somewhat more upmarket than Washington and is a popular tourist destination in its own right and gets visited by the local tour buses.....

 

 

Presumably an ex Singapore or Hong Kong example.

 

Georgetown is also the start point of the C&O Canal  - Tour boats operating westward from the downtown area during the summer months. 

 

Lock #3....

 

 

Lock #4.....

 

 

In sections of O and P Streets in Georgetown, the cobbled streets retain their Conduit tram tracks - last used by DC Transit around 1960........

 

 

 

After spending most of the morning in Georgetown I headed back into downtown DC and caught the Metro out to the Crystal City stop, the other side of the Potomac River to Washington and in Virginia.  I had identified an area - Long Bridge Park - next to the Amtrak/CSX lines just to the south of the "Long Bridge" over the river so had decided to spend some time there.

It turned out to be a rather good location - particularly as everything going in to land at Reagan National Airport also passed there........

 

 

.....so I ended staying there for a rather productive 4 hours - particularly as the temperature had reached 87F that afternoon.....

[Johann Marsbar]

During my time at Long Bridge Park there wasn't as much freight activity as I had hoped for - and certainly nowhere near the quantity seen passing through Alexandria (just south of Crystal City) two years previously.  As the afternoon progressed the Virgina Railway Express services began to appear more frequently, whilst there was a reasonable amount of Amtrak traffic.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

Airliner wise it was very busy with a wide variety of Airlines/aircraft types passing by.......

 

 

 

As a historical note - Crystal City and the area where I was photographing used to be the location of the RF&P Potomac Yard, the northern end of which is seen from my passing train window back in August 1987.....

 

 

The main line tracks were completely realigned when the site was redeveloped in the 1990's.

 

From Crystal City I headed south on the bus to Alexandria to visit what seemed to be a good place to eat with a selection of craft beers on offer - only to find that they had no craft on tap, only the likes of Bud/Miller etc which I won't touch with a barge-pole!  Food was good though and they did have some bottled beers available, though the wheat beer I tried was a bit "disappointing", so I stuck to Coca Cola for the next one.

 

Alexandria has a free shuttle bus service along King St using those pseudo trolley contraptions, though these ones seemed to have even attempted a version of rattan seating inside as well....

 

 

.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by Johann Marsbar

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day was spent mainly making various rail trips to/from Washington, both from Camden and Penn Stations in Baltimore, though as I'd worked out that I had underspent on my budget for the trip so far (!), another trip was made out to Cockeysville to visit MB Klein.

 

The Light Rail is in a somewhat more rural environment out that far, as seen in these photos taken at Warren Road, the nearest stop to the shop - about 10 mins walk away....

 

 

 

Since that visit, Kleins have ceased operating a retail shop and they are mail-order only nowadays.

 

One of the MARC MP36-PH locos is seen at Camden Station with a B&O line service to Washington....

 

 

Whilst an MTA Commuter coach passes by on the adjacent street........

 

 

On the Thursday, a visit was planned to the National Capital Trolley Museum at Wheaton, located to the north of Washington and reachable by Public Transport (with my rail season valid for the bus trips) as long as you didn't mind a 20 minute walk from the nearest bus stop to the Museum. I'd been there previously in 2003, but since then, they had experienced a disasterous fire that destroyed one of their old car barns and several irreplaceable exhibits, followed by a complete relocation to a new site in the same general area due to a new road scheme. At least from the latter they ended up with a very nice modern depot complex in which to keep their cars.

 

I caught the train from Baltimore to New Carrolton and then a rather long and slow bus trip on Route F4 to Silver Spring - the traffic congestion being abysmal. At least this route will be replaced by the Purple Line light rail operation in the next few years, though that scheme is running very late and over-budget.....

Another bus trip to Glenmont, follwed by a third bus to Layhill Road finally saw me arrive at the Museum around 10.15, just in time for the place to be descended on by hordes of schoolkids!

 

Unfortunately, the tram in use was their Den Haag PCC car, which had been out on the 2003 visit, though on that particular date it was supplemented by their Johnstown car - one that was later lost in the fire.........

 

 

Once the mornings tranche of oiks had gone away the place got a lot quieter, being a midweek opening date, and I was given a tour of the car sheds and the restoration areas. 

Whilst their focus is on the few remaining Washington DC cars, they have a wide variety of mainly European trams there as well.

 

STIB (Brussels) works car #17.......

 

 

BVG (Berlin) #5954 of 1924........

 

 

Capital Traction Company (DC) #522, built by the American Car Co in 1898.....

 

 

Washington Railway & Electric Co #650, JG Brill of 1912........

 

 

to be continued....

[Johann Marsbar]

Continuing the look at the trams at the NCTM......

 

Blackpool Boat car #606, which does see use at the Museum during the summertime........

 

 

That particular car has been in the US since 2000, though the Museum only acquired it in 2009 having been part of the Trolleyville USA collection near Cleveland prior to that.

 

DC Transit System PCC car #1101 - St Louis Car Co of 1937.....

 

 

Capital Transit System PCC car #1430 - St Louis Car Co of 1944.....

 

 

They have since obtained another former Washington PCC car from the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke. 

 

Capital Transit Company McGuire snow sweeper of 1909.....

 

 

Rheinische Bahngesellschaft #955 - Schondorff AG, 1928......

 

 

3rd Avenue Railway System (NYC) #678 - TARS 1939 - One of the cars that ended up in service in Vienna after WW2 and was returned to the US for preservation in 1971. A similar car can be found at Crich - also obtained from Vienna.........

 

 

....and, just as an aside,  there is also one in the Vienna Tramway Museum in its Wiener Strassenbahn condition.......

 

 

Capital Traction Company #27, built by Kuhlmann in 1918.......

 

 

The STIB works car that was pictured in yesterdays post was one of a number of Brussels 4-wheelers that ended up in the USA/Canada from the 1970's onwards - In the same way that several Porto & Lisbon cars were aquired by museums and other potential operators over there.   One place that did run them in service was a resort in Florida that used them for a line around their property.  This example came from there in 2004 when the operation was shut down and was STIB #1069, built by Nivelles in 1907.   Toronto PCC #4603 of 1951 can be seen to the left, one of the cars that the TTC rebuilt in the 1980's for their new Harbourfront line, though they only ended up being used until the mid 1990's.......

 

 

This other STIB 4-wheeler, in a rather battered state, was also present - it being a late 1950's rebodying of a much older car.  Not sure of where it came from (possibly the private collection of such cars that used to be in British Columbia) and it doesn't appear on the NCTM online fleetist anywhere.  My guess is that it came from BC, along with the works car, as that collection was split up and sold off about that time.  You'll see the rest of them elsewhere in a future installment!

 

 

After having the tour, one of the volunteers kindly gave me a lift back to Glenmont Metro station so I had a quicker journey back into the City than the outward one....

[jamie92208]

I have a feeling that theclate Ian Dougill was involved in the transfer ofvthe Blackpool Boat.  He had very extensive contacts within the tram preservation  movement in the USA.

 

Jamie

[Johann Marsbar]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I have a feeling that theclate Ian Dougill was involved in the transfer ofvthe Blackpool Boat.  He had very extensive contacts within the tram preservation  movement in the USA.

 

Jamie

 

Not sure who was involved in the "deal", but that Boat originally went to the US as a swap with Blackpool Standard 147 which came back to the UK and was subsequently restored for use again in its home Town.

There are 4 Boat cars in the US - three of which I have seen and I've managed rides on two of them so far.....

[Johann Marsbar]

I actually caught a bus from Glenmont to Silver Spring rather than getting the Metro straight into the City as I had noticed that there were a few other bus operators running into the Interchange there and I wanted to get some photos.

Washington Metrobus were running these NFI built hybrid artics dating from 2015.......

 

 

...whilst Ride On (Montgomery County Transit) seemed to be undergoing a livery change., the old colours being seen on this 2005 built NFI gas bus........

 

 

...whilst the new image is seen on this 2014 Gillig.....

 

 

I then took the Metro through the City to Clarendon station, from where I walked to the premises of Sehkraft Brewing for a visit. That's another Brewery I've managed to kill off as they appear to have closed the following year!

After that, it was an exercise in finding out how bad the local bus services were, as I attempted to travel to Shirlington Transportation Centre, which took two different bus routes, not hepled by buses not appearing when they should have....

En route, I entered another operators area at Ballston, where the buses of Arlington Transit appeared, In this case a 2010 built NABI gas bus......

 

 

I was able to find New District Brewing for a visit, even if they were located in a fairly nondescript industrial unit a short walk from what passed as the Town Centre, after which I returned to Union Station by a combination of bus and Metro, before catching a Penn line service back to Baltimore to conclude the days activities.

I did take a photo in one of the Downtown Metro stations on the way, which shows the 1970's concrete atmosphere that the system exudes........

 

 

The red lights at the platform edge flash when a train is approaching.   I believe someone made an HO model of those Metro sets when they were first introduced, though they have not been produced for a long time.

 

The next day was the last one of the holiday and I was actually able to take a photo of a train at Baltimore Penn - not usually the most photogenic of locations and not helped by them only allowing you on the platform when the train is coming into the platform or is available for boarding......

 

 

My service turned up propelled by HHP-8 #4915 and I took that as far as BWI station.....

 

 

The light was quite good there at that time, so I spent just under an hour there observing passing traffic....

 

[Johann Marsbar]

The variety of traction used by Amtrak on the NEC was dramatically changed to that a few years previously with the demise of the remaining HHP-8 and AEM-7 locos, though at least the likes of MARC do add a bit more variation to the scene.....

 

 

 

 

 

After a quick trip from BWI to Washington Union and back to Baltimore Penn, I caught a bus out to Fort McHenry, where a slightly better view was available of the preserved John W Brown.....

 

 

...along with a selection of cannons in a defensive position outside the fort itself......

 

 

I had originally intended to visit the fort itself, but in the event I just had a look at the adjacent Visitors Centre before walking to Hull Street and catching the free ferry over to Canton, the intention being to make a final visit to the Stackhouse pub - though I found they weren't open until a lot later in the afternoon, so had to contend with the Waterfront Pub in Fells Point instead, which seemed remarkably devoid of tourists for a change.

 

A walk round the Fells Point area saw me discover the National Katyn Memorial for the first time.....

 

 

....though clouds were building from the west and by 15.00 it was raining heavilly - quite a contrast to the mornings weather.

I ended up catching a bus to Penn station and then a train out to BWI station, where I spent a couple of hours before catching the free shuttle bus (operated by First Group) to the Airport terminal to check in for the flight home......

 

 

Over the coming Winter, likely destinations for 2017 were considered, with a wish to go somewhere that I hadn't been to before and preferably somewhere that could be done without hiring a car, though, as it turned out, I did end up having to hire one for the May trip, and it was a good job I did......

[Johann Marsbar]

By the early part of 2017 I had decided that the Pacific Northwest would be the destination for my main "summer" US trip for the year as it would enable a visit to Seattle, WA - somewhere I had been before, albeit only briefly, and Portland, OR, a new destinaton for me.  Both had light rail/tramway systems with the added bonus of trolleybuses in Seattle, plus a selection of museums to visit, a vibrant craft beer scene, rail activity and you could get around without a car as well......

I duly booked a flight and the hotels in Seattle and Portland fairly quickly, the intention being to travel on the Amtrak Cascades service between the two centres, so I didn't need to worry about a car at all, though not having one would mean there was one particular museum I wouldn't be able to get to as there was no public transportation anywhere near it.

As the time went by and my travel date at the end of May got nearer, it was fairly obvious from looking at US railroad forums online, that there were regular and significant problems on the Seattle to Portland rail line - particularly landslips, which seemed to be happening on at least a monthly basis. This made me have doubts about using the service as it just didn't seem to be reliable enough, particularly when connections to my return flight home were concerned. I therefore weighed up my options and looked at flying between the two cities, but it actually worked out cheaper to hire a car for the trip to Portland which meant I would have it available to get to the museum in Oregon that was unreachable by public transport, and, as it turned out some other museums as well once I changed my itinerary. This was actually a wise decision as when I was in Seattle there was another landslip that shut the line for several days and which would have completely messed my plans up!

 

I duly flew out from LHR to Sea-Tac Airport on a Virgin 787 on the direct service to Seattle which actually arrived there 30 minutes early. That was the only flight I've been on so far where if you asked for a drink, they gave you two - beer and wine included!    Getting through Immigration was fairly quick and I caught the shuttle bus to my hotel almost immediately when I came out of the terminal, so had checked in by 15.45 - somewhat earlier than I was anticipating.

The hotel was situated across the road from the Angle Lake terminus of the Central Link Light Rail line - the main reason for me choosing that particular hotel. It was considerably cheaper than the Downtown hotels and, having seen what parts of the Downtown area were actually like, I made a wise decision in doing so.   Rather than sit around at the hotel for the rest of the day, particularly as the weather was so good (86F), I decided to take a quick trip into Seattle and the area around Pioneer Square station. The run on the light rail to Downtown took about 35 mins and I then spent an hour or so there until the 8 hour time difference started to catch up with me.

A lot had changed there since my previous visit in 2002, the most unexpected thing being finding double deck buses in use there (called "double tall" for some strange reason....), Community Transit operating a fleet of ADL Enviro 500's...........

 

 

The brick building behind the bus is the former Seattle Union Station complex that used to serve the Milwaukee Road and Union Pacific trains from the City.

King County Metro operate the Seattle urban bus fleet, such as this NFI XDE60.......

 

 

...and also the trolleybuses, the majority of the vehicles being NFI (New Flyer Industries) XT40's......

 

 

...the articulated ones being NFI XT60's.......

 

 

 

The First Hill streetcar line also pased that point and they use a small fleet (6) of these Inekon Trio trams dating from 2014.....

 

 

The observant will note that the pantograph is down and there are no overhead wires for the tram (only trolleybuses) on the inbound side of the road. These cars are fitted with batteries and overhead wires will mainly be found on the outbound (uphill) track only - the inbound journey being undertaken by battery and gravity power!

 

I then headed back to the hotel, taking this photo of Mount Rainier from the elevated LRT station at Angle Lake.......

 

 

 

.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Johann Marsbar

[Johann Marsbar]

As is usual with an 8 hour time difference, I ended up waking rather early the following morning so went in search of the hotel breakfast room some 20 minutes before they were supposed to open (advertised as 06.00). I was rather surprised to find it open and a substantial spread available at that time, so was able to set out on my travels on the Saturday morning a lot earlier than planned.

Like San Francisco, there is a local transport Smartcard (The "Orca" card) available which is accepted by all local operators in the Puget Sound region and can load both a cash purse and muilt-ride tickets. The big advantage of this area is that a Day Ticket (from memory it was $7 then) is available, valid on all operators - apart from the Washington State Ferries - up to a single fare value of $2.75. If the fare is more than that (as for the likes of the Sounder Commuter trains) the fare difference is taken from your "cash purse" . 

First job of the day was to buy a card and then load it with some cash and a Day ticket - all of which was done at the ticket machine at Angle Lake LRT station, before heading off into Seattle on the 06.36 service. I got off at Chinatown station and managed to catch a late running express bus service from Seattle, north to the City of Everett, which actually put me about 40 mins ahead of my planned schedule for the day.

The bus trip, in an articulated bus with surprisingly comfy seats, took about an hour and I arrived at the Everett Transportation Centre just after 08.00.  Community Transit were the main operator serving the area, as seen by this NFI D40i dating from 2004.......

 

 

By getting there arlier than planned, I actually was about in time to see some activity at the adjacent station as a Northbound Cascades Talgo service (possibly the Vancouver, BC, one) arrived......

 

 

....and then headed off, displaying the distinctive "bat wings" at the end of each set......

 

 

No sooner had that gone out of sight, than the Seattle portion of the westbound "Empire Builder" arrived from Chicago............

 

 

As can be seen from the tracks to the right, the local Sounder commuter trains do run north of Seattle as far as Everett, but it's a fairly sparse operation on that line, not that the other route from Seattle to Tacoma is particularly frequent either.   A few trainsets were stabled there that day as, from memory, it's only a Mon-Fri peak hour operation on that section.......

 

 

Everett still operate their own bus services. by choice from what I've read,  and one of their Gillig BRT HEV 40' vehicles is seen at the bus station......

 

 

All the other bus routes (other than the Sound Transit one to Seattle) seemed to be Community Transit operated, including this NFI DE60LFA used on the local "Swift" BRT scheme.....

 

 

Everett Transit seemed a well run operation and after about an hour around the Transit Centre I headed off on one of their buses to a another Interchange station where I caught another bus of theirs to Paine Field - The location of the main Boeing Plant, but also the location of two attractions I was visiting that day.

 

First to be visited was the storage and restoration centre for the Seattle Museum of Flight, located in a fairly nondescript industrial unit on the edge of the airfield.  It was open on a regular basis back in 2017, but doesn't appear to available to visit nowadays - presumably Covid putting paid to that and they haven't returned to "normal" as yet.

One thing I wasn't expecting to find, particularly given the location of the place, adjacent to Boeing, was this..........

 

 

...the front fuselage section of a Comet 4C !

 

 

After looking round there for about 50 mins, I headed off on foot to an event at another museum, also located on the airfield site who were having a special event that day......

[Johann Marsbar]

The other museum in question was the "Flying Heritage & Armor Museum" a private collection of aircraft and military vehicles built up by Paul Allen, and the sort of thing you can achieve if you have a few bob to your name - and as one of the co-founders of Microsoft, he certainly had that......

They were holding a "Tankfest" event that day and it seemed to be very popular with the visiting public - a bit too popular actually, as it was difficult to get decent photos of the exhibits inside the museum due to the number of people milling around. The fact it was in the 80's outside didn't help either, as people were staying in the shade! It was also fairly dark in the main display hangar, which was where the more interesting aircraft were on display, and the planes were dairly well crammed in as well.

 

A few of the aircraft exhibits.

P51 Mustang, 353rd Figher Squadron, Raydon, Suffolk.............

 

 

Polikarpov O-16 Rata............

 

 

Messerschmitt  Bf 109E...........

 

 

A full list of the main exhibits is here   https://www.flyingheritage.org/Explore/The-Collection.aspx

 

As regards the vehicle side of things, a selection is shown below.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...though the event wasn't actually as large as I thought it was going to be, TBH, and after a couple of hours there, I walked to the local bus stop and caught a direct bus back into Everett for an onward express bus service back to Seattle, by which time the temperature had crawled up to 87F.

Paul Allen died in 2018 and the Museum later closed, though it is expected to reopen under a different name this year. It's been purchased by a member of the Family that owns Walmart, so it seems to be in good hands for the future.

 

After a quick look round the City Centre (and discovering which areas to avoid over the next few days.....) I caught the Link light rail out to Beacon Hill station for a visit to Perihelion Brewing before heading back to Angle Lake and my hotel. En route I broke my journey at Mount Baker station to investigate an elderly motor coach parked by the station and whilst there, I also took some photos of the LRT line.....

 

 

There is very little street level running involved, with a considerable distance being elevated as shown in the photo above, plus in Downtown Seattle it runs underground. Three car coupled sets seemed to be the norm, with two car coupled sets operating some trips, and it was certainly a well used line, as was all the Public Transit in the area.

[Johann Marsbar]

Another early start on the Sunday saw me catch the light rail as far as  SODO (South of the Dome...) station, followed by a walk through an industrial area to have a look at the Amtrak loco & rolling stock depot, most of which was visible from public roads. Some photos from that area will feature later on, but I did get this one of a Seattle Seahawks liveried former F40 "Cabbage" unit passing by, with the Dome sports arena in the background.......

 

 

Rgen it was into central Seattle for a further look around, thinking that the Pike Place Market area would be quiet at that time on a Sunday morning - when in fact it was heaving with tourists at 09.00 !

One of the network of Washington State Ferries is seen departing the Seattle Ferry Terminal......

 

 

Very few trolleybus routes seemed to be operating at weekends, and some of those which were running seemed to be running on auxillary power rather than from the overhead.....

 

 

I'd worked out a nice circular tour to Tacoma for that day which involved an outward journey involving a couple of ferry trips and a bus ride the full length of Vashion Island, so I started by catching a route C bus from Seattle to Fauntleroy whene I would connect with the ferry over to the island.  It all looked good on paper, but on arrival at the ferry terminal, there was no sign of the ferry and it was said to be running about 40 mins late.....

That completely messed up my plans, so I had to have a complete rethink before cutting my losses and catching a bus back into Seattle, the ferry only arriving as I left on the bus.

I got off at the aforementioned SODO and made fairly quick connection with an express coach on the Busway there heading to Tacoma and eventually arrived in that City about 30 minutes before I would have done via the original ferries route!

 

Tacoma has its own tram route - called "Tacoma Link" at the time, but now the "T" line, that operates a free service over what was, in 2017, a fairly short route from the Tacoma Dome rail station to the Theatre District, where one of the Skoda built cars is seen......

 

 

The line has been extended beyond that point, more or less doubling the length of the route since 2017 and the new section is due to open sometime this year.

En-route, the line passes the former Tacoma Union Station originally built by the Northern Pacific RR and nowadays in use as a Courthouse. It was built in 1909.....

 

 

The platforms are long gone - must probably under the elevated highway - Amtrak at that stage using a more recently constructed station to the east of the City Centre, but the main line tracks were obviously still there, so I decided to hang around on an adjacent footbridge as a Portland bound Amtrak was due about that time. Whilst waiting, a Seattle bound train appeared, running around 30 mins late........

 

 

 

...and I continued to wait for the southbound train for a further 40 minutes before giving up and heading off to the nearby premises of Harmon Brewing for something to eat. It was only $3 a pint for their beer as well....

 

Suitably refreshed, I then took a stroll down as far as the Amtrak station and the adjacent freight yard, where this pair were engaged in some switching.....

 

 

What was readilly apparent was that the Amtrak train I had been waiting for was still sitting in the station platform (it should have left at something like 14.30) , so I took a wander down to find out what was going on. What I found there was a complete shambles and made me glad that I'd arranged a hire car to get to Portland!

With the following day being Memorial Day, the train was packed, but it wasn't going anywhere.  The northbound run I saw running late must have been the last service to run as somewhere along the route there had been (yet another) landslip and the route had been closed to traffic. Nobody seemed to know what was going on, including the Amtrak staff, and there were a lot of rather brassed off passengers milling around or soaking up the sun on the platforms.....

 

 

At that stage, the Port Defiance bypass line for use by Amtrak/Sounder was still under construction, so there was no alternative to the coast route. The new station and platform at the Tacoma Dome station, which would replace the Amtrak facillity was still under construction.....

 

 

Sounder trains were using the old building and far end of the platform for their services.

I left the Amtrak station at around 17.00 and headed off the short distance to visit Wingman Brewing, adjacent to the Tacoma Dome rail/bus station.  About 45 mins after I arrived, various rather lost looking Amtrak passengers started to appear in the place in search of something to eat.  Apparently they had been advised by Amtrak that the train was now cancelled and, at some point, would be returning to Seattle for anyone who wanted to travel on it back to there.  Other than that, no alternative transportation was being provided, so everybody was on their own to make alternative transport arrangements - Customer Care at its worst!

Having read about other instances of trains being cancelled since then, that seems to be common Amtrak policy....

 

At least I had a straightforward journey back to my hotel, catching a bus as far as SeaTac Airport and then the light rail back to Angle Lake.  Some of the stranded Amtrak pasengers ended up on the bus to the Airport as they tried to arrange flights from there on to Portland.........

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day was Memorial Day and I started off by paying another visit to the Amtrak facilities in Holgate Street where it was a lot easier to take photos due to it being cloudy........

 

 

The first of the new Charger locos (#1400 & #1403) for the Cascades service had recently been delivered there as well - literally in the previous few days..........

 

 

As the streets were a bit quieter, I headed off Downtown to get some photos of the Alweg Monorail that is still in use there......

 

 

It was built in 1962 for the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle and is just under a mile in length and is double track - with a train on each line. I rode on it back in 2002 so didn't bother this time, but I believe that only one train is in use each day.  It's more of a tourist attraction than any sensible Public Transport facility nowadays though.

 

Having been to the Museum of Flight Restoration Centre on the Saturday, I then headed off on a bus to the main Museum which is adjacent to King County International Airport (also another Boeing facillity) to the south of the City, arriving there at 10.00 when they were due to open. I don't quite know what was going on, but there was quite a large queue to get in when I got there, and one of the Staff collared me when I arrived and asked me where I was from.  When I said "England", I was directed straight to the pay booth to get in rather than being made to join the queue!

The Museum is a superb collection of exhibits and I spent the best part of the next 4 hours looking around the site, including a new section that had opened over the road since my previous visit there in 2002......

 

 

 

 

 

It was then back into Seattle to go and have a look at the South Lake Union Streetcar line - the second of the two street tramway lines that are in operation in Seattle - and which opened in 2007. Both lines use "Trio" trams from Inekon in the Czech Republic, though some of them were actually assembled in Washington State.  There is currently no link between the two routes, though a connecting line was planned in recent years which has currently been shelved.

The South Lake Union line is only 1.3 miles in length, though it is fully wired - unlike the First Hill Streetcar line that only has overhead for the uphill line. The First Hill line is 2.5 miles in length and opened in 2016.

 

 

 

As for San Francisco, the use of pantographs on the trams leads to some clear separation of the tram and trolleybus lines where the two modes meet, with extra isolated sections where they cross....

 

 

From there I made my way over to the First Hill Streetcar line again and used that to reach the premises of Elysian Brewing on East Pike Street - a somewhat "interesting" venue in a particularly "Bohemian" part of the City. The beer (& food) was good, but not the sort of place I would want to go to after dark, even if the beer was only $3 a pint!

[Johann Marsbar]

Most of the next day was to be spent on Bainbridge Island but I set off early and paid another visit to the Amtrak depot on the way.

Firstly I stopped off along the only section of the Link light rail line that runs at street level - on central reservation - which runs along Martin Luther King Jr Way, where a 2-car set is seen at Rainier Beach station.....

 

 

It was a fairly gloomy morning - so much so that they had the heating full on (at the end of May..) on the Link LRV's !

A short hop to Othello station saw me change onto trolleybus route 38 for the run into the City, before catching the Link back out to SODO and walking down to the tracks.

 

As it was a normal Mon-Fri timetable in operation again, the Sounder passenger trains were running and this Tacoma seervice passed whilst I was there......

 

 

Between there and the Link station there were a number of industries which were still rail served and I got my first sighting of the "local" that was switching cars in the area that morning.....

 

 

The more interesting aspect of the operation was the use of a caboose/shoving platform, which appeared to be used by one particular RR emloyee !    

It was painted in full Great Northern livery, with the words "Stu's Caboose" painted on the side of it.......

 

 

Unfortunately that was the nearest I could get to it on the couple of times I saw it in use, but it would make an interesting modelling subject.

 

After catching the Link back Downtown, I walked to the Ferry Terminal and discovered that I was actually able to catch the ferry before the one I was aiming for, as it was running late - seemingly a common problem after Sundays events.

The Seattle skyline from the ferry.....

 

 

...and a selection of ferries moored up at the Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal......

 

 

A rather efficient bus network, operated by Kitsap Transit, covers the Island, though my initial destination was the town of Poulsbo, which is a bit different to the usual US small town.....

 

 

 

 

Founded by Norwegians in the 1880's, it has a distinct Scandinavian flavour and the Norwegian flags flying outnumber the US ones!

[Johann Marsbar]

Poulsbo is the home to two breweries - hence my visit to the place - though one of them has been true to form and closed since I was there, though it's apparently now reopened under a different name.

Sound Brewing was the one that shut a couple of years after I was there and was a longish walk from the centre of town, being located the opposite side of the lake. Whilst there, I had a long chat with the owner and his wife, the latter originally coming from Bolton - rather a long way from Washington State!  It's now reopened under the name of Echoes Brewing.

Valholl Brewing was in keeping with the Nordic theme of the area and was located downtown, though Google Maps had managed to put it in the wrong location, though I did find the place reasonably quickly after trying to find it.

I then caught a bus back out to the Viking Transportation Centre and took a selection of buses from there, south across the Island, to get to Bremerton, from where I would be catching a ferry back to Seattle.  The bus routes were all aranged to terminate and interconnect at various "Transportation Centres" which made for a slightly tedious journey, as each bus ride was only about 20-25 mins in length and it took 3 bus rides to cover the distance between Poulsbo and Bremerton. At least the interconnecting buses meant you just got off one and straight on the other, so there wasn't much hanging around.

East Bremerton TC - basically an area of tarmac with some bus shelters - is seen below......

 

 

On arrival in Bremerton I first sought out the premises of Der Blokken Brewing and then walked into the Town centre to visit Lovecraft Brewing.  En route, I got a good broadside view of the preserved USS Turner Joy, dating from 1959......

 

 

Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, a facility somewhat reduced in size nowadays, though a couple of mothballed aircraft carriers were visible from the ferry as I made my way back to Seattle.

En route we passed the ferry MV Hyak, built in 1966 and retired in 2019..........

 

 

On the Wednesday morning I headed off for the usual level crossing by the Amtrak depot to see what had changed from the previous day and to see if anything else interesting passed by.

The morning Sounder trains were in action.....

 

 

...but today there was some other activity on the BNSF front, including this set of 3 locos passing by heading northwards, one of which was in re-lettered Warbonnet colours....

 

 

 

....followed by a northbound freight creating a bit of exhaust clag.......

 

 

Over on the depot, something odd looking had appeared which I hadn't come across before......

 

 

 

This was one of the driving trailer cars used on the latest batch of Cascades Talgo sets and I'd actually see one in use later that morning.....

[Johann Marsbar]

After looking at the Amtrak depot, I walked back to SODO station and caught an express bus service from the adjacent Busway stop out to Tacoma, as I wanted to take a ride on the Sounder rail service back into Seattle from there.

I had just under 2 hours in Tacoma before the train departed so was able to spend some time in the vicinity of the BNSF main line, which had reopened by this time after the landslip  the previous Sunday. As an aside, there was a further landslip a few days later which shut the line for a much longer period.

This pair were switching the yard adjacent to the Amtrak station, with a selection of stabled BNSF power being visible in the background.....

 

 

I then headed for the footbridge over the line by the former Union Station where I was rewarded by the passage of three freights within the space of 15 minutes....

 

 

 

 

I would actually manage to overtake the tank train and photograph it again in Seattle!

 

One of the vehicles used on the long distance Sound Transit bus services, a 2005 built MCI, is seen in Tacoma.......

 

 

Local bus services in the area are run by Pierce Transit, #239 being an NFI C40LFR gas powered vehicle.....

 

 

Being a weekday, two cars were in use on the Tacoma Link streetcar line rather than the single car that was out on Sunday......

 

 

The streetcar line is operated by Sound Transit as part of the Regional network rather than by the local Pierce Transit system.

 

I got back to Tacoma Dome station in plenty of time to catch my train, though there wasn't anything to confirm that there service was even running - no posted timetables and blank TV display screens, though eventually some other passengers appeared, as did the train, so I took the 55 min run (actually slower than the bus, though the train takes a longer route) to King St station in Seattle.

I did have a lurk around the station for a while as a nice view of the tracks is available from the adjacent roadway. The tank train seen in Tacoma put in an appearance as my train was heading ECS to the depot......

 

 

The huge movable cover structure of "The Dome" sports arena can be clearly seen in the above photo.

 

Amtrak seemed to be having some problems that day as a BNSF loco had been attached to the front of a Portland bound service and it departed shortly after I arrived, the set having one of the new driving trailer cars on the rear......

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

I walked from King Street to the Seattle Fire Department HQ on Second Avenue where a museum display operated by an outfit calling itself the "Last Resort Fire Department" is open on one day a week. It was obviously open on Wednesdays in 2017 but now appears to be open on Thursdays instead.  Some of the appliances are still owned by the City and others belong to the Group, and it appears that the equipment on display is regularly rotated as they have more fire engines than they can display in the space available.

 

This one is a 1937 Seagrave 100 ft tillered aerial ladder (Group owned)......

 

 

SFD owned 1907 American LaFrance Steamer with a 1916 Seagrave tractor - a common way in the US of motorising horse drawn equipment........

 

 

I believe these two are still owned by the City, judging by the registration plates, with a 1950 Kenworth on the left and a 1958 Mack on the right.....

 

 

I then headed off via Link LRT and the route 44 trolleybus to Ballard to have a look at the locks on the Lake Washington ship canal and the adjacent Museum........

 

 

The lift bridge is the Salmon Bay bridge on the main line north out of Seattle which heads up to Everett and (eventually) Vancouver, BC. Unfortunately there weren't any trains about whilst I was there, so after a while, I heade off on the trolleybus again to visit the premises of Hales Ales, though the ex-UK double deck bus they are supposed to own wasn't present, which was a shame.

From there, I headed back back into Downtown Seattle on the trolleybus, passing a large statue of Vladimir Illych Lenin in Fremont on the way (as you would expect to do.....).

I got out at South Lake Union, which is where the last photo posted here of the Seattle portion of the trip is taken........

 

 

The next day dawned fairly miserable and I left early for Sea-Tac Airport to pick up my hire car for the Portland segment of the trip. Traffic in the area was fairly abysmal and I was severely delayed getting out of Seattle, but eventually headed off across country, mainly because I had decided to take a rather scenic inland route to Portland which involved passing close to Mt Rainier and using some mountain highways.  Needless to say, after heading well inland, it wasn't until I had wasted a lot of time that I found a nice sign at the side of the road informing me that the relevant roadways were all closed, so I had to cut back to the direct Interstate route from Tacoma to Portland after all......

A few trains were seen on the way, but when I stopped at a couple of locations and waited for something to turn up, nothing did!   At least I had more luck with that on the return journey.

 

I eventually arrived at the Super 8 Motel I had chosen to stay in whilst in the Portland area, some way out of the City (at Rockwood), but very close to one of the MAX Light Rail stations on the eastbound trunk line to Gresham, as the car would only be used on a couple of the days I was there.  Not the best Super 8 i've stayed in, but once I discoved what the Downtown part of the City was like in parts (worse than Seattle), staying in the suburbs was the better alternative, plus it avoided the very heavy traffic on the few times I used the car.

 

After eventually checking in, I walked over to the LRT stop and bought my $5 Day Pass from the machine, before photographing an Inbound pair of Siemens S70 cars, dating from 2009, on the lengthy crosstown route to Hillsboro'.......

 

 

I caught the next service into the City and this was well and truly swamped by a large number of Police and Tri-Met Inspectors at one of the stations en-route.  The previous week, a couple of passengers on this line had been fatally stabbed on one of the trains, so they were obviously making the Security presence felt on the system.

 

The Portland light rail was one of the early established "second generation" systems and at that time they were still using the Bombardier built cars dating from the opening of the first route in 1986........

 

 

The first route opened was the one out to Gresham, which was the line my Motel was on, and it was interesting to see that all of the rails were marked as "British Steel, Workington" so they must date from when the line was built and therefore have lasted well !

 

The most modern cars at that time were these Siemens S700's which dated from 2015 and are seen adjacent to Portland Union Station.........