Saturday, January 19, 2008

Dinner Train

Driving home through Battle Ground I noticed something that made me chuckle out-loud: the Spirit of Washington dinner train. Back when we lived in Renton, our house was only a block or two from the depot where the Spirit of Washington was based, making nightly dinner runs from Renton to Woodinville and back. One of the nicer things about leaving that neighborhood was escaping the blanket of soot that fell out of those large diesel engines as they idled.
I'm in no danger of being enshrouded in soot from it in it's present location. But I did have a fleeting notion that the train was stalking me. And that ludicrous notion is what made me chuckle.

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

That is funny! It missed you! Give it credit for finding you at last.

Margy

Anonymous said...

Well, the loss of the Dinner Train in Renton is a long one. I miss its late evening whistle. Here is a link to a recent article out of Tacoma http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-city-sues-spirit-washington-dinner-tra-owes-105000-/2008/01/16/3213134.htm

Didn't know until you blogged that the train was in Battle Ground.

My interest in Renton rails started the day of my wedding when Dad and I moved into an apartment at what we affectionately call the intersection of "railroad and railroad"; in those days what is now the Burnett Linear Park also was a railbed of tracks. I was too ignorant to worry about the soot, but I did worry plenty about getting a foot, or a car caught on the tracks at an inauspicious moment.

Mom

Anonymous said...

I meant to say: The "story" of the loss of the Spirit of Washington Dinner train. . . .




Mom