The ill-fated Continental Phone Company switching station ( the brick building ) in the background on photo No. 4, brings back some memories. G.I. and crew, I believe it was, shoved through that bldg. when setting out at Ferndale grain stub. The key word is stub. I lived on the outskirts of Ferndale at the time. Phone service to that end of Whatcom County was messed up for months.
I may know of a wall at the end of a stub track that met an unfortunate fate that, if Slugger looked at the right place at the right time, he could see the (former) location of that building. I may have played a part in its demise. I may have been at fault. No one was ever charged with anything.
The ill-fated Continental Phone Company switching station ( the brick building ) in the background on photo No. 4, brings back some memories. G.I. and crew, I believe it was, shoved through that bldg. when setting out at Ferndale grain stub. The key word is stub. I lived on the outskirts of Ferndale at the time. Phone service to that end of Whatcom County was messed up for months.
I remember that incident well but I think I was living elsewhere at the time.
Made a bigger mess than just a few cars getting shoved off the tracks as these
cars took out a local phone company. I moved to the Ferndale area in 1980-83
and I can tell you that Continental Phone Company was the worst I ever had
in my travels. It could be those C6's shoved into to their headquarters and
they could never put "Humpty Dumpty" back together again. I dont know.
Found a picture of the Ferndale Grain track that the big disaster was
"lauched from". Well this picture is 30 years old and you can see a car
at the end of the track that looks like it could roll into downtown Ferndale.
-- Edited by The Krink on Sunday 22nd of December 2013 02:06:19 AM
I have another great photo sequence from BN Ferndale in the early 1970's when I was shooting only B&W film with a Nikon F. The "Fern Turn" had a long life since the BN merger runing from Interbay to Ferndale, exchanging trains with the Intalco Local at Ferndale, and running back south to Bham where there always had a pick-up, and then sometimes they had work at Burlington, and then on to Everett where they always had a set-out and most times a pick-up, and then back to Interbay in 12 hours. My favorite thing about the Fern Turn was it wasnt a train going into Canada so it got assigned power at Interbay with units that "dint have a snowplow" or any other criteria for crossing into Canada at the time. Which means my first sightings of SPS Alco FA's, RS-3's, C-424-425's, C-415's, basically the whole running SPS roster made a trip up the Bham Sub at some point in time. So this series of shots from Ferndale 1973 had a lash-up that would be very hard to recreate today.
-- Edited by The Krink on Sunday 22nd of December 2013 03:21:19 AM
The "Fern Turn" still exists today in BNSF times as this business from
Intalco and Cherry Point has been profitable for the BN/BNSF over
40-50 years. Up until this year, BNSF train 627 went on duty at
Bham at 1800 daily with all the accumulated traffic from Cherry Pt
and Intalco brought in by locals. So 627 sets sail with a made-up
train leaving Bham and is into Everett like about 8PM but can be
later as it has to deal with a couple of AMTK trains. 627 always
was a train when landing in Everett that occupied the airwaves
and both yardmasters and the opr/bridgetender. 627 heads into
Delta Yard to setout then heads to Bayside Yard to get his north
bound train which involves me because I control the interlocking
between Delta and Bayside Yards. 627 always had a crew made
up of guys that loved to do everything as fast as possible. 627
gets into Everett and they own the town on the radio. Just like
a passing "thunderstorm" 627 gets his train together and they
want out of "Dodge" with a list of shit they are going to do and
want on their way north. Today after 627 crosses Bridge 37 in
Everett northbound, its call a cab in 90 minutes to meet the
train at South Bellingham where apparently its the BNSF
"Kill Zone" for the train.
__________________
If you are in a horror movie, you make bad decisions, its what you do.
I found the last 2 shots of the BN Meet at Ferndale so now would be a good time to post them. So now the BN 2222 is a runaway train heading into the Ferndale Siding against some LPG tanks at 40mph....not. BN 2222 North was a short train and can fit in the short space in the pic.
Actually there is one more picture in the series that got mixed up in
my Bham pictures that I have now since corrected. So "this"is the last
shot.
-- Edited by The Krink on Monday 23rd of December 2013 02:52:50 AM
-- Edited by The Krink on Tuesday 24th of December 2013 02:10:50 AM
Spent most of Sunday restoring my Bham night shots. What a glorious time to have a job where you could get out and take pictures in the middle of the night. Why not as the depot and freight house had all kinds of "illumination" albiet mostly in the green spectrum and some yellow spectrum lights too. Makes for good night shots...very colorful.
-- Edited by The Krink on Monday 23rd of December 2013 03:36:13 AM
-- Edited by The Krink on Monday 23rd of December 2013 03:47:42 AM
FMB I got a series of B&W shots I took in Everett in 1973..groundlevel at whats now called Broadway of a BN westbound approaching the Everett Tunnel. I had to be naive/stupid to be here taking pictures but I live to tell about. This was a "do it in one take" and never come back.
-- Edited by The Krink on Tuesday 24th of December 2013 02:29:40 AM
-- Edited by The Krink on Tuesday 24th of December 2013 02:36:56 AM
