1946 Plan To Rehab The Connell Northern And Adrian Cutoff

Courtesy of the MHS.

February 14, 1946

Valuation Of Washington 14 Ritzville Branch

Thanks to Aaron Schwarz for digging this out.

From the NP Valuation of it's system prepared for the ICC in the 1920s.

The Ritzville Cutoff In 1932?

From an NP system map from 1932.

New Railroad Rumors

From the "Spokesman Review."

December 22, 1946

Short Hearing Approves Dam

From the "Spokesman Review."

August 10, 1948

From Mainline To Branchline To End Of The Line

Photo date April 19, 2012.

What was once the planned relocation of the Northern Pacific mainline across Washington State, became a backwater branchline that is now out of service. 

Drivers along Interstate 90 east of Moses Lake, WA are often confused by the railroad line that "follows" the road. It was, in fact, the other way around. 

The NP was aware that their mainline was longer than the competing lines of the Milwaukee and the Great Northern, so came up with a plan for a line to branch off their mainline at Ritzville, and run mostly due west to Ellensburg. This would save about 80 miles of running time, instead of dipping south through Pasco and then back north through Yakima. The line was surveyed and grading started at Ritzville and connected into the abuilding Connell Northern branch headed north out of Warden, WA, at a location called Bassett Junction. 

Rail was laid from Bassett to Remple (now called Schrag), when the project stopped. Cold. Why? The opening of the Panama Canal. It would seem that enough traffic disappeared from the otherwise very frugal NP that the project could no longer be justified. 

The NP did look at completing the line a few more times over the years, including a plan to use the Milwaukee grade to Ellensburg. The last internal  correspondence the NP had about this project was about 1951. 

Most traffic on on the branch was from a modest sized grain elevator at Schrag. It was still shipping when Burlington Northern sold off the old Connell Northern branch in 1986 to the Washington Central. Operations continued to be seasonal as ownership changed to the Columbia Basin Railway, after BN bought back the Washington Central, but promptly spun the Connell Northern lines right back out.

In the Columbia Basin era, car supply became dependent on the State of Washington having purchased older hopper cars, and doling them out to a few shortlines, in order to help keep truck traffic off state roads. In the photo you'll see these greenish yellow cars in abundance. 

I'm not so sure the brain-trust who put the state program cars into service thought much about the rule about 50 year old cars being prohibited from interchange service, but that is what seems to have killed off service on this branch. The photo here is from 2012, but in a few short years these cars were parked at Schrag, rusting to the rails, as they were all too old to hand off to the BNSF anymore. 

Those cars sat for about two years before they were rounded up and doled out to other state-owned shortlines for captive use, where they are still today. 

The Columbia Basin Railway ownership has changed recently. All the small power like the pictured GP9s are now long gone, and the branch is being used to store out of service Cryotrans reefers, with the mechanical refrigeration parts removed. There are nearly 100 of these cars out there today.  Is this the end of what was supposed to be a mainline?

Most of this information I plan on using for a program at the upcoming NPRHA convention this year in Toppenish, WA.  

Schrag Grain Train

Photographer unknown.

No date, but a few years ago for sure. 

Coming down the hill into Connell.

All the cars seen in the photo reached 50 years of service and were not allowed to be used in interchange service. Those cars were reclaimed from CBRW lines and split up between other state PCC lines.

Grain Train Roster Shot

Photo by Lauren Scrafford. 

Lauren says:
"Columbia Basin, CBRW 1022 roster photograph at Warden, WA on April 16, 2004. This string of 26 CBRW grain hoppers had just come off the Schrag branch and would be part of the next Connell turn and interchanged with the BNSF.

"The Columbia Basin had 30 of these grain hoppers and they were generally used on the Schrag Branch. They were numbered 1000-1028 and 1035 and 1100. Most were cylindrical hoppers, but a few were rib side hoppers. The rib sides that I recall were CBRW 1000, 1002-1004 & 1100. This one is stenciled Port of Moses Lake but not all of them were. I don't believe any of the rib sides were stenciled for the Port of Moses Lake."

1979 BN Station Revenues-Portland Division

 

1983 BN Washington Grain Elevator Directory

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

BN 1975 Station Revenues R-W

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

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.

1973 BN Portland Region Local Freight Train Briefs

Courtesy of Sheldon Perry.

2012 Visit To Schrag

April 20, 2012

 

1976 Burlington Northern Oregon Division Locals And Switch Engines

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

Edited heavily to just include our coverage area.

1980 Milwaukee To Burlington Northern Transfer Document

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz.

Trains Running By September 1

From the Wenatchee "World."

July 23, 1910

CBRW Schrag Extra

April 19, 2012