Tag Archives: shoreline

Turbine Floatplane That’s New to Me

While we were walking along the beach in Shoreline, I heard the sound of a plane coming our way.  I could see it was a floatplane from a long way off but, even as it got closer, I didn’t know exactly what it was.  I took a bunch of shots and then continued on our walk.  Only when I got home did I look closer and still I didn’t know what it was.  Time to hit the FAA registry.  Turns out it is called a Murphy Moose.  Never heard of this let alone seen one before.

Fiji Max Out Over Puget Sound

We ended up taking a walk along the shore at Shoreline one morning as a result of our original plan failing to work out.  I did take the camera with me because you never know what you might see out in the water.  However, water based wildlife didn’t show up (nor did any interesting boats) but we did get some aviation.  There was a Fiji Airlines 737 Max up on test and it flew along the sound before turning over us as it headed back to Boeing Field.  I have seen to Fiji widebodies at various times but their narrow bodies won’t usually show up in the US so this was a new one for me.  Not too close but definitely good to have seen.

Sailing Boats on Puget Sound

We took a walk along the beach at Shoreline one Sunday and the weather was lovely.  Obviously plenty of people thought it was a good day too and there were lots of sailing boats out on Puget Sound.  Some of them came in quite close to the shore before tacking away.  The winds was obviously pretty strong as some of them healed over pretty hard as they caught the wind again.  I love the look of yachts sailing in a strong breeze.

BNSF Along the Shore

The beach at Shoreline is alongside the BNSF railroad tracks and there is always a good chance that a train will rumble past while you are there.  We got one while we were on a stretch of the beach that is tight up under the tracks.  I grabbed a few shots as the train headed south towards the city.

That’s a Big Log!

Seeing logs on the shore is not unusual.  Plenty of logs get washed ashore.  However, when taking a walk along the beach at Shoreline over the holidays, there was a tree trunk that had become lodged on the water’s edge.  It had become wedged in amongst some piles in the water with the roots of the log still out in the water.  Usually the logs appear to have been cut but this was a tree that had got washed out into the sound.  Everyone was taking a look at it or climbing out on to it.  It was pretty big and finding a way to convey the size was something I pondered at length.

Some Waterfront Freight Traffic

The weather was not great for a portion of the holiday period so, when the sun came out, we took a trip to Shoreline to walk along the beach.  A couple of freight trains passed by while we were there.  One of them was just a set of locomotives on a light move while the other was a train of tank cars.  The curves along the shore provide a bit more context to just how long a full sized freight train can be with the line of cars snaking off into the distance.

Beach Driftwood

Wood on the shoreline is usually pretty interesting from a texture perspective.  Spending a bunch of time in the water getting beaten by waves and any other debris in the water tends to smooth out the surfaces and also emphasize the flaws in the structure of the wood.  I saw a bunch of wood on the beach at Shoreline when walking along the shore there and one in particular caught my eye.

Sounder Locos

Scanning back through some images looking for something else, I came across these shots of some Sounder commuter rail locomotives.  I shot these as part of a shoot that had a previous post.  I hadn’t focused on the locos so much but this train had a loco leading but two locos trailing as well.  The trailing locos were the old and the new with an F59PHI and an MPX together.  No idea why three locos were on a relatively short train but I guess there was a good reason!

Housing Along Puget Sound

A waterfront location is an appealing spot for a lot of people, me included.  It is no shock to find some nice-looking houses, even if there is a rail line between you and the water.  I guess trains are relatively infrequent and it stops anyone else showing up in front of you.  While walking along the shore at Shoreline, I grabbed some shots of the various houses that are spread along the coast in that area.

Late Running Cascades is a Bonus

I wrote in a previous post about heading out to get shots of a Sounder train for a project I was working on.  I did get a bonus opportunity while I was there.  The same line is used by the Amtrak Cascades services between Seattle and Vancouver BC.  A train from Vancouver was running a bit late so it was the first one I saw.  It appeared to have been that they held the Sounder trains for the Cascades train, perhaps because of the timings of the stops although I don’t know for sure.  Either way, it showed up just after I got there.

WSDOT’s new Siemens Charger locos had just entered service on this day and one of them was on the front of the train.  They had not yet removed the old loco as they were running in the new units to deal with any infant mortality issues.  The Charger was mounted ahead of the NPCU on the opposite end to the other loco.  Having worked on the Charger program, I was pleased to see them in service.