E50 At Othello

Photo by Wade Stevenson.

E22A At Othello

Photo by Wade Stevenson.

June 20, 1958

BN 6835 At Trinidad

Photos courtesy of Ken Albrecht. 

May 22, 1975

2007 CBRW Purchase From BNSF

 

1945 NP Map Of The Columbia Basin

 

BN 724 CW Local

Courtesy of Tom Carver.

September 1980

"The CW (Central Washington) local, aka the Coulee City Turn, is shown here westbound between the elevators at Hite, in the background, and Reardan, WA. This line, from Cheney to Coulee City, was more formally known as BN's 8th Subdivision Branch Line of the Spokane Division. Some will say that six F-units and a Geep is too much power for their liking. Granted, but the sound was incredible! After the Pacific Division F's were retired, these were among BN's last F-units to continue operating, all based out of Parkwater in Spokane. These same F's were also dispatched east to Marias Pass for helper service."

2010 Warden Depot Views

Privately organized by me. These are the only photos of the event I can find.

1958 Warden View

Courtesy of William Russ.

1979 Beverly Depot View

Photo courtesy of Bill Edgar.

November 1979

Bill says:

"This view shows the west end of Milwaukee Road's station at Beverly, WA. The main track and siding are still lined with unused catenary poles, although the wire has been removed and sold as scrap. Electrics ceased operating in 1972. Diesels will continue to ply these rails until mid-March 1980."

1979 Beverly Depot

Photo courtesy of Bill Edgar.

November 1979

Bill says:

"This view shows the east end of Milwaukee Road's station at Beverly, WA. Beverly is located on the east side of the Columbia River across from the Boylston Hill grade, Milwaukee's steepest mainline grade in Washington state. Trains would roll past this location only 4 more months before abandonment of the Pacific Coast extension."

1978 Alcoa Local View

Photo courtesy of Brian Ambrose.

BN 1761 East with ex-GN GP9's 1761/1764 east of Malaga, WA 7-8-78.

Popular Couple Wed

From the "Grant County Journal."

June 4, 1948

Why would I include such a clipping as this? Mr. Bloom was a longtime operator at Ephrata and I have hundreds of trainorders written up by him, some of which have already been posted here. 

Tree Removal In Moses Lake

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

We Always Have To Repair The Cars!

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

1969 Milwaukee Timeslip Claim

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

1916 Alstown Map

Courtesy of the GNRHS.

Updated to 1985.

1916 Douglas Map

Courtesy of the GNRHS.

Map updated to 1985, at least. 

BN Train At Crater

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:

"Until Steven J. Brown and I stumbled around on the edge of a cliff in an apple orchard the week before and "discovered" the view across the "crater" above the Trinidad horseshoe curve, I never knew scene existed.! So I was back the following week to shoot this Advanced #12 with the wide angle across the crater as it climbs out of tunnel #11, onto the ledge, and up to the west end of Quincy siding. October 4 (we used to call that Broderick Crawford day, for us old timers), 1991."

BN 808 Near Cement

Guest post by Blair Kooistra. 

My pal Tom Carver--the guy who just authored that fantastic book on the Alco Century series of locomotives that just hit the market--disrupted my life one evening when I visited his home in the Interbay neighborhood of Seattle and laid it on me.

Tom was working as a short-haul truck driver, making a couple of trips a week between Seattle and Spokane. And Tom, being a railfan, couldn't help but keep his eyes out trackside when he was on the road.

His big news one day in the late summer of 1980: Burlington Northern was using F-units--multiple F-units in a big power set--on the Coulee City branch west from Spokane. BN had always assigned F7s and F9's out of Yardley in Spokane, largely assigned to helper service on Marias Pass to the east. But with F45s recently assigned to those duties, they became more popular to use on a few of the long-distance local jobs from there: Up to Kettle Falls and over to Republic on the Canadian Border, south on the P&L down to Moscow, Pullman and Lewiston, and west across the wheatfields to Coulee City.

And Tom had photos to prove it!

Well, that completely messed with my mind--BN's use of F-units in the Seattle area were starting to wind down, and F-units on branchlines hauling boxcars of wheat. . . let's go!

I made at least a half-dozen trips over the mountain to chase those damned F-units, almost down to their final days when the last one went into storage in early 1982. It was always with a variety of fellow photographers, and it always was a great time.

Here's one good memory, from my third trip on August 15, 1981. Engineer Jerry Kohliber leans out the cab window of F9 #808 and gives us a big smile as he takes a couple more notches on the throttle of three F9's and a GP7 not far east of Coulee City near the US 2 grade crossing at Cement Siding.

In four decades of retrenchment of railroads in Eastern Washington, amazing the Coulee City branch still survives--eventually bought by the state and operated even today under a contract operator.

No F units, though. But still a good time.

Difference Of Decades Othello

Photos courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:
"Difference of decades. . . . 

"The last #200 symbol arrives in Othello, Washington, on March 1, 1980, two weeks before the railroad's final train traversed the transcontinental mainline.  Five GP40s and a GP30 lead the last revenue cars east.

And September 30, 2020, and six empty fertilizer cars arrive at what's left of the Othello yard behind Washington Royal Lines SD45R #331, and ex-Montana Rail Link locomotive and the las SD45 rebuilt by Southern Pacific.  

"Since abandonment this trackage has been owned by Burlington Northern, the State of Washington, and now Columbia Basin Railway. The WRL is the contracted operator for the Port of Royal Slope, which owns the remnants of the Milwaukee Road west of here to Royal City Junction and the five mile branch up to Royal City. Operations are sporadic, but after years and years of trying, the operation is starting to gain a little traction in building traffic in an area where admittedly it's usually easier and cheaper to use trucks.

"One advantage of being old enough to have made both photographs 40 1/2 years apart that the amazement of having experienced the railroad wither and die, then waiting most of a lifetime to have the opportunity to see the rail line come back to life--however tenuously such a revival may be."