SeattleRailFan's video: Crew 2 southbound in Kent WA 1-7-2015

I stopped by Kent Station in Kent, WA (about 20 miles south of Seattle) to see if anything was going on. On my scanner I heard Crew 2 talking with Centralia North Dispatch. They were looking for permission to leave the Industrial Lead and head south to Tacoma. That means they were due to come right by my location. Excellent! The Industrial Lead is a long siding that parallels the mainlines. Glacier Park Yard and several industrial spurs connect to this track. As a bit of trivia, they noted their length as 9100 feet and 5200 trailing tons. Trailing tons is the weight of the train excluding the locos. I went out on the platform and a few minutes later was rewarded by the sight of the train slowly coming down the Industrial Lead. The lead loco was BNSF 1441, an old SD60M still in Cascade Green. The train didn't accelerate to full track speed as she passed me. I assume that is because the Lead track has a lower speed limit. The engineer had to wait for the end of the train to clear the Lead before getting up to full mainline speed. Crew 2 is a local job that works industries between Seattle and Tacoma. From what I've seen, they move autoracks that are setout up in Seattle down to the Orillia Auto Facility north of here, service the few industries in the Kent area and also transfer cars down to Auburn Yard and Tacoma Yard. 1441 / 2695 SD60M / GP39-3