Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year from the staff and management at Oil-Electric!

I shot this scene in Seattle Washington August 19, 1961. "Crew Four," tip toes through the Argo Interlocking Plant, heading south to Portland, Oregon.  That's the Airport Way Viaduct - we called it the Georgetown Bridge - in the background.

Argo Tower, built in 1913, was a join operation of OWR&N (Oregon, Washington, Railroad & Navigation) which became Union Pacific, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Pacific Coast Railroads.

An unusual lash up! Sequential unit numbers! Great Northern 205, 206, and 207 on point. Having travelled at a snails pace down from Interbay Yard to south Seattle, the crew ended up facing a red light at the opposite end of the Argo Interlocking Plant, controlling the cross overs of the four major railroads.

The aggravated engineer begins sending a series of four blasts, each sounding more impatient as the pattern went from short to long, calling for signals.

Tower Op finally clears the asthmatic ALCo's to enter the plant. As the hogger passes the tower, he let loose with several rapid blasts of the horn, right next to the tower, signaling his displeasure at being held up! (The delay was caused by a Milwaukee Road switcher, suffering some unknown malady, struggling to clear the plant.)

Long before the Digital Age, train wires on the pole carry traffic for the Pacific Coast Railroad, Union Pacific Rail Road, Northern Pacific Railroad and Great Northern Railroad, as well as other customers.

American Locomotive Company (ALCo) built this trio of 1500 hp RS-2's in August 1947. They were equipped with steam boilers, enabling them for passenger service. Traded in to General Electric for U25B's in 1964, just three short years after I shot them.

Great Northern ordered 20 RS-2's between 1947 and 1950. Five were equipped with steam boilers. All escaped the horrid "Big Sky Blue" paint scheme.

"Argo" was the name of a junction on the Northern Pacific Railway 3.2 miles south of Seattle in the community of Georgetown. The place was named for the Greek legend about the Argonauts who sailed on the ship Argo to seek the famed Golden Fleece.

Many Bloggers are closing out the year with "Top Ten Favorites" or "Most Viewed Pages."  I prefer to close the year with Omar Khayyam:

"The Moving Finger writes, and

having writ, moves on ... "