Ride On The Mansfield Branch

Photos courtesy of Olaf Rasmussen, as found at the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum.

1981

1983 BN Washington Grain Elevator Directory A-E

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

BN 1975 Station Revenues A-C

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

 

1971 BN Consolidated Annual Station Earnings

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

1983 Spokane Division Train Briefs

Courtesy of Lynn Francis.

April 1, 1983

WENATCHEE AREA
51882 Quincy Spud Loc. 0900 DXSa-Su Wenatchee-Quincy A.
51882 Quincy Spud As Reqd. Columbia River-Bon Spur & Ret. B.
51881 Quincy Spud DXSa-SU Quincy-Wenatchee C.
51881 Quincy Spud As Reqd. Columbia River -Bon Spur & Ret. D.
51898 Quincy Spud As Reqd. Quincy-Ephrata & Ret. E.
51886 Alcoa Loc. 2100 Wenatchee-Rock Island & Ret. A.
51886 Alcoa Loc. As Reqd. Rock Island-Bon Spur & Ret. B.
51888 Alcoa Loc 2nd Trip As Reqd. Wenatchee-Rock Island & Ret. C.
51888 Alcoa Loc 2nd Trip As Reqd. Rock Island-Bon Spur & Ret. D.
51690 WO Local 1700 Tu-Th-Sa Wenatchee-Oroville
51691 WO Local 1500 Mo-We-Fr Oroville-Wenatchee
51894 Mansfield Turn As Reqd. Wenatchee-Mansfield & Ret.

SPOKANE WEST & SOUTH
51671 CW Loc 1030 Mo-We-Fr Yardley-Coulee City A.
51672 CW Loc 0630 Tu-Th-Sa Coulee City-Yardley B.
51672 CW Loc As Reqd. Davenport to Eleanor Industry C.
51672 CW Loc Tu-Th-Sa Cheney-Babb & Ret. D.
51803 Babb Turn 0700 DXSu Erie St-(Spokane)-Babb & Ret. A
51803 Babb Turn Tu-Th Latah Junction-Geiger Field & Ret. B
51619 Yardley-Pullman Loc 1300 Mo-Th Yardley-Pullman A.
                               As Reqd. Mt. Hope B.
51620 Pullman-Yardley Loc 0700 We-Sa. Pullman-Yardley A.
                         As Reqd. Palouse-Grinnell-Viola- B.
                         As Reqd. Rosalia-Balder C.
51873 Pullman-Julietta Loc Tu-Fr Pullman-Genessee-Julietta
51847 WIM Local 0800 DXSa-Su Potlatch-Palouse-Boville & Ret.

SPOKANE EAST & NORTH (Pt-1)
51842 Coeur D'Alene 0930 DXSa-Su Post Falls-Coeur D'Alene & Ret.
51801 Athol Turn 0400 As Reqd. Yardley-Hauser-Athol & Ret.
51816 Bonner Ferry Loc 0630 DXSa-Su Sandpoint-Crossport & Ret.
51821 Newport Loc 0730 DXSa-Su Newport-Sandpoint & Ret.
51846 Green Acres Loc As Reqd. Ydly-Erie St-Post Falls 7th Sub.
51819 Sandpoint Turn 1900 DXSa Sandpoint-Yardley & Ret.
51820 Sandpoint Turn 2300 DXSa Yardley-Sandpoint

1964 Bonspur Aerial View

 

1976 Burlington Northern Spokane Division Locals And Switch Engines

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

Edited lightly to show just our coverage area.

1964 Bonspur View

Grain From Mansfield

Photo courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:

"Clanging and banging over the light, jointed rail, grain leaking from the doorways and from gapped floorboards on each gap in the rails, Burlington Northern's "Withrow Turn" begins its descent to the former Great Northern mainline at Columbia River siding (now Albus) coming out of Palisade canyon on August 1, 1983.

"The wheat is moving off the scenic Mansfield Branch in the channeled scablands of central Washington, one of the last places on the railroad where 40' boxcars are still used to haul grain to export elevators on the west coast. These post-war steel cars will move avoid the steep mainline over Stevens pass and move east to Spokane, combined with cuts of boxcars off the other remaining eastern Washington boxcar wheat line--the spur to Eleanor off the CW branch at Davenport--then back west on the former Northern Pacific and SP&S mainlines to elevators in Vancouver or Kalama, WA. Less than two years remain for boxcars hauling grain; by 1985, farmers had moved to trucking their harvest to elevators along the mainline for loading into high-capacity covered hoppers, and the boxcars--and the Mansfield Branch itself--were sent to scrap."

1973 BN Consolidated Annual Station Earnings-3

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz.

Mansfield Local Crossing Douglas Creek

© 2015 Bill Edgar, North Coast Studios.

April 1983.

BN 1792, an X-Great Northern GP9 leads 1754 a former NP Geep on the weekly Mansfield local. The train has just left the mainline at Columbia River siding and has started up a draw through apple orchards that will take it through the Palisades on a climb to Douglas and the Mansfield Plateau where it will exchange these empty 40 ft. boxes for loads. The train was typically limited to 40 cars, and covered hoppers were off limits, which ultimately doomed the branch.

1954 Bonspur Aerial View

What this spot looks like today. Click here.

1955 Bonspur

Bonspur is a contraction of the name Bonneville Spur, which is where this line off of the Mansfield Branch went, to service a large substation a few miles south of Rock Island Dam. 

View today:

1966 Columbia River & Bonspur Topo Maps

BNSF Track Segment 386

Compiled by the late Alan Eisenberg.

Red indicated that the station was abandoned at the time of compilation.

BN Train Near Bonspur

Photo courtesy of Blair Kooistra

August 1, 1983.

Mansfield Branch Abandonment Application and Approval

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz

This is the branch that came off the GN/BN at Columbia River (now Albus) and went up Moses Coulee and wandered across the plateau to Mansfield.

The Great Northern seriously considered extending the line to Grand Coulee Dam to handle construction supplies before the dam was built.