Guest post by Frederick Manfred Simon.
June 29, 2019
Stars by the billions populate the
small hour Hite at night sky as Washington Eastern SD40-2 3910’s
laser-like headlight beam provides a nice reflection of light on its
nose and overall scene after snagging the usual five loads. Two miles
west is the highest point on the CW Sub at 2538 FAMSL. Reached as a
matter of properties owned by the Northern Pacific prior to its
arrival and advertised as a locale to seed a “town” which never
materialized. Viewed through the railings of the mobile stairs used
to retrieve wheat samples from inbound loaded trucks of grain to be
posited into one or the other crib, concrete, or stainless steel
elevators; the only structures at this outpost save the Highline
Grain truck scale station shanty outfitted with all the de rigueur
human amenities including microwave and AC though sans a privy. It's
the spartan, unheated latrine about a car length away. Just as we are
like cowboys that ride steel horses into the night and history, Hite
as with almost all the “living museum” elevator tracks along the
vulnerable CW, one can still find near century-old as-harvested,
crooked iron oak ties and tiny hash marks that litter the railhead
where for so many decades the elevator hands have used and still use
the manual fulcrum of the made-in-Wisconsin arm-strong car mover to
spot covered hoppers and, until the early 80s, 40-foot boxcars under
the respective spout. Lines like the CW Sub are truly living history
and running on measured, even borrowed time. Some day only the stars
will remain.
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