Summer's day on the Lakewood Subdivision: Tacoma Rail, Amtrak, & Sounder

As the heat of 2023's Summer Season set in for the next few months, I decided it was time to revisit the Lakewood Subdivision, an all-time railroad favorite of mine mainly because of my humble beginnings as a teen, living down the street from the tracks in South Lakewood. As always, Tacoma Rail's DuPont turn was the main event for me, and I decided to camp out at Steilacoom Blvd to wait for them to finish working on South Tacoma before rolling down the line to Lakewood Industrial Park.

I ended up walking down the right-of-way to check out a disused spur and loading dock once served by BNSF and Tacoma Rail, having being severed from the mainline and separated by a drainage ditch in 2011, during the construction for Sounder's Lakewood extension. Said spur can be seen in the frame with Amtrak 500.

After shooting Amtrak trains 11 and 500, as well as following Tacoma Rail through Lakewood Industrial Park, it was time for the 505 to roll through, with the sister Talgo 8 trainset and consecutively numbered P42DC to train 505. Tacoma Rail waited patiently next to Lakewood Station, and closely followed the southbound Amtrak train to clear the way for the Northbound 504 and impending Sounder rush.

While I was present for five Sounder trains during the evening commuter rush, I only shot three, and the third video clip is unusable. As far as Sounder goes, I have an in-depth Lakewood Sub shooting session planned for future, hopefully this coming summer, having been heavily requested by many viewers.

Amtrak 14, the Northbound Starlight, was a fitting end to the evening before I packed up and headed home, with two brand new phase-7 ALC42 chargers up front, flying by Steilacoom Boulevard at track speed.

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:30 Amtrak 11 (Steilacoom Blvd)
1:19 Amtrak 500 (Steilacoom Blvd)
2:00 Tacoma Rail DuPont Turn (Steilacoom Blvd)
2:48 Pulling boxcars from Lakewood Industrial
4:35 Amtrak 505 (Bridgeport Way)
5:30 Southbound DuPont turn follows 505 (Bridgeport Way)
6:48 Sounder 1511 (100th St)
7:49 Amtrak 504 (100th St)
8:52 Sounder 1513 (100th St)
9:17 Amtrak 14 (Steilacoom Blvd)

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