Every photo is supposed to have a story that goes with it, and this one is about an everyday event that didn't quite unfold as it normally does. // One warm summer evening, BNSF's daily garbage train from Everett to Roosevelt, WA, departed Delta Yard with its usual trio of three SD40-2s up front and a fairly long train in tow. The Seattle East Dispatcher figured the train had sufficient time to pull through Everett and clear the single track before Amtrak #516 was due, so he lined up the train to Mukilteo. But this trip wasn't like most others, and for whatever reason the train slowed to a halt while strung out through PA Jct. and Broadway, blocking not only the passenger station platform but also the single-track route under downtown. The power simply wasn't up to the task of yanking the train through the short but steep 2% grade on a 10-degree curve just north of PA; having come to the logical conclusion that they had stalled, the crew called the DS to report that supposed fact and request a shove from one of the yard jobs at Delta so they could clear up without causing too much delay to Amtrak. Before long, a light engine was dispatched out of Delta, and it trundled on down towards C-Line Jct. Coming across Pacific Ave. with the stalled train in sight, the yard crew suddenly found themselves experiencing a slightly rougher ride than normal, which shortly thereafter caused this to crackle over my radio: "Uh, Dispatcher, this is the Delta Yard job at C-Line, we're on the ground and so is the garbage train." I headed on over to Pacific Ave. to see what I could see, and was greeted with this scene of the light engine grounded between two rolled rails, double-stacks full of garbage canted to the left, and the yard job's crew pondering the scene while posed in the classic "well, what the heck do we do now?" posture.
