Industrial and General Report-1912-1

Courtesy of the PNRA. Thanks to Aaron Schwarz for digging this out.

BN 6341 West Near Malaga

Courtesy of Tom Carver.

May 1981

"Having just crossed the Columbia River and now on the west bank, this westbound is approaching Wenatchee, WA, and a crew change."

BN 6601 At Malaga

Guest post by Blair Kooistra.

My first trip--accompanied by Brian Ambrose--to the wonderful terrain east of Wenatchee on the former Great Northern, on July 8, 1978. We got into the crew change point at Wenatchee about noon and then went east towards the crossing of the Columbia River about a dozen miles out of town at the siding of Malaga--a great place to spend the afternoon with the curves and river and basalt cliff backdrops.

Here comes a westbound manifest train out of Malaga. Apart from a single high-wide Boeing load on the head end and a few woodchip loads it was mostly empty bulkhead flatcars and double-door boxcars all bound for reloading with lumber on the west side of the Cascades.

Can't complain about the power up front: The second F45 on the roster--former Great Northern--leads a pair of SD45s. We certainly could have chased this train back home over the pass, but there were more trains coming, and who'd want to pass up on that?

This day trip led to several trips that month to Stevens pass and a trip two weeks later with Michael Douglas Sawyer--who'd I met the day before--which resulted in one of those "tales from the road" as teenagers you'll remember for the rest of your life. . .and just make a new friendship that much stronger. 

1957 Ephrata Trainorders

 

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.

Ephrata Trainorders

 

Ephrata Trainorders

 

BN F45 At Malaga

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:

"Big, Bad-Ass BN V20's westbound at Malaga on a memorable July 8, 1978 trip with Michael Sawyer--our first one together--that culminated with me riding an open gondola through the Cascade Tunnel and Mikey driving my 1975 Monte Carlo frantically back and forth across Steven Pass trying to find me. What a Day! I don't think many friendships have gotten off to such a wild start..."

 

Ephrata Trainorders

 

Ephrata Trainorders

 

Malaga Depot

Late 1960s.

BN Train At Malaga

Photo courtesy of Brian Ambrose.

"Here BN train #130 is passing through Malaga, WA 7-7-79 with 6621/2212/1533 (F45/GP30/GP7)."

1976 Burlington Northern Spokane Division Locals And Switch Engines

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

Edited lightly to show just our coverage area.