Stumbled Onto Something Special

Guest post by James Belmont.

While chasing trains along the former Great Northern in Washington State, we encountered a big surprise. BN GP38-2 No. 2099 was BNSF's first repainted standard cab locomotive.
 

2099 was touring the railroad in glorious GN inspired livery, wearing Pullman Green and Omaha Orange paint. The running gear was painted silver, to match new 900 series GE C44-9W deliveries.

We caught him on train No. 639, passing through Naylor, Washington on Sept. 13, 1996.

Ephrata Trainorders

 

Jackrabbit Stops The GN At Naylor

In corresponding with the late Mike Denuty back in 2012, he had passed along this story, which I just came across again.

I ran across the following in gnry net, the GN Kalispell Division history site:

1914, 02 July:

Jack Rabbit Stops A Train

Little animal's body was hurled against the air hose, setting the brakes.

How a jackrabbit stopped the crack Great Northern express train is related by H. H. Dean of Hill yard, Washington, the engineer who stood at the throttle when the incident occurred. Here is the engineer's own version of the affair:

"We were coming through Naylor when the accident occurred," declared Mr. Dean. "We were bowling along about 50 miles an hour, pulling our full complement of coaches, when I saw a Jackrabbit coming toward us full speed in the middle of the track. The animal evidently was confused by the brilliant glare from the electric headlight and made no effort to get out of the way. Just before we struck him he stopped and crouched down, and after the engine pilot passed over him the airbrakes began to work and the train came to a sudden stop, the air register showing the brakes set on the emergency.

 "The fireman and I got out to investigate, and found that the air-hose had been uncoupled between the engine and tender. There were bloodstains and pieces of' fur on the coupling, and it was evident that the body of the rabbit had been thrown against the hose with sufficient force to break the connections."

 --- Logansport Chronicle

My dad, John Denuty, said jackrabbits were a big problem in Eastern Washington in the early years, including the Big Bend Country. They grew really BIG and were a big danger for automobiles on the highway between Reardan or Davenport and Wenatchee. Some counties paid bounties for rabbits and some had rabbit drives

In Adams County, rabbits could devastate farmers' only cash crop - wheat - so drives were conducted weekly. The carcusses were shipped by train to the Salvation Army in Spokane.

Unfortunately, at the end of one of the drives in January 1922, a Paha farmer was accidently killed by shotgun fire.

By the 1990s, with an increase in irrigation and loss of habitat, jackrabbits became rare in Eastern Washingon. 

1955 Wenatchee To Spokane Track Chart

Courtesy of the Wilson Creek Museum.

Edits by Gus Christ. 

Train Derailment Disrupts Line

From the "Spokesman Review."

February 22, 1982

Train Derailment Disrupts Line

From the "Spokesman Review."

February 22, 1982

BNSF Vs Center Pivot

Occurred at Naylor on April 23, 2021. 

Photographer unknown.

People familiar with this area said "this pivot will go thru the stop and head to the tracks Guess the new farmer didn’t know that."

1973 BN Consolidated Annual Station Earnings-2

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz.

Train Dispatcher's Graph

Courtesy of Dave Sprau.

June 1987


Dave says:

"Train dispatchers "graph" of movements in CTC installed mostly on Great Northern days, between Edmonds and Harrington. Way too much to document here except to say this graph rolled along slowly, sort of like a window shade, from one roller to another, and the time of day is shown at the left. The time of day on the graph is 5.40 PM. Amtrak 1008 went by Edmonds and cleared the double track at east end at 528 pm; then Pacific Zip No 3 went thru the single track at Edmonds one minute afterward. The Kirkland Turn ran from Snohomish to Lowell 20 minutes ago and then No 600 occupied the switch at Lowell to make his pick up and is still there. Advance 12 just went by Gold Bar. 103 left Skykomish 7 minutes ago so obviously they are going to meet at Baring. The identity of trains is inked in by hand, as you see. Some identities cant be seen, because they are written on a portion of the graph not photographed here. Part of dispatchers duties when we had this old equipment was to take a pen and "connect the dots" - the "dots" being those little jogs of an automatic pen on this graph paper each time a train goes past a control point, -usually the siding switches at a station. Then when you connect all the dots you get a nice little "picture" of the operation. Technology and procedure consigned to the garbage can about 30 years ago."

Vacation Of Naylor

1985 Quincy Freight Agency Closure

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz

Train Derailment Disrupts Line

From the "Spokesman Review."

February 22, 1982

SR 28 Crossing At Naylor

Map courtesy of the GN-NP Archives.

Note what was probably a shoo-fly, like at Soap Lake, where a temporary bridge was constructed while the permanent bridge was built.

1956 Naylor Topo Map

Passenger Trip Between Ephrata And Quincy

Gus Christ photos. Courtesy of the Wilson Creek Museum.

Gus was a Roadmaster out of Ephrata, and a few of his photos have recently turned up. Most seem to date from the 1950s.

Seems the location is somewhere between Naylor and Winchester. Check out the speedometer in the first image!

Naylor Difference Of Decades

First photo from a February 28, 1979 derailment:

 After photo on March 6, 2013:

Other than the wreck being cleaned up, not much has changed. This is over the West Canal between Ephrata and Quincy, at the West Naylor siding switch.

1979 Naylor Derailment

From the "Grant County Journal."

March 5, 1979

Derailment occurred 2-28-1979.

Railroad Buying Adjacent Lands

From the "Spokane Chronicle."

April 15, 1950

Personal Story of Central Washington Sugar Beets

 Reprinted with permission of John Langlot.

"I worked the GN beet local that was station at Quincy. I'm sure that it was 1968 or 1969, This was in the days when the hours of service was still 16 hours. We would switch out the loaded 40' drop bottom gons of beets and take them to Adrian and set them into the two storage tracks off the siding at Adrian. The NP line crossed over the GN mainline siding and the creek on a wood trestle. at the eastend of the siding there was a track called the NP transfer. This track ran uphill to the NP mainline(branch line) to the switch that was on the NP mianline. This branch line ran to Coulee City when they were building Grand Coulee Dam but had been shorten up to Adrian years later.

"The NP would run to wheeler Think? pick up the empty beet gons and run to Adrian. On there arrival at Adrian they would back down the transfer track stop and go to the GN Dispatchers phone and get permission to occupy the Adrian siding from the GN Dispatcher. After the NP local obtained permission to occupy the Adrian siding they would shove onto the siding down the the storage tracks setting out the empty gons and pickup any loads of beets and head back to the U and I sugar plant.

"When I worked the GN Beet local we had taken about 50 car loads of beets to Adrian and Winchester and Quincy were out of empty gons to load. Every day for three days we would get a message with our train orders ( this was All ABS territory then) from the Chief Dispatcher to go to Adrian and wait for the NP local to deliver the empty beet gons. We would go to Adrian get in the clear of the siding on the storage tracks and wait until our 16 hours was close to running out. and then run back to Quincy and tie up on our hours of service. Well on the third day about 7:00 PM the NP local showed up with 207 empty gons.

"We shoved up the transfer track the stopped the NP locals engines at there switch and made a plan. There caboose didn't have a radio so we had the NP local cut off there train and grab our Caboose and then grab there train. they pulled ahead and our engineer talked to our caboose and the brakeman in the caboose gave the NP engineer hand signs when it was time to stop his train. we cut the NP locals caboose off just to clear the transfer track and then had the NP engineer pull ahead far enough for us to grab the gons and at this time the Brakeman on our caboose cut the NP engines Off of our caboose and we start down the transfer track picking up our conductor Frank V. Jones at the switch Frank said the dispatcher was not very happy and didn't know what he was going to do with us as he was afraid that we would delay the eastbound Empire Builder.

"We stopped and headed into Ephrata made a cut behind 50 gons and pulled into the industry track and down and out of the storage track at the west end on to the mainline cutting the two crossing with the two brakemen the third brakeman stopped us in the clear on the industry on the east end and while we were cutting the crossing he was tying hand brakes the first cut on the eastend of the industry.

"We came back down the mainline and grabbed the 157 gons that were left and headed for Naylor where we met the builder and then we headed for Winchester getting rid of another 60 gons leaving 97 gons left to get rid of at Quincy. By the time we had filled up the west yard at Quincy the day were done.

"After this day was over we would make two trips to Adrian each day with loads of beets for the NP to pickup. every time the NP came over to Adrian to pickup the loads of beets they would leave some empty beet gons.

"There would be big piles of sugar beets at Quincy and Winchester about 300 feet long by about 150 feet wide and 30 to 40 feet high and the sugar beets would lay on the ground until they froze as this would raise the sugar content in the beets.

"I was told that the reason the U and I sugar plant closed was competition of Corn Syrup."

John ( Jack ) Langlot

Naylor AFEs

This is a summary to the "Applications For Expenditures" (AFE) files which were project files for all purchases, construction or removal of facilities or equipment from Great Northern property. These files sometimes contain correspondence, invoices, blueprints and other project information, and often contain insight into events or changes in a specific area at a point in time.

As a summary, it does give a look into the changes made over the years.

From the GN-NP Archives.

1913    Place and fit box car body

1914    Construct extension on west end of passing track 972 feet

1917    Install ROW fence

1921    1/2 mile ease, relay 4301 track feet 85# rail between mile post 1603-1604, with second hand 85# re-sawed rail

1921    Relay 1534 1/2 track feet 85# rail (new when laid) with second hand resawed 85# rail from east switch westward

1921    Relay 5891 track feet 85# (new when laid) west from a point 1534 1/2 feet from east switch of Naylor, with second hand 85# re-sawed rail

1923    On passing track, relay track of less than 75#

1942    Install three concrete pipes at station 6997+00 and construct ditch on north side of track

1947    Relay passing track and secondary tracks with second hand 100# rail

1948    Construct two shoofly tracks for construction of crossing of west canal on Columbia Basin Project

1949    Construct private crossing for Morrison Knudson Co

1949    Construct two shoofly tracks, one 2680 feet long and the other 2990 feet long for construction of crossings of west canal on Columbia Basin Project

1950    Purchase land for additional industrial purposes

1950    Construct private crossing for Morrison Knudson Co

1950    Dedicate portion of station grounds for county roadway

1952    Construct 400 foot extension to industry track

1952    Construct public crossing for Grant County

1952    Construct private crossing at station 7136-65

1953    Construct private crossing at station 7026+16

1955    Construct shoofly track 1319 feet long

1963    Remove 897 feet of industry track

1969    Replace rail anchors on CTC sidings