1925 Weber Coulee Trestle

Courtesy of JP3.

Located between Bassett Junction and Ritell.

See this spot today.

1934 Ritell & Bassett Junction Track Profile

 

1913 NP Map Of The Ritzville Cutoff

Note the faint line running between Ellensburg on the left and Ritell on the right. This is the survey the NP did to shorten their line across the state in the hope of making their line-haul shorter to be more competitive.

2014 CBRW Wheeler Turn

Photos by Jonathan Fischer.

September 14, 2014

Near Ritell.

 Arriving at Wheeler.

1952 Moses Lake Area Map

 

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

1925 Bassett Junction Area Bridges

Courtesy of the NP Telltale.

See this one today here.

See what this location looks like today.

Othello's Sugar Not So Sweet

From the "Othello Outlook."

February 29, 1952

BNSF Track Segment 379

Compiled by the late Alan Eisenberg.

Green segments were in service at the time the list was made. Red was out of service or gone. "CB" stands for "Columbia Basin Railway."

Bassett Jct

I've been meaning to get out into the wilds and see how close the NP and Milwaukee lines were in this area north of Warden. The Northern Pacific, under the guise of the Connell Northern, had built through here with a line from the mainline at Connell to Adrian, where it connected with the Washington Central branch. At Bassett Jct, the Ritzville cutoff started, with the line graded all the way to Ritzville. Tracks were only laid as far as Schrag. Surveys had the line continuing west from Bassett Jct, all the way to Ellensburg.

The Milwaukee branch from the mainline at Warden split at Tiflis. One segment went east to Marcellus, the west segment went to Moses Lake. What the maps show are wyes, and crossovers, all within a small section of land. No lines crossed each other at grade.

The first map is from 1925 and shows a pre Interstate 90 time, while the second map shows a 1980s view, largely unchanged today, showing how the interstate was built just to the north of all these railroad lines.

1912 NP and Milwaukee Public Timetables

From the "Neppel Record."

December 27, 1912