Ballard Terminal Railroad
Walking Tour - Section Eight
And here we come to the end of the line... the Shilshole Yard. This longer yard is below the BNSF mainline grade, and above street level, with a number of small business operations located in the gap between the BT's track and the street. If youa re standing in the yard and looking northwest, the track appears to curve around out of sight. It is actually running a fair distance away to use a very easy grade to rise to the level of the BNSF for interchange. The BNSF leaves empty reefers and full cement mix cars here. The BT of course then picks them up, swaps them for the full reefers or empty cement cars back down the line and returns the latter here.
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Pictorial Tour of Section Eight
I have crossed the major intersection and am looking back up the line. Note the crossing sign. There is another on the other side of the street.
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Okay, I have turned around and am looking ahead on the line from where I took that last shot. This is the entrance to the Shilshole Yard, the actual interchange with the BNSF. |
I have walked down the double trach interchange section. This is the western switch. The tail, or lead, ahead curve out of sight and up grade to join the BNSF double track mainline. Note the gravelled footpath crossing. Did you ever see a railroad with so many different kinds of crossings in a short run?
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This is a shot off to the right, where the foot path comes from, passing under the BNSF under this steel support bridge. |
I have walked up the hill, on the foot path and service road, to the BNSF main. Now we're into the world of heavy ballast and high iron... of interest only to modelers who want their five room layouts featured in Model Railroader.
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Once we arrived at the Shilshole Yard, it was break time, and we took the little foot path down to the left, coming out on Seaview Ave. Across the street are several marine stores, and the Purple Cow Cafe... highly recommended for good sandwiches and frozen smoothies... |
There you have it... a pretty detailed walking tour of an active, but not insanely busy, three mile short line railroad. i tried to present this tour with some observations from a modeler's viewpoint. As the BTRR exists today, there are five or six people involved, and they make two or three runs a week, as needed and as they can schedule them. A run may involve only a couple of cars, or as many as eight. The crew is whoever from the group can make it. That sounds to me like an ideal structure for a weekly or monthly small group operating session on a model railroad.
I definitely plan to scrap my old BS trackplan and work to come to an approximation of the BT as it was years back. If I put in the abandoned spur that went down the other side of Shilshole Ave., the Fentron spur, and the spur down to the ship yards, I should have as much operation as my layout can handle. My room provides for a complete circuit, but I suspect that much of the operating time will be spent with the bridge over the doorway out. I can see the left wall as the Bright St. Yard, the wall opposite the door as Shilshole Ave. and the right wall as the industral area of shipyards and Fentron. (Note: If you want to see this room, as it exists now, with all of the support structure in place, but no track, go back to the Home Page on the link below, and then to the Bulletin Board. As soon as I feel like doing some more web work {Hey! I'm tired!} I'll Move that to a new section documenting construction of the new layout.)
My next step is to get over to Steve Olson's and see his HO model of the line. It should be a source for even more ideas. For myself, I am heavily invested in On30, and really like it, so my Ballard Southern will remain an narrow gauge of approx. 1950. I will either ignore the issue of gauge for practical purposes, or "imagineer" that little lead that curves out of sight after the Shilshole Yard as leading to a standard-to-narrow gauge cargo transfer platform. You won't be able to see it, but it must be there because the BS keeps getting full cars and taking empties back, and vice versa...
I hope you have found this whole effort to be of interest and helpful to you. Comments can be sent to me direct at: dwightman@mindspring.com