New GP9s At Othello

Photo by Wade Stevenson.

1954

SD7s At Othello

Photo by Wade Stevenson.

1953

Warden Switcher Departing Othello

Guest post by Ryan Reed.

August 1965

This extremely rare photograph shows the Warden Switcher departing Othello in August 1965. The switcher ran between Othello and Warden peddling loaded ice reefers from Warden. The flatcar and load (probably for Stone & Conners) is unusual.

I did two oral history interviews with brakemen who worked the job - both said it was long and boring as they waited for reefers to be loaded. Other times the Warden Switcher would have to make a side trip to Tiflis to rescue the Mosey, dead on hours.

So much history, on the brink of being lost.

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."

 

F Units!

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:
"From August 15, 1981, we're ankle deep in freshly turned soil and volcanic ash on a hillside between Wilbur and Creston, Washington, as the eastbound CW Local grinds past with a 35-car grain train pulled by a trio of F9's and a GP9, all former Northern Pacific. Fitting, as this branch from Cheney to Coulee City, Washington, is former Northern Pacific as well.

"This day, they train is all "modern" covered hoppers, all though many of them still wear the paint of predecessor railroads. A few miles ahead, the local will stop to pick up eight loaded woodchip cars, about the only non-grain business regularly handled on the line.

"This was the last harvest for the old Covered Wagons--by the end of the year, the last of BN's F-units working out of Spokane would go into storage, joining their sisters on the west side of the mountain which had ceased their labors only two weeks before."

E-23 At Othello

Photo by Wade Stevenson.

January 1954

BN Local Power At Wenatchee

Photo courtesy of Brian Ambrose.

July 7, 1979