From the "Grant County Journal."
August 26, 1949
Posting this to help chronicle the progression of grain elevator companies around here (this location is now part of Highline Grain. More on Fred Frick tomorrow.
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. Thanks for stopping by! --Dan Bolyard
From the "Grant County Journal."
August 26, 1949
Posting this to help chronicle the progression of grain elevator companies around here (this location is now part of Highline Grain. More on Fred Frick tomorrow.
Photo courtesy of James Belmont.
Burlington Northern & Santa Fe train No. 3, the "Pacific Zip", rushes its Chicago - Seattle container traffic past the Great Northern depot at Quincy, Washington the afternoon of Sept. 13, 1996.
Thanks to John Taubeneck for finding this.
October 26, 1915.
The Dam Brothers Ranch, Priest Rapids. The Milwaukee depot and water tank are just right of center. Note the steam shovel to the right of the water tank.
Courtesy of Tom Carver.
"Into the teeth of the 1% climb out of the Columbia River valley in the background, this eastbound is now heading east and west simultaneously as it ascends onto the Columbia Plateau. This loop is actually a full horseshoe up a side coulee of the Columbia valley. After leaving Wenatchee, WA., BN's ex-GN line crosses from the west to east side of the Columbia River and initiates this 20-mile climb to Quincy on its way to Ephrata and eventually Spokane."
Wow! Eighteen years! This website is now old enough to vote!
Courtesy of Tom Carver.
"My intent was to get both ends of the train in the photo here at Trinidad Loop, which is out of the frame to the right, but prior to that this Frisco boxcar caught my eye which I think is a better image anyway. This westbound is fully occupying the loop on BN's Spokane Division 5th Sub between Spokane and Wenatchee. It is on a 1 percent grade down to the Columbia River, which runs generally due south in this part of Washington State and occupies the canyon in the middle distance. The train will then turn compass north to Wenatchee, upriver out of the photo to the right."
Photos by Jonathan Fischer.
November 22, 2019
Jonathan says:
" CBRW 302 leads a short, two car, Friday local from Warden, Washington, to Wheeler, Washington (and return).
CBRW 302 is initially spotted leaving Warden northbound in the early
morning. Also noted were CBRW 652, 608, & 651. Five miles away, at
Bassett Jct., the sun had given way to fog/low clouds."
Photo by Tom Carver.
August 15, 1981
Tom says:
"In a location where one would not expect to find three F-units and a Geep, the CW local's crew is turning the power for the return to Spokane from Coulee City. This photo was made just prior to the photo posted yesterday showing Dan on his bike."
Photo courtesy of Tom Carver.
No date, but I'd guess about 1981.
Tom is standing on the former NP bridge.
Photo courtesy of Tom Carver.
August 15, 1981
I've known of 5 fellows that had taken photos of the railroad to Coulee City in the 1980/81 timeframe, recording on film what I only have memories of. I've managed to catch up with all 5 of them over the years to see their work. One question I've posed to them is if they ever caught some kid trackside during that time. Today, one of these fellows, Tom Carver, posted this image from August 18, 1981. Here is what he had to say:
"After several discussions with Flickr member Dan Bolyard about my photos of the CW local in Coulee City, he asked if we remembered seeing a "snot-nosed kid hanging around the tracks," because it was most likely him. Well, that jogged my fading memory and I subsequently found this photo of Dan on his bike, positively identified by his T-shirt! So many of us when young did our train watching by bicycle–myself included–that this is probably why I shot the image in the first place. So, Dan, herewith, assuming this is really you and not someone who stole your T-shirt ?!? Glad you were old enough to see and remember the F-units! I'll be happy to send you a hi-res scan and the original slide if you like."
Photo courtesy of Tom Carver.
August 16, 1980.
Tom says:
"The edict had already been handed down to withdraw all F-Units from service in Western Washington, so we all thought that was it. At the time I was working for an air freight forwarding company delivering to Eastern Washington and Idaho, with my westbound trip from Spokane to Wenatchee always on U.S. Rt. 2, which followed BN's 8th Subdivision branch line between Cheney and Coulee City. Having pulled over for a rest stop west of Davenport, I heard a train whistle, and having yet to see a train on this line I waited for the ubiquitous Geeps to show up...WTF...F-Units?!? Turns out the Parkwater (Spokane) based Fs, which also served as Marias Pass helpers, were still in service! Once back in Seattle I spread the word, and several trips were organized to catch this train, known as the CW (Central Washington) Local or Coulee City Turn."
Photo of me in the cab with my uncle as the engineer of the Spud Local out of Wenatchee. We were switching out a car at Winchester in 1994. I rode with him from Ephrata to Wenatchee. What a great trip!
By Michael Sawyer
January 12, 1993
I missed my fair share of calls in my railroad career, but I only remember one with a specific date. That would be Jan. 12, 1993.
Only two times have I ever seen a rotary snowplow in action, both happened to be the same week in January of 1993 but on different railroads. The first was on the Camas Prairie Railroad based out of Lewistown, Idaho. I was over there with a handful of friends taking photos on Jan. 7. It was the second time Camas Prairie used the rotary that winter, so the local could service the Grangeville branch on the 8th.
Four days after the Camas Prairie trip, while working home to Seattle on a northbound freight, I got word that Burlington Northern had sent its rotary plow No. 972561 to Spokane to plow the Central Washington Branch from Cheney to Coulee City. The plow was normally stored at the former Great Northern Railway Interbay roundhouse, with this being its first use in 17 years.
The month of January is traditionally a slow time on the extra boards. When I went off duty, I was showing 22 times out on the engineer’s extra board at Interbay (Seattle). What could go wrong? I hurried home after work, packed my dinner, grabbed my cameras, threw more supplies in the truck, and headed to Wenatchee, where I overnighted at a local motel.
Sitting in my motel room I turned my railroad radio on, listening to the crew tie up to get a better idea of their location for the next morning. The rotary plow had been able to work west to Almira from Cheney on the first day. The next morning, I headed east on Highway 2 until I intercepted the plow between Almira and Hartline.
A converted covered wagon B-unit, BN No. 972561, provided power to the plow wheel while the road units pushed from behind. What I thought was interesting at the time is that in addition to the rotary and road power, BN also had a Jordan Spreader and a caboose full of maintenance-of-way workers with shovels if all else failed. On the rear were two flatcars with additional equipment and a front-end loader facing east. Burlington Northern was not taking any chances.
There are spots where Highway 2 and the tracks of the branch parallel each other. While following the plow on one of these stretches, I was driving to get ahead and passed a Washington State Highway plow working in the opposite direction. When I caught up with the railroad plow, they had the snow chute facing the highway, putting fresh snow back on the road that the State Highway Department just plowed. I drove through the cascading snow from the rotary, not my brightest idea. In all fairness, no one on the crew had ever worked a rotary before. Classic case of “on-the-job” training for both of us. Glad I did not break my windshield.
The plow crew noticed my predicament and stopped to turn the chute away from the highway. When I noticed they had stopped; I did a U-turn. As I pulled up next to the plow, I promptly dropped myself into a ditch.
While I was getting help with digging the truck out, my pager buzzes (who remembers pagers?). It was a 2-hour call to allow those of us that lived outside Seattle to make it to work on time. I lived in Puyallup, so it was about 41 miles to Interbay. I was at least 4.5 hours away from home and wasn’t expecting a call, so there was not much I could do about it. I just kept taking pictures.
A couple of hours later I found a pay phone next to a small store along the highway. So, I called the crew desk at Balmer Yard; the crew caller was an old friend and knew me from my early days, since both of us worked at Auburn Yard.
Doug said, “You missed a call for the Boeing switch.”
You were assigned to an outside terminal (Everett in this case) for seven days unless released from the job before the seventh day. A more senior engineer could bump on the job if it was a known vacation vacancy; otherwise you could stay on the job if you didn’t ask for a release on the seventh day. I would try to stay on the job when the boards were slow.
Doug asked if I would be able to fill the Job the next day,
I replied, “Yes, I’ll be there.”
Doug said, “I’ll let the engineer who filled the job know he’s released on tie-up and that you’ll fill the rest of the week.”
Doug chuckled and then said, “You’re over shooting that rotary snowplow, aren’t you?”
My reply was, “Yup.”
The call was worth missing.
Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.
Blair says:
"Engineer Ted arrives "right on time." Washington Eastern scoot train enters Reardan minutes before sunrise. September 2020."
Guest post by James Belmont.
While chasing trains along the former Great Northern in Washington State, we encountered a big surprise. BN GP38-2 No. 2099 was BNSF's first repainted standard cab locomotive.
2099 was touring the railroad in glorious GN inspired livery, wearing Pullman Green and Omaha Orange paint. The running gear was painted silver, to match new 900 series GE C44-9W deliveries.
We caught him on train No. 639, passing through Naylor, Washington on Sept. 13, 1996.
Guest post by John Howell.
It’s December 2, 2007, and not-yet-relettered NIWX SD45 8924 and leased MRL SD40-2 260 head west with empty grain cars near MP54 on the “CW Sub,” formerly operated by Eastern Washington Gateway RR, between Rocklyn and Creston, WA.