Saturday, February 16, 2013

My First Encounter With The Washington Central

I was living in Moses Lake at the time the Burlington Northern sold off its mixed former Northern Pacific and Milwaukee Road branches between Connell, Wheeler, Warden and Othello in 1986. At the time I did not appreciate the change very much.

I finally got out to check out what the Washington Central was up to out in Wheeler in November of 1988. This photo is all I can find anymore of those days.

The 203 started out life as a switcher for the Missouri Pacific before getting picked up by Ceeco out of Tacoma, WA. They rebuilt this one and a few others for the WCRC.

Those were fun times for me as I got to know some of the crew members. One that stands out was an older gentleman named Chuck Grow. Mr. Grow lived in Othello and had worked for the Milwaukee Road up until 1980. He really liked to railroad and missed the Milwaukee. The Washington Central thought enough of him to rename one of the siding switches at Seiler after him.

He invited me and a friend for a cab ride to Warden. On the day of out trip, some of the refrigerator cars they were shuffling at the Carnation plant at Wheeler went on the ground and it took a few hours to clean up. As a result, our trip to Warden happened after dark. Fun times!