Visiting Stampede Pass

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

During the week of July 17th through the 20th my wife and I will be visiting the BNSF Stampede Pass division from Auburn, WA to Ellensburg and then to Yakima, WA. I have David Cooley’s excellent Stampede Pass railfan guide and have made over night reservations at Auburn and Cle Elum. My question is where can I get a train schedule for the days of our trip so that I might get pictures of the rails with trains present. I will be using a radio receiver to track the train movements. My HO gauge model layout is loosely based on Stampede pass.

Since I live in Vancouver, WA I have thought of visiting the BNSF offices here, but am not sure if that will benefit. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Capt. Brigg Franklin
Pacific Cascade Ry in HO gauge.

!(http://home.comcast.net/~pacific.cascade.ry/images/PCRy 2012-06-06.jpg)

2

Its unlikely that you will find a schedule anywhere, even if BNSF were to cooperate. Trains run when they are ready.

BNSF appears to be in the process of implementing an “Iron Triangle” plan where most trains over Stampede will be eastbounds (likely largely empty grain and coal). The corresponding westbounds will use the Columbia River line. The tunnel heights do not clear doublestacks on Stampede.

Some fans find ATCS useful in fanning the Stampede line. Portions of the line are covered by servers, so movements in those areas can be “observed” remotely. More info on ATCS is available here:

http://atcswiki.greatlakesnetworking.net/bin/view

There is a thread at this site that regularly discusses Stampede activity:

http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34464&page=125