From a trip up to Fort Lewis and Tacoma, Wash. last Friday...

Tacoma Rail is bringing in more doublestack well cars to store on its idle line to Centralia. The line of stored cars now stretches north from the Grand Mound interchange (Exit 88) on I-5 for at least a mile. These cars are stored on the main track, not on the adjacent siding.

Tacoma Rail is also operating the ex-BNSF (BN/NP) Nisqually Sub with a pair of GP38s #3801 and #3802. I've seen them parked with their train in the small interchange yard at the junction with the south Fort Lewis railhead. The site is adjacent to the Dupont Transit Center, which has parking available if you want to photograph them while they're there.

Further north on the same line, Sound Transit has constructed the platforms for the two Sounder stations on the Lakewood extension. The South Tacoma station is just off S. 68th Street at Washington, and the Lakewood stop is on the west side of the bus bays at the Lakewood Transit Center on S. Pacific Hwy. near 112th.

The new platforms contrast sharply with the still-unrebuilt trackage. Once the long-awaited new connection is built between this line and the ex-MILW line near Freighthouse Square is built, this line can be rehabbed and used for commuter service and, eventually, Amtrak Cascades service as part of the Point Defiance bypass project.

There is another steam locomotive on the tourist line at Chehalis. Rayonier Lumber #8, a 1924-vintage side-tanked 2-6-6-2 Mallet, is awaiting unloading from a flatcar outside the shops. The rare locomotive had apparently just arrived the previous week from nearby Shelton, Wash. after a trip down the Puget Sound & Pacific and Tacoma Rail. It's visible from I-5 and the railyard area is accessible from Exit 77.