SeattleRailFan's video: Empty oil train leaving Anacortes WA 9-18-2013

After the railfanning gods kinda screwed me over last time, they decided to give me little gift this time. I had a delivery to make in Anacortes, WA, a city about 80 miles north of Seattle. It's home to a couple of refineries that receive 5-6 trains of oil from North Dakota per week. As I left town I glanced over at the refineries on March Point and saw that a train was just leaving the Tesoro Refinery. Excellent! I knew I could beat it to the Swinomish Channel Bridge. I arrived at the bridge just as it was swinging into the closed position. In addition to the train, I got great footage of the bridge tender dropping the derail, then raising it after the train passes. Afterward, I decided to chase the train down Hwy 20. I knew I could catch it as they were going 25mph or so, while I could go 60mph. So the video finishes with some shaky, handheld video shot while driving with one hand. The lead loco, BNSF 9100, must have an interesting story to tell. Photos of it online taken in March show a pristine paint job. I think the loco was built earlier this year. By July, photos show it absolutely filthy. It looks like 100 tons of dirt were dropped on it. I don't think I've seen such a dirty engine. Time for a wash! 9100 / 5941 / 6390 SD70ACe / ES44AC / ES44AC