Big Bend Railroad History
This site features daily historical railroad posts from the Big Bend/Columbia Plateau region of Washington state. As a personal site, this is my online filing cabinet of interesting things I've come across about railroading in the area. I know it's easy to grab an image from here and post it elsewhere, like Steve Renfrow does, but if you do, could you at least give this site a little credit? Dan Bolyard
Friday, July 26, 2024
Thursday, July 25, 2024
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
Monday, July 22, 2024
The Bad-Ass Railroad
Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.
September 25, 2020
Blair says:
"I drove along the Milwaukee Road from Othello to Beverly today, and was reminded what a bad-ass piece of railroad this is, especially from Taunton to Smyrna. Perhaps my callow teenage mind didn't realize this 40 years ago, but I'm sure Rob Leachman spent far more time and effort photographing this stretch--even in boxcab days!--than I ever considered.
"The railroad was always a maintenance headache, especially in the 40 years since abandonment, and the entities who have owned or operated this stretch since then have found this out, with silpouts, slides, and range fires. Amazingly this piece of mainline survives. Here's a view looking east a bit west of Corfu. It looks more like an under-maintained Sand Pass on the WP than the Milwaukee, as the expected code line and electrical apparatus are long gone. But oh, the possibilities! This is just an east spot to drive to; I didn't bother hiking up to the REALLY cool spots!"
Sunday, July 21, 2024
Beverly Area View
Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.
Blair says:
"Dickie Dewald asked for more Milwaukee Road photos from me on here, so here's a start: Train #201-C cruises westbound along Crab Creek in the otherwise barren desert near Beverly, Washington in May, 1979. It wouldn't be long until that modern SD40-2's would be pulled back east and replaced with old junky GE's and GP40's; in 10 months, this railroad would be abandoned, failing just a bit too soon for the Staggers Act and double-stacked bridge traffic to do any good to save it."
Saturday, July 20, 2024
CBRW South Of Warden
Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.
Blair says:
"Here's the drone view of the wooden trestle between the 10 and 11 road south of Warden. I was parked near the pot farm up where the train makes a curve in the distance off the 10 road; it's about 1/2 mile either way from here to the nearest road crossing. Classic ex- Northern Pacific Central Washington scenery on the old Connell Northern, now operated by Columbia Basin Railroad."