It's a busy couple minutes at Tacoma Union Station as the Seattle-Portland Mount Rainier, Amtrak train 796, departs southbound while the northbound Coast Starlight completes its station work. Trains left this distinctive 1911 building two years after this photo, but it survives as a landmark courthouse.
From Vancouver, BC, to Eugene, OR, this route runs along stretches of Puget Sound and the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. The TALGO trainsets that were the line's backbone for many years were withdrawn from service after they were cited in the 2017 crash
With two sections of the Empire Builder, the Coast Starlight, Seattle, the Cascade Mountains, Columbia Valley and Puget Sound, Washington state offers rail buffs plenty of variety and beauty.
