The National Railway Historical Society's national covention is in Tacoma this year, and going on right now. I've chased one steam trip and rode yesterday behind former Southern Pacific 4449. I scored a seat in the observation car from Vancouver, WA to Tacoma, which was an amazing ride! I'm chasing the trip to Mt Rainier Scenic tomorrow and will be riding 4449 over Stampede Pass on Saturday. Today is a slack day because I decided to handle some chores instead of trekking all the way to Snoqualmie (which is kinda depressing as there's a very long deadline of rusting steam there) and Friday I have to attend the national director's meeting.
Here are some photos I've taken so far:
This guy is a professional train videographer. No, I'm not kidding...

Train to Ruth, WA along the Chehalis River:

4449 crossing the Columbia River before boarding:

View from the dome at about 60 MPH

After arriving in Tacoma:

My digs for the trip:

More soon!

Here are more shots, from the rain-soaked trip to the Mt Rainier Scenic. I'm glad I didn't pay to ride this one as it must have been a miserable ride with the weather as it was. The run was going so slow, I was able to outrun the train on foot for a different camera position on a bridge!
Along the farms en route:

My first glimpse of train, pulled by the sole running Willamette geared engine on earth:


At the Rainier shops, one of several engines being overhauled:

This shows you what the weather was mostly like as well as where it was taken:

Great photos - thanks for sharing.

Gee...that guy in the green raincoat sure doesn't seem like the wet weather is bothering him one single bit! I can totally understand that.

No trips yesterday, I had to endure the annual board of director's meeting.
However, I rode a dome car up Stampede Pass behind 4449. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:
My digs:

Absolute mechanical poetry in motion!

It feels like the day after Christmas around here now. Everyone was looking forward to this for so long, now there's the post-event letdown. A good time was had by all but now it's over. I have uploaded two videos of the ferry run of 4449 southbound from earlier today. My timing was amazing as I got to each location with just enough time to get set up, but due to the speed of the train I could only catch it twice and was darned lucky to catch it more than once at all. I threw my older digital camera onto the tripod while I was taking stills with my newer one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjhyF0hj3E0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8G4M7A6CaA
Got some decent photos at the same time as well.
Tenino:

Chehalis, behind the fairgrounds:

And passing a Cascades train that must have really surprised the passengers:

GREAT!!!!!