by Justin Franz/photos by the author
About a year ago, I wrote a Camera Bag column about camera bags. Recently, I acquired a new one from L.L. Bean, item TA516329 if you’re interested. It’s a great bag with a large main compartment to store a camera, extra clothing, wipes to clean up messes, and more. There’s also a nice insulated outer pocket for snacks and anything else you might want to keep cool for a day trackside. I should also probably mention that it’s a diaper bag.
Last year, my wife and I welcomed a healthy baby boy into our family. Becoming a parent can be a life-altering event, but it doesn’t have to be completely life-changing. We try our best to do what we did before, and for me, that has included taking him railfanning — although it’s mostly sneaking in the occasional photo on walks or when he falls asleep in the car.
The first real adventure in taking an infant railfanning came in December when my wife had a work conference in Seattle. While I’ve lived in the Northwest for more than a decade and have visited Seattle a few times, I had never done much railroad photography there, so I figured this trip would be the ideal opportunity to correct that. My initial thought was to check out some of the local freight and commuter action, but a look at Sounder’s schedule proved that it would be challenging. While some stations south of the city would have been easy to get to by train from where we were staying in the city, and would have made for some great spots to take in the action, the limited midday schedule meant we would be stuck out there. I also scouted some great spots in the city along Alaskan Way, where it would be possible to shoot BNSF Railway, Amtrak, and Sounder. Even better, it would have been easily accessible by transit. But if there’s one thing Seattle is known for in winter, it’s rain. And while I have no problem subjecting myself to uncomfortable situations for a picture, I wasn’t about to do that to a nine-month-old. As a result, I didn’t put too much thought into that plan.
Instead, I decided to steal a page from the Kyle Weismann-Yee School of Railfan Parenting. Regular readers will remember Kyle’s great story in the September 2023 issue about TriMet’s Bombardier Type I LRVs in Portland, Ore. Over beers last summer, Kyle told me that one of the reasons he decided to start photographing TriMet was it was something he could do while carting his son around. Unlike freight operations (or even some passenger operations), transit systems are generally predictable and you don’t have to wait long for the train to come. And because most of the trains look the same, it’s not the end of the world if you have to give up a shot because someone is hungry or has to go to the bathroom.
Seattle’s transit scene is quite interesting and if you’re looking for a more detailed overview, I’d recommend David Honan’s story in the December 2020 edition of Railfan & Railroad. But the short version is that it’s essentially broken into two networks — Sound Transit’s Link light rail and the Seattle Streetcar. I found Link particularly interesting because, while it uses light rail equipment, it operates a lot like a heavy rail subway system with long trains covering long distances at fast speeds. With two full days to railfan while in Seattle, I felt like focusing on just the transit scene would be more than enough.
Packing
In that previously mentioned Camera Bag column about camera bags (January 2024), I talked about all the stuff I like to bring with me railfanning. Unfortunately, I was only going to be bringing one bag during our day-long adventures riding transit around Seattle, and once I got done packing all of the kid stuff (diapers, bottles, change of clothes, snacks, binkies, another change of clothes, more diapers, a third change of clothes just in case), there really was no room left for much more than a camera. As such, I decided to go with the smallest in my arsenal, the Fuji X100F.
In the May 2024 Camera Bag, I wrote a little about why I like to have a “walk around” camera (previously, it was the useful but oft-overlooked — and thus not supported by its maker anymore — Canon M6) and this trip would again prove why having a compact camera is useful. Besides the camera, I was also able to squeeze in a small nylon bag with extra batteries (a must when shooting with these small mirrorless cameras) and some memory cards.
Wandering Seattle
The first picture of the trip was taken not long after we arrived while waiting to ride the light rail to downtown. It was raining and because we were trying to manage our bags and a stroller, I didn’t want to bother taking out the camera, which was buried under a blanket. But as our train arrived, I couldn’t help but take out my iPhone to take a shot of the lights reflecting on the rain-soaked platform filled with passengers.
When I wrote that column about “walk around” cameras, Publisher Kevin EuDaly emailed saying he too had a camera of convenience — his smartphone. He makes a great point, especially as phone cameras get better. In fact, with a 12-megapixel camera on my phone, I can get images as good, if not better, than what I could get with my first DSLR. Of course, there are downsides. The “lens” on the iPhone tends to be a little wide for my taste and, as a result, I feel as if I can always tell when a photo was taken with a phone and when it was not. But perhaps the biggest reason I like to use a “real” camera is that, at least for me, it feels like I’m making more of an effort than I would be if I was just using the phone. Perhaps that’s ignorant of me — after all, the best camera is the camera in your hand — but when I have a real one, it flips a switch in my brain that says, “It’s time to get to work.”
Regardless of what I was using to take the photo, I actually liked the shot I got at Sea-Tac on the phone, and for a moment I thought that maybe I could have left the real camera at home and packed a few extra diapers.
ABOVE: A passenger waits to board a Sound Transit Link light rail train at Tukwila International Boulevard Station south of Seattle on December 5, 2024. Associate Editor Justin Franz spent two days photographing Seattle’s dynamic transit scene with a new sidekick — his nine-month-old son.
The following morning we met up with David Honan for a day of riding trains, checking out a great local barbecue spot, and popping into a local hobby shop. This would prove to be a great opportunity to get the lay of the land with a local expert. It was also a good opportunity to see how the kiddo would do with a day of napping and eating on the run. It became obvious early on that he wasn’t going to get much sleep when we were walking around — there was just too much to look at! — but he would fall asleep once we got on a train. Well-timed and lengthy train rides would be key.
The camera mostly stayed in the bag during the day, but it did emerge with the sun in the late afternoon at Tukwila International Boulevard Station where we shot a few trains with the mountains in great evening light. As we stood on the platform, the ubiquitous transit system announcement that if “you see something, say something” came over the loudspeaker. “I wonder if that means someone railfanning with a baby?” I asked David. Thankfully, with the retro-looking Fuji, I mostly looked like a camera-happy tourist — even more so while wearing a sleeping baby.
On Our Own
The following day, the baby and I would be on our own. Our first stops would be the Symphony and Pioneer Square stations in downtown Seattle. Link light rail is unique in that it operates through an old bus tunnel downtown and two of those stations have levels above the platform that provide a great vantage point for photography. The benefits of railfanning a transit system were obvious here; I was able to park the stroller, fish the camera out of the bag, and be photographing a train within minutes. Before anyone even got fussy, we were off to our next destination — Westlake Center.
Westlake is a downtown shopping center, but more importantly, it is the terminus of the city’s most unusual railroad — Seattle Center Monorail. The monorail was constructed for the World’s Fair in 1962 and runs less than a mile to the iconic Space Needle. The first order of business was to go for a ride on the .9-mile railroad (free with an ORCA card, although I did buy a ticket just to have the stub as a souvenir). Traveling at 45 mph, it takes less than two minutes to get to the other end of the line.
At Seattle Center, we got off the train and walked over to the Museum of Pop Culture, which the monorail runs right through. Perhaps the most notable shot of the monorail is of a train emerging from the metal “waves” of the building’s exterior. With two monorail trains (the line is double-tracked and each track has its own train), I figured we wouldn’t be waiting long for the shot. Unfortunately, what I thought would only be a few minutes turned into 30 as the trains stopped running for an inexplicable reason. During that delay, the little guy watched the world go by and probably wondered what the heck we were waiting for. Eventually, I got the shot I wanted (albeit in clouds), and while my companion was being incredibly cooperative, I figured it would be best to move on to our next destination. We jumped back on the train and headed for Westlake where we met my wife for lunch.
After lunch I realized it had been quite some time since my partner in crime had napped; the nonstop hustle and bustle was keeping him too entertained to sleep. I decided it would be best to hop on Link light rail for an extended ride. The night before, I scoped out on Google Maps one of the new stations on the newly extended north end of the system that had a pedestrian walkway overhead. I even found a video from the day it opened, suggesting it would be a great shot. Unfortunately, when we arrived (thankfully after a long nap), I saw that the glassed-in overhead walkway was already quite dirty; too dirty to get a clean shot through the glass. So I grabbed a “for the record” shot and we were on our way.
As we got on the train, I realized that we were running dangerously low on diapers and snacks — never a good thing. Looking at my phone, I saw that there was a shopping mall at Northgate, so we got off and headed for Target. By now, it was getting late (remember, it’s December so there are only a few minutes of daylight per day) so it was time to start thinking about heading home. As we walked back to the station with our restocked diaper bag, an interesting photo opportunity presented itself with two trains passing each other against a dark and ominous sky. It certainly wasn’t an image I had planned to take, but I liked it. And it was exemplary of my experience railfanning with a little one — or any non-railfan, regardless of age.
When you’re railfanning in mixed company, it’s hard to focus just on photography; while you might want to stand in the rain for a photo for three hours, non-railfans probably won’t. But sometimes, great photo opportunities present themselves and, if you’re flexible and quick, you can take advantage of them. On days like that, you might not get much, but you might come home with something you didn’t expect to get, and that can be just as rewarding. You’ll certainly come back with some fun memories, just like we did in Seattle. The little guy will probably not remember our two days on Sound Transit, but I will.