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A Canada bound coal train rolling past Sunset Ave.
I took this photo using the camera's HDR feature. That is normally a no-no with a subject in motion, but I thought the "ghost" images would not be noticeable due to the lighting and all of the lookalike coal hoppers.
Southbound (tt/west) with two older diesels up front and two Boeing bunker cars in the rear rolling past the marsh. Question for the locals: is this the Renton Rocket?
Hirail excavators have been around for a handful of years, now. They are really taking off with multiple manufacturers offering them. One of which is Advanced Rail Concepts from right in our backyard.
Regular viewers of this thread know that I am always on the lookout for interesting diesel numbers. Thursday afternoon (11-29-18) a northbound (tt/east) container freight passed the marsh with 9494 as the trailing unit of the head end trio.
Rear DPUs of the same train. I am still searching for the my white whale, the elusive 9999.
The sun is setting its earliest (4:16pm PST)and southernmost from now through the winter solstice on 12-21-18. Thursday (12-6-18) )my son Daren and I went down to Marina Beach Park to take sunset shots for the calendars I give every year as Christmas gifts to family and friends. While I was taking sunset shots, Daren took photos of the 4:30 Everett bound Sounder rounding Pt. Edwards and rolling past the off leash dog park.
Back tracking (pardon the pun) a bit, these shots of a northbound (tt/east) light power hop were taken Tuesday (12-4-18) with the 7DII + 500L telephoto + 2x III teleconverter. I was photographing wildlife at the fishing pier but could not pass up shots of older power.
We are in our seasonal Dark Ages where we can go weeks without seeing the sun. I went down to Sunset Ave. Tuesday afternoon (12-11-18) just to keep from going stir crazy. A Canada bound coal train passed by, which I photographed just for the Omaha Posse. It was much darker, gloomier, and doomier than these photos would lead you to believe.
Another day of perpetual twilight with our last sunshine occurring over a week ago. Friday (12-14-18) I made it down to the marsh about 15 minutes before sunset and caught a southbound (tt/west) garbage train passing through town.
Tuesday afternoon (12-18-18) I took the opportunity to run down to the marsh during a brief sunbreak, a term I had never heard until I moved to the Seattle area back in 1991.
A southbound (tt/west) empty oil tanker, which I had earlier seen stopped at MP 18, rolled by.
The annual winter closure of the tidal gate and several days of rain has transformed the marsh into "Lake Edmonds." Several great blue herons were resting on the "islands."
Thursday afternoon (12-20-18) a southbound (tt/west) garbage train sat at Sunset Ave with a second southbound behind it. I suspect it was red-boarded there due to M0W work being done south of Edmonds. I felt compelled to take the photo as it was the first sunny afternoon we have had in about two weeks.
Friday is the winter solstice. The days will start getting longer, although not necessarily sunnier.
Sunday afternoon (12-30-18 ) my son and I went down to Marina Beach Park to look for dunlin, a migratory shorebird that often stop along the Edmonds waterfront during their fall/winter migration. Using the 1Dx + 100-400L II telephoto zoom, my son photographed a southbound (tt/west) freight that rolled by shortly after our arrival.
The train is entering the big curve just south of MP 17 by the off leash dog beach. We were standing on a pedestrian bridge over the marina, which elevated us above parking lots and fences.
A few minutes later one of our local eagles flew by and landed in the tree on the bluff that is above the second diesel in the first photo. I took this shot with the 5DIII + 500L telephoto + 2x III teleconverter.
Not many photo ops this month due to bad weather. Late Monday afternoon (1-14-19) my son photographed a Geep powered local or transfer run headed south (tt/west) past the marsh.
Of particular note was the trailing unit, NS 5553. Initially I could not find it in The Diesel Shop's Norfolk Southern roster, which was last updated on 1-15-2019. I searched another roster which stated that the unit was a GP38-2, one of a series that had been returned to the lessor, FURX.
Readers who live in this area might keep an eye out for it.
My son is getting very good at taking photos. I told him to be sure to get the entire train in the photo so everyone could see how short it was.
Tuesday afternoon (1-15-19) a southbound (tt/west) passed by as we ate lunch in the parking lot just south of the boat yard that is visible in the background of my photos taken from the marsh on the other (east) side of the tracks.
The trailing unit, BNSF 1008, was in the Heritage I paint scheme.
One of the Pt. Edwards bald eagles was perched in its usual spot on the tree at the top of Pine St. Recent construction of new condos below the tree has not stopped the pair from perching there as they have for many years.
I like the old H1 paint scheme, the original scheme of the newly created BNSF back in the late 90's. I read somewhere that the dark green is Pine Green of the old Northern Pacific Leowy passenger paint scheme and the orange is Omaha Orange of the original Great Northern diesel and passenger paint scheme.
We finally got a stretch of sunny days, so Monday (1-28-19) around noon I drove down to Sunset Ave. The morning Vancouver, BC-Seattle Cascades was running about three hours late and got red-boarded at MP 18 for a Canada bound coal train.
Divers from the underwater dive park off Brackett's Landing North.
Rear DPU. In the background work is being done to the dock of the Edmonds-Kingston ferry.
After the coal train cleared, the Cascades pulled out for its stop at the Edmonds station, a very short distance south just past the Main St. crossing.
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