Category Archives: Coal
Sleepless in Bellingham: 980 train horns!
I woke up this morning hating trains. All trains. Coal trains, freight trains, passenger trains. Which is ridiculous. There is nothing more romantic than the sound of a train horn echoing in the night. But, I listened to trains all … Continue reading
What does a coal train look like from Puget Sound?
You know something is wrong, when on the last day of your sailing vacation you tell your crew you want to: 1) have enough wind to sail all the way from Langley to Seattle, and 2) photograph a coal train … Continue reading
Coal – it is not just going to China
The coal I found yesterday never made it to China. It fell off a train, onto the Burke-Gilman Trail, as the train crossed the bridge west of the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. I was riding my bike and … Continue reading
Coke: is this the real thing?
If so, what is it doing on my bike trail, the path to my favorite ice cream shop, the grassy lawn of a nearby park and a beach in Puget Sound? And, no I don’t mean coke in red and … Continue reading
Railfanning coal trains in Seattle
We count railroad cars until we are dizzy. There are two locomotives in the front, 121 cars piled high with black coal in the middle and two locomotives in the back. I’m in Bellingham. It is dusk. We are walking … Continue reading
Hurricane season: my first memory of coal
The heat is suffocating as I try to fall asleep in the pilot berth of the wooden schooner MH. It is November; the Atlantic Ocean. We are reefed down, riding out a gale, as we sail south out of the … Continue reading
