Amtrak 11 - Auburn WA

A mostly sunny Monday encouraged me to get out for some railfanning. Todays location: Auburn, Washington at the commuter rail station. Amtrak Train 11, the Coast Starlight, is southbound to Los Angeles and departed Seattle about 5 minutes late. Auburn is about 20 miles south of Seattle. Amtrak does not usually stop at this station. Signs around warn of high speed trains and today number 11 was not an exception. I would guess the speed at somewhere around 70 mph. Clearly, I did not pan around fast enough to get turned to the opposite view before the end of the train had passed. Will work on that!

This video was captured with the Flip Ultra camcorder and edited in Windows Movie Maker.

This is a good location for capturing the sounds of the crossing signals as well as some good horn sounds as the train rolls through Auburn.

Thanks for watching.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Amtrak
• Train
• 11
• Coast
• Starlight
• southbound
• Seattle
• Los
• Angeles
• Auburn
• WA
• Washington
• rail
• railroad
• railfan
• railfanning
• horn
• signal
• crossing
• station
• depot
• passenger
• high
• speed

[CoasterFan2105]

Are you sure this wasn't from Sunday?

[northwestusa]

Thanks for the comments and question. Monday, being the holiday, I went down to Auburn to video the Sounder commuter train which was running a special mid-day for shoppers. Usually it only runs rush hours. After seeing the Sounder I moved to the other side of the tracks to catch the southbound Coast Starlight. So, yes sir, it was Monday.

[CoastStarlight11]

I shot train 11 in southern California on Feb 14th and I shot train 14 again in southern California on Feb 15th.

BTW: Why does it only have 1 engine in this vid? I have always seen it with at least 2 engines when i get shots of the Coast Starlight in California some times even 3 engines.

[northwestusa]

Thanks for viewing and the comments. I don't know the reason for 1 engine but apparently the second was not available for whatever reason. Maybe they usually run 2 or more to have backups or maybe they need the power in the mountains in Oregon and northern Cal. Either way, this one was doing fine all by itself through Auburn. Maybe someone will give us an answer. Thanks again.

[thmstrng6]

My dad lives in Auburn Wa.

[lawpar79]

It looks awkward seeing 1 P42 on the starlight.

[trinityct]

Clear proof that a P42 can pull a 10 car train single-handedly. Good work. :)

[b4ifly2paradise]

That's Auburn WA all right - or the Ghetto as I like to think of it.

[SgtDonuts]

That's very cool!

[CoastStarlight11]

Dang

[CoasterFan2105]

This train origionally also had P42 # 13 on it too. I heard that the 13 died, so they cut it out...

[CoastStarlight11]

Ok. Cool.