A week of trains, the Tacoma NRHS convention, 2011...

[p51]

The National Railway Historical Society's national covention is in Tacoma this year, last month. I started out by chasing one steam trip and rode the following day behind 1941 Lima locomotive, former Southern Pacific 4449. I scored a seat in the observation car from Vancouver, WA to Tacoma, which was an amazing ride! Enjoy the photos!
This guy is a professional train videographer. No, I'm not kidding!

Train to Ruth, WA along the Chehalis River:

4449 crossing the Columbia River before boarding:

View from the dome at about 60 MPH

After arriving in Tacoma:

My digs for the trip:

From the rain-soaked trip to the Mt Rainier Scenic. I'm glad I didn't pay to ride this one as it must have been a miserable ride with the weather as it was. The run was going so slow, I was able to outrun the train on foot for a different camera position on a birdge!
Along the farms en route:

My first glimpse of train, pulled by the sole running Willamette geared engine on earth:

At the Rainier shops, one of several engines being overhauled:

To be continued...

 

[p51]

This shows you what the weather was mostly like as well as where it was taken:

I rode a dome car up Stampede Pass behind 4449 two days later:
My digs:

Final installment below!

 

[p51]

I have uploaded two videos of the ferry run of 4449 southbound from the final day. I didn't ride this trip because I'd already ridden 4449 twice by then and I had to deal with something else later that day I didn't wanna miss. My timing was amazing as I got to each location with just enough time to get set up, but due to the speed of the train I could only catch it twice and was darned lucky to catch it more than once at all. I threw my older digital camera onto the tripod while I was taking stills with my newer one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjhyF0hj3E0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8G4M7A6CaA
Got some decent photos at the same time as well.
Tenino:

Chehalis, behind the fairgrounds:

And passing a Cascades train that must have really surprised the passengers:

And with that, the convention rolled into history. After a week of chasing trains, it was quite the letdown to go back to the house and continue with life as normal... Still, I'm sure that afternoon was the best ever for the people who'd put it on, now that it was behind them!

 

[RadioWave]

Great photos, thanks for sharing. It looks like it was a wonderful trip.

 

[Rats Riley]

I remember when I was stationed at Ft. Lewis; my buddies and I would stash beer up in the snow at Mt. Rainier, just so we would have cold beer waiting for us when we went on a road trip!