Part 29 - Day two highlights from SoundRails 2022 - 17 people in 7 hours run BN, UP & MILW trains

Burr Stewart narrates this video recap of an all-day model railroad operating session, conducted on March 26, 2022, the second day of a bi-annual operations weekend in Seattle called "SoundRails". At this particular session, there were 14 visiting operators from around the US and three hosts, for a total of 17 people running trains all day in this 24' x 30' basement model train layout. The action starts out with a BN rock train getting out of the way of a MILW coast route train, proceeds to cover several north and south BN through freights, several passenger trains, numerous switching operations, two single saw-by manoeuvers in Everett's Bayside yard, the "Jet Job" which served the Boeing 747 plant in Everett, and finally a BN unit train heads off into the sunset. Burr narrates the action with comments about the history of the BN railroad as well as some of the fun and challenges of model railroad operations and maintenance.
The HO scale model railroad underneath these train operations is Burr Stewart's "Burrlington Northern" model railroad layout, featured in many other videos on this KZbin channel @Burr Stewart , as well as his blog burrlingtonnor.... The train layout is set in the Seattle region in 1973, three years after the 1970 corporate merger that created the Burlington Northern (BN) Railroad out of the Great Northern (GN), Northern Pacific (NP), Burlington Route (CB&Q) and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle (SP&S) railroads. Playing smaller roles on the layout are the three-foot narrow gage (HOn3) D&RGW "west coast extension", the Milwaukee Road (MILW)'s western extension and the Union Pacific (UP). He took the video with an iPhone X and an AKASO action cam, and edited it in iMovie and Photoshop on a MacBook Pro.

[@mvg2x34]

Very thoughtful, interesting and, complex ops. session. Thank you for sharing.

[@muchfunwithtrains]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@slorznovitch]

Very cool! Give me a local or switch job any day. Great operations and great commentary.

[@muchfunwithtrains]

I agree! Glad you liked it!

[@terryperrott8567]

Another great video, I love how well the scenery was done. The thing that catches my eyes in every single operation that makes it look so real is the speed the locomotives are operated at. I grew up west of Olympia ,WA where the capital is.The great Pacific North West.

[@muchfunwithtrains]

Thanks Terry. I totally agree with you that the slower speed makes it seem bigger and more realistic. I have all my locos set to a maximum speed of 30 scale miles per hour - an idea I got from the great Joe Green up in Sequim.

[@nicholaschard7143]

Thank you for the great video. All the different paint schemes bring back a lot of memories. Due to the 1970 merger this was my favorite time to railfan from 1970 to 1975 it was a rainbow of colors. Loved seeing CB&Q's E-units in BN and early Amtrak passenger service and high speed freight service.

[@muchfunwithtrains]

Glad you enjoyed it. I'm just starting to understand that the early BN used those Q E-units out here a fair amount in the early Amtrak days, so that may have to be an addition to the roster. I think the GN E-units stayed back east with the Chicago commuter runs, from what I've seen in various books. If anyone knows differently, leave additional comments.

[@gregalanharper]

At 18:30… I also never knew about that 4 verses 6 axle locomotive situation for trains crossing the Canadian border. 👍

[@muchfunwithtrains]

Ray told me about that one, too. At some point it stopped, but it was definitely a thing in our era.

[@IMRROcom]

Funn way to spend the last half hour, thanks for posting

[@muchfunwithtrains]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@BN1510]

Great video! All that green paint is fun to see! Any ideas on what the specific modifications were to the BN 1799 for its employment on the Jet Job?

[@muchfunwithtrains]

It had to do with brakes and with the oil sump, to keep lube oil flowing on that 5.7% grade. I don't know anything more specific than that. There were three locos with the modifications - 1797, 1798 and 1799. They kept them close to Everett to make sure that they could provide the service reliably.

[@BN1510]

@@muchfunwithtrains Interesting. I'd have thought maybe something to do with updated anti-slip software or sanding.

[@gregalanharper]

Burr, I always really enjoy your commentary of the prototype operations in the Puget Sound area. I’m obsessed with most of the same operations that you are - I’m circa 1971. I found it fascinating listening you discuss the copper ore operations that went down to ASARCO at 11:40. I’ve found nothing about the rail operations of this industry. Whilst I guess for modeling purposes any ore type cars could be used, do you know exactly what type of cars were used? Unless I can be shown otherwise, I’ll be using the ubiquitous Atlas 70 ton ore cars. Thanks.

[@muchfunwithtrains]

I heard about the Asarko loads from Ray Wheeler, who used to be a brakeman for GN/BN during that era. He said that strings of up to 13 ore jenny's would come south from British Columbia with copper ore for Asarco. So that's what I do. He said they were usually GN cars surplus from the Iron Range. As you say, it's not easy to find out much about the details of shippers, commodities and operations from that era. Talking to ex-railroad employees helps if you can find them and if they can remember the specifics. The only reason I don't model 1971 is I like to see more SD40-2's and a few Railbox cars in the fleet. So I call it 1973...

[@DarkTerritory71]

Not being critical, but it still blows me away, all the mask. (I get it) this is an awesome overview of the working of your model rr! Love the older power on this route. The inset switch, built in the endention of the wall, adds to the realism. Love those small details

[@muchfunwithtrains]

Glad you enjoyed it! We'll continue to feature the older power every chance we get. It's a long term project to keep renumbering and relettering the pre 1970's locos to the "new" BN numbering scheme.

[@Ken-Kaef]

Thanks for posting. You have given us a great over view of this operating session. I gave the video a thumbs up.

[@muchfunwithtrains]

Glad you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for part three in a few days...

[@gregalanharper]

At 19:50… would the ASARCO plant justify a unit train of ore or would ore cars be added to mixed manifest freights. Any ideas…?

[@muchfunwithtrains]

Ray said they just stuck the ore cars in regular mixed freights, so that's what I do. Also, he said they used to ship radioactive ore/dirt of some kind in ore jennies covered with black plastic from the Port of Seattle to Hanford for processing. I plan to model that someday too...

[@gregalanharper]

@@muchfunwithtrains Now THAT’S an interesting topic. Where the heck would radioactive soil come from?? 😳