This site features daily historical railroad posts from the Big Bend/Columbia Plateau region of Washington state. As a personal site, this is my online filing cabinet of interesting things I've come across about railroading in the area. Thanks for stopping by! Shoutout to Kirtus Dolorina for stopping by to borrow other people's work!
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Sunday, July 20, 2025
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
2019 Wheeler Turn
Photos by Jonathan Fischer.
November 22, 2019
Jonathan says:
" CBRW 302 leads a short, two car, Friday local from Warden, Washington, to Wheeler, Washington (and return).
CBRW 302 is initially spotted leaving Warden northbound in the early
morning. Also noted were CBRW 652, 608, & 651. Five miles away, at
Bassett Jct., the sun had given way to fog/low clouds."
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Tiflis/Bassett Junction
Guest post by William Russ.
There are 2 competing railroads in this April 21, 1959 aerial. The difficult local geography caused them to build fairly close to each other here. Zoom in on this high-resolution image and you will see both Junction A and B feature a wye. South of here each railroad serves the same town. North of here they go their own separate ways and don't compete with each other, not within the same towns anyway. The railroads cross each other at two places within this aerial. Neither crossing is at grade so there is no mention of them in the respective TTs.
Railroad A: Connell Northern/Northern Pacific, Burlington Northern
Railroad B: Milwaukee Road
Junction A: Basset Junction N of Ritell on the NP Connell Northern Branch
Junction B: Tiflis Wye on the Milwaukee Road
Monday, June 17, 2024
1983 Portland Division Train Briefs
Courtesy of Lynn Francis.
April 1, 1983
Local Freight Trains-Portland Division Revised 4-1-83
Pasco-Walla Walla-Lewiston Area------Trainmaster Distric 1
Local Train-----On Duty-Freq------Territory
61810 WWV Local 0830 DXSa-Su W Walla-Milton Freewater & Ret A
61810 WWV Local As Reqd. College Place-Baker-Langdon
& Ret B
61613 Pasco-Dixie Local 0900 Mo-We-Fr Pasco to Walla Walla,
Dixie & Ret.
61811 Snake River Swr. 1500 DXSu Pasco-Finley-Yellepit & Ret. A
61811 Snake River Swr. DXSu Pasco-Martindale-Burbank & Ret. B
61811 Snake River Swr. DXSu Pasco-Kennewick & Ret. C
61811 Snake River Swr. As Reqd.--Kennewick-Richland & Ret.
61817 Riparia Turn 1930 DXMo Pasco-Riparia & Ret.
61819 Pendleton Turn 0800 DXSu Pasco-Pendleton & Ret. A
61819 Pendleton Turn As Reqd. Smeltz-Athena & Ret. B
Connell-Wheeler-Cheney Area-------Trainmaster District 2
61826 Connell-Whlr Turn 1000 DXSu Connell-Wheeler & Ret. A
As Reqd. Bassett Jct-Schrag & Ret. B
61828 Pasco-Bruce Turn 1500 DXSu Pasco-Bruce & Ret. A
As Reqd. Mesa-Basin City & Ret. B
61823 Wheeler-Othello Turn 1800 DXSa Wheeler-Othello Lake &
Ret. A
61421 Wheeler-Moses Lake 0700 DXSu Wheeler-Moses Lake & Ret. A
Turn 0700 As Reqd. Wheeler-Royal City & Ret. B
Yakima-Toppenish-Grandview Area------Trainmaster District 3
61832 White Swan Local 0830 Tu-Th-Su Yakima-Mabton & Ret. A
61832 White Swan Local As Reqd. Toppenish-White Swan & Ret. C
61835 NYV Local 0830 Mo-We-Fr Yakima-Moxee City & Ret. A
61835 NYV Local 0830 Mo-We-Fr Yakima-Naches-Tieton & Ret. B
61833 15th Sub div. Lcl 0800 As Reqd. To Pasco-Buena & Ret.
Saturday, June 15, 2024
Friday, September 1, 2023
Monday, August 28, 2023
Monday, August 15, 2022
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Saturday, March 5, 2022
Saturday, December 4, 2021
Saturday, May 15, 2021
NP Washington State Maps
Images courtesy of Dennis Lee.
Not sure of the exact date, but the line showing the cutoff between Bassett Jct and Ellensburg dates to around 1914.