CBRW Near Warden

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

September 2020

Blair says:

"Are there any places in the United States remaining in 2020 where massed sets of SD9s and a GP9 or two regularly move 8000 ton trains for the employer? I can't think of any--the big shows of gatherings of Espee Cadillacs have been gone for probably 20 years now.

"So it's puzzling to me why railfans aren't beating a path in the plowed dirt of Central Washington to photograph the Columbia Basin Railway, which operates a network of ex-BN and Milwaukee Road lines out of Warden, with a connection of the BNSF mainline at Connell.

"Traffic has boomed on this railroad, which 20 years ago required only a few GP9s and SW1200s to move its traffic. But the traffic expansion has required more yards, new locomotive facilities, and an addition of heavier motive power--mostly rebuilt SD9's acquired from Montana Rail Link but originally built over 60 years ago for the Missabe, the EJ&E and Colorado & Southern.

"This past Monday's train was bigger than usual, coming after a weekend, but the spectacle of five SD9s and a single former Santa Fe GP7u working at least 8000 tons and 96 cars north from Connell, approaching Warden would have been spectacular in the days when first-generation EMDs were common sights--but to see and hear something like this in 2020 is simply not repeated anywhere else in the United States.

"So keep it on the down low--it'll be our little secret, right? Go see this, but don't tell your friends, and especially be evasive about that climb winding up the hill out of Connell on the grade well over one percent and including a horse shoe curve. . ."