Twenty two years ago this was Seattle's skyline as viewed by Empire Builder passengers exiting the tunnel under the city at North Portal. A Marriott Hotel now occupies the vacant lot next to the train, numerous skyscrapers have changed the skyline, and the viaduct above the train is in the slow process of being replaced by a tunnel. The Empire Builder still plies this trackage each afternoon in between Sounder commuter trains, normally with P42s and a seven car consist. F40Phs are hard to find in the PNW, mostly as cab cars on Cascadian service trains.
This train, which runs between Chicago and Seattle and Portland, takes its name from James J. Hill, who founded the Great Northern Railroad and extended it from Minnesota to the Pacific Coast.
With two sections of the Empire Builder, the Coast Starlight, Seattle, the Cascade Mountains, Columbia Valley and Puget Sound, Washington state offers rail buffs plenty of variety and beauty.
Not
just heritage schemes, not just commemorative schemes - this album is devoted to some of the world's most interesting paint schemes, past or present.
