Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.
September 2020
Blair says:
"The Curse of Corfu has been lifted! NEVER in my life did I think I’d photograph a train here again.
"Thanks to the employees and officials of the Port of Royal Slope who didn’t give up on the importance of keeping a railroad link to the outside world.
"This time, I didn’t rip out an oil pan to get this shot."
Courtesy of RR.
"This is a really cool train order! On February 26, 1977, train second 201 running from St. Maries to Othello died at Lind. The Othello day switcher with MP15AC 471 had to run extra from Othello to Lind to dog catch him. Train 200 running east then had to wait at Warden for the annulled second 201, now running as Extra 471 West to get out of the way. Further gumming up the works, the speed limit between Lind and Warden had recently been plagued with 30 and 35 mph slow orders. Not a good day in Lind Coulee, that's for sure."
Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.
September 2020
Blair says:
"The tele-squish of the Columbia Basin Railroad's Connell turn winding up the hill out of Connell after accepting a 96 car train of interchange from BNSF. I had scoffed when the downbound train departed Warden that morning with six locomotives--five SD9s and a single GP9--as I thought that might be a bit of overkill. . .but the show was one for the ages as it looped and curved its way up the grade--nearly 10 miles of one percent with 7 and 8 degree curves—with probably 11,000 tons in tow!"
From the "Spokesman Review."
October 1, 1934
Guest post by Rodney Aho.
February 2, 2020
Almost exactly five years ago today, on February 2, 2020, fellow railroader Zachary Hastings and I had an interesting assignment: to help clear up the derailment of an eastbound Washington Eastern Railroad grain train that had occurred east of Davenport. Our job was to roll several undamaged railcars away from the wrecked section of track so that cleanup could get underway.
Zach and I uncoupled the cars from the train in groups of two and “gravity-drifted” them toward town, reconnecting (recoupling) them into a long string of cars that we secured under the US-2 overpass.
After the derailment was cleared a few days later, the cars were taken east for unloading at HighLine Grain’s facility near Four Lakes.
That was one of the fun things about working on the railroad: there was always something new and different to be working on. Never a dull moment. Some days I truly miss my job!
The derailment occurred about a half mile east of Davenport along the old Sunset Highway. A similar derailment occurred eight years earlier at the same spot.
Courtesy of Tom Carver.
Tom says:
"The Coulee City Turn always had a Geep trailing the consist to use for switching at elevators where seven units would be too long a consist for switching. Getting a late start on this day, the train is westbound near Deep Creek, Washington, in October 1980."
Courtesy of Steven J. Brown.
He says:
Amtrak Empire Builder #7 at dawn approaching the Rock Island Dam on the Columbia River at Voltage, Washington - February 6, 2005.
