GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY--Historical Video---Part 3 of 4

[@robertmoir5695]

Taking a trip back in time AN Era long ended

[@polar19511948]

My father and I hung out a lot around Sky and followed westbounds down through Monroe in the 1950-60 era. Great video - thank you so much for bringing my childhood back alive!

[@bertxblitzkrieg]

Hearing the voice of Ed Khatain is a pretty amazing thing. He was featured in an article in the GN Goat magazine several months ago. He was a great dispatcher and a great man, someone who is worthy of being a great role model. Thanks for including his voice in this video.

[@lagunsmoose]

Edmonds, my hometown! Dad took us kids to Wenatchee and back from here in late '71, conductor gave us kids old Big Sky Blue GN pins leftover! He got us some apples when we got to Wenatchee too! Thanks for the memories!

[@ScenicDepot]

I first met Ed when I was 12 when we paid a visit to the DS office in Seattle, and a couple times after that. You can gauge a man by how he treats an inferior, and he was always very nice to me.

[@TheStrodude]

I've always wanted to travel across the US on rail so decided to check into some Amtrack tickets last fall. From Shelby, MT to Toledo, OH roundtrip was going to be in excess of $600 for just a seat. No food or bed with that. I was deeply disappointed. These videos are great! I'm sad there is only one more left for me to watch... Thanks for sharing.

[@ScenicDepot]

It was a joy to make. The personal memories are priceless to me.

[@robertmoir5695]

Thank you Scenic Depot I really enjoy videos like these An eral long gone now preserved

[@Bonserak23]

Did this same route from Snatch on the freight train, was pretty nice, was trying to get off in Gold Bar but it just kept blasting all the way to south Seattle.

[@scudrunner79]

Amazing. The music and cuts of old radio talk was perfect.

[@kurtarmbruster]

Love these scenes, and the fascinating 'spatcher talk--priceless! Many thanks.

[@RogerWKnight]

At 0:31 we see the 2nd Avenue extension bridge and the Seattle Lighting sign. That business is still there. Then at 0:38 we go under the South Main Street Bridge to the 1904 Tunnel. Prefontaine Building above. That building is still there.

[@phmoffett]

Great vid! - Your integration of historic video and train radio and dispatcher's phone is incredible...sound lost and found! This represents alot of hard work and preservation over decades. Congratulations - well done. Sadly, an era gone by with few to remember. I'm glad you posted these vids as a reminder for future generations.

[@ScenicDepot]

@phmoffett And to repeat a much earlier comment: most of the communications heard here are not radio chatter, but are from the Dispatcher Phone circuit; i.e., landline. The only radio you will hear are a few instances between dispatchers and engineers, as well as the opening on part 3. Otherwise, it was either a station operator on the phone in a depot, or else a RR employee in a booth by the track.

[@LearnwithJanice]

Hello from Kansas🇺🇸

[@ScenicDepot]

Well, yes and no. As I understand it, all the railroads were losing money in the 1960's on their passenger service. It was dying on its own, but only because the masses in the USA were choosing to drive or fly. It's still the best way to travel by far, but unless enough people choose to travel that way it still isn't profitable anymore, but it SHOULD BE!

[@SGTDUPREY]

In the first couple I wonder if that car in front of yours was the SP&S lounge car SP&S Mount Hood or Mt. St. Helens.

[@tomgarrett6975]

No, all engines and cars were ex-GN that day.

[@SGTDUPREY]

Ok, just figured I'd ask because the SP&S cars have that same piece atop their roof's.

[@BodoGMeier]

Exciting video! Thanks for uploading! Are these 7 "poles" we can see on the car in front of the dome car an antenna for the train radio? Regards from Germany.

[@ScenicDepot]

Funny, I had never thought much about those, and had to consult with a few experts just now and also looked it up. It is indeed a horizontal antenna for picking up AM radio stations, which they used to play for passengers prior to the 1960s. By this time it was just a rooftop relic. Glad you enjoyed the little show. Unfortunately, there was no such thing as home HD video in those days. Home movies were 8mm film and expensive.

[@BodoGMeier]

Thank you for your answer. My guess was an antenna for longer waves than VHF, i.e. AM longwave or medium wave, however not for ordinary "entertainment radio" reception. So do I understand correctly that the railroad's own radiocommunication "train-land" already in the 1960s operated with VHF, even in such a mountainous region? Asks an ex submarine spark. Another question: another video tells about "Scenic West" and "Scenic East". Does "Scenic West refers to the western beginning of the double track section and "Scenic East" to its end ahead of the tunnel?

[@ScenicDepot]

@@BodoGMeier VHF operation on railroads became established after WWII. The primary frequency for the Great Northern was always 161.1 MHz. In 1970 when the merger happened which resulted in the Burlington Northern, the frequency allocations were retained and remain the same to this day. In GN days, the region through Stevens Pass was known as the Cascade Division. After the first merger of the BN it became known as the Pacific Division. With the BNSF merger the name was changed again to the Scenic Subdivision. So on the other video you refer to, it likely refers to the parts of the subdivision east or west of Scenic. On the dispatcher radio circuit that section is known as "Seattle East." VHF operation in the mountain territory there is done via repeaters.

[@BodoGMeier]

@@ScenicDepot Thanks again to you for sharing your knowledge. Watching your and other videos, one in fact can observe poles with a short antenna on its top in different places. This must be the VHF repeaters. There is a plate beside the tracks which reads "East Scenic": kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5mVaGZ3dqqJndk As I understand from the scenery with the U.S. Hwy 2 bridge, this must be your place.

[@ScenicDepot]

@@BodoGMeier The sign that says "East Scenic" is at the east switch (where the siding joins the mainline) which is 1000 feet west of the tunnel. Another 700 feet west of the sign is where the depot used to be. They are using a long lens there so it gives a different perspective. A few miles northeast of there is where the worst railway avalanche in U.S. history happened in March 1910 where a passenger train and a mail train were trapped for a week, and in the avalanche 96 people perished. The excessive accumulation of winter snow at higher elevations and the cost of maintaining extensive and expensive snowsheds forced the Great Northern to build the 7.79 mile Cascade Tunnel which was completed in 1929. It was constructed from both ends, and when they met in the center, the line was only off by a few inches. It was an amazing engineering feat even by the standards of today, being completed in slightly over three years.

[@xanadujohn79]

Did any Sky Blue livery ever make into a complete consist???

[@ScenicDepot]

Yes, there were some solid blue ones. You can find old calendar photos with those.

[@MaxZomboni]

xanadujohn79 Before my family moved away from North Dakota in the early 1970s, my dad always had one of those big Great Northern wall calendars on his office wall, with the pictures of the shiny sky blue trains. But in the summer most every evening my dad would take us kids to the Dairy Queen to buy some ice cream. Then we would drive to the train station and park to eat it and watch the Western Star and the Empire Builder pass through. From my memory the trains never looked like the pictures on the calendar. They were always a mixture of orange, blue and green cars. I didn't even know they were supposed to all be a certain color. I always wondered why the calendar pictures only showed sky blue cars. LOL.

[@nratchr]

I remember, "EK".