Broken Amtrak

This broken train (seen yesterday) is stranded at the Edmonds station. It was there for at least an hour, and soon enough an additional southbound train became queued on the singletrack waiting for it to be cleared. Passengers with airport connections later in the afternoon fretted on the platform about their schedule, while the Amtrak staff pondered rustling up replacement bus service.

The conductor here is coming down from Non Powered Cab Unit NPCU #90340. It looks like a locomotive (it was originally an EMD F40PH), but the engine has since been removed. It serves as a crumple zone, for safety regulations, and also has a set of linked controls so the train can be driven northbound without bringing the locomotive up front.