Ritzville, Washington — BNSF Lakeside Subdivision
A pan-tilt-zoom camera at a 1909 Northern Pacific depot museum
Ritzville, Washington — BNSF Lakeside Subdivision
BNSF Railway — Lakeside Subdivision, milepost 64.9 (Spokane–Pasco), on the original Northern Pacific main line · Ritzville, Washington, United States
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Milepost 64.9 of BNSF's Lakeside Subdivision, "along the original Northern Pacific mainline", watched from the Ritzville Railroad Depot Museum. BNSF freight runs Spokane to Pasco; the Portland section of Amtrak's Empire Builder passes once each way, each day.
About this cam
The operator sets out the line in its own words: this camera "shows the BNSF Lakeside subdivision (Spokane, WA to Pasco, WA) Milepost 64.9 at Ritzville, Washington along the original Northern Pacific mainline. Train movements include BNSF trains operating between Spokane, WA and Pasco, WA. Additionally, Amtrak operates one daily train - Portland Section of the Empire Builder each direction, each day." The host is the Ritzville Railroad Depot Museum, housed in the Northern Pacific Railway depot of 1909-1910 in the town's historic district. The museum runs together with the Burroughs Home Museum and keeps, in its own description, "a collection of turn of the century memorabilia", a "newly restored Northern Pacific caboose No. 10425" and "fully functional telegraphy equipment complete with telegrapher". The camera is a pan-tilt-zoom unit, as the operator's own stream title states.
What to watch for
This is a wheat-country main line: BNSF freight between Spokane and Pasco is the staple, running on what was the Northern Pacific's original transcontinental route. The single scheduled passenger movement each way is the Portland section of the Empire Builder, which splits from the Seattle section at Spokane — catching it means catching a train that exists only because of a division made hundreds of miles away. Because the unit is PTZ, the framing changes: the same camera can hold the depot platform, the crossing, or a long lens down the main. The museum itself states that "On average, a train passes through Ritzville every 30 mins" — a host's claim rather than the camera operator's, and recorded here as such.