DEAR MOM AND DAD, PLEASE SEND TRAINS NRHS RailCamp BY GRANT LILLY/PHOTOS BY BOB HARBISON I
WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO be one of the twelve senior high school students to attend the inaugural NRHS Rail-
Camp Northwest session in the Seat- tle-Tacoma, Wash., area. This was tru- ly one of the best weeks I’ve ever had. The entire week was filled with a vari- ety of experiences that I would not have had the opportunity to enjoy without my enrollment and participation. Our first event was an interesting and detailed presentation about the history of Tacoma and how intertwined the railroad was with the development of the city. But the real fun started on Monday. Waking up bright and early, we were treated to a ride on The Sounder, Sound Transit’s commuter train to Seattle. We then rode the train into the Amtrak shops in Seattle and were given a detailed tour, including a walk through a locomotive and a tour of
44 MARCH 2014 •
RAILFAN.COM
the newly-built engine shops. We then rode one of Amtrak’s Cas-
cades Talgo trains back to Tacoma. The Talgo is a Spanish-designed and built train that utilizes advanced tilting technology to reduce the need to slow down on turns and in the U.S. it is unique to the Northwest.
Upon arrival, we walked first to the Tacoma Link, the Tacoma light-rail system (see the July 2011 issue of RAIL- FAN & RAILROAD), where we received a tour of both the power control center and the trains themselves. We then walked to the office
of the Tacoma
Chapter NRHS, where we were given the chance to look over an old map of Tacoma to learn how the railroad im- pacted the growth of the city. Later that evening, we went to a model train museum that represented of the city of Tacoma in the 1950s.
After the busy schedule of Monday, I
was not sure that anything could com- pare. I would quickly learn as the week progressed, however, that it was unfair to compare any two days because each one offered such a different experience. On Tuesday we departed from our
dorms at Pacific Lutheran University for Tacoma Rail, the company that deals with an immense number of con- tainers coming in and out of the coun- try via the Port of Tacoma. While we were there, we were provided with many hands-on experiences, starting with a cab ride with their most experi- enced engineer and conductor crew. The crew switched the cars around the yard, setting up trains that departed later in the day.
After returning from the yard, we
went up in the tower to learn more about the “office side” of railroad oper-
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66