Nearly 30 years after my first visit to Stampede Pass I returned last weekend to what I consider the first place I ever traveled to explicitly to explore and find trains. On that first adventure in the spring of 1977 and a return trip in 1978 I didn’t see any trains, (bad luck and the Borup wash out bit me) but a trip in 1981 was fruitful and I saw my first train on Stampede. If recollection serves me, it was BN train 174 and was lead by a mish-mash of late 70’s power including an SD45, F45, GP-9 and an F-unit.
Things are certainly looking up for Stampede since the 13 year closure as evidenced by the traffic I observed last weekend. The train pictured below was the first of three trains I photographed between 9:30am and 1:00pm. All totaled the pass saw 6 trains between midnight Saturday morning and midnight Sunday morning. Not bad for a line that was closed to through traffic just over 10 years ago!
An empty grain train exits the ancient snow shed at tunnel 4 on BNSF Stampede Sub led by a new ES44DC and a borrowed NS SD70-2.
A westbound manifest starts around the 180° loop at Borup below tunnel 4.
The traffic pattern is pretty predictable with a westbound M-PASVBT departing Ellensburg around 8am. Later in the day there is usually another westbound manifest that hits the pass around 8pm. Eastbound traffic is all empty grain trains and they are usually timed to arrive in Ellensburg on the rest of a flipping Pasco crew (Pasco crews bring a train to Ellensburg, rest for 4 hours and then head back).
As long as you are a patient railfan and not put off by waits between trains this pass has plenty to offer.
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