Friday, September 22, 2023

Wahluke Branch Alternate Route

Info courtesy of Dean Ferris. 

"There was another alignment for this line out of Eltopia that NP bought the land for. It joined with the actual line around half way between Mesa and Basin City. If anyone's interested I'll post a map showing that alignment. This came up as a question at work recently - a farmer wanted to buy a portion of the right of way, but no abandonment could be found. The question came to me, and I was able to figure out that the reason it was never abandoned is because it was never built..."


Green is still owned by BNSF. Blue has been sold off.


"The property for the Eltopia to Basin City right of way was acquired in the early 1960's, the Mesa alignment was acquired in the mid 1960's. I'm uncertain as to why this happened other than the Mesa alignment was shorter, but it was certainly more challenging from an engineering standpoint."

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