BN 604 Approaching Crater

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:

"Here's the big view of the former Great Northern's climb out of the side canyon above Trinidad siding, east of Wenatchee, as train #604, using an assigned Wenatchee-Spokane-Wenatchee one-day turn crew, emerges from Tunnel 11 and steps out onto the narrow ledge above the "crater" below the west end of Quincy siding on September 17, 1991.

"The railroad is on a 0.8% gradient here, which it uses to climb away from the Columbia River to reach to Columbia Plateau at Quincy. Back behind the tunnel is the famous Trinidad Horseshoe curve.

#604 was the "Red Dog Ore" train hauling zinc concentrate (If I remember correctly) mined in Alaska and transported to Everett bound for the big Teck Resources smelter at Trail, British Columbia. Ore was hauled in rebuilt woodchip cars with reinforced floors, backhauling the chip load from the Everett area. The crew was an assigned turn, Wenatchee to Spokane and timed to catch hotshot train #3 back to Wenatchee in 12 hours. This made #604 one of the hottest eastbounds on the Columbia River subdivision."