1942 Coast Division Timetable

Just the pages that relate to this corner of the world.

Seiler Track Profile

 

1942 Moses Lake Branch Abandonment Study

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

 

 

 

 

 

Moses Lake To Tiflis Track Profile

No date known.

Origin Of The Seiler Name

From the 1915 Grant County Atlas.

A question as to the origin of the Milwaukee Road siding of Seiler was brought up. It's located near the junction the Milwaukee used to get from the Moses Lake branch to the U&I Sugar plant at Scalley/Wheeler. It survives today as the end of a spur for the Columbia Basin Railway.

With the large number of Seiler owned sections shown on the map, I suspect they had bought the land from the Northern Pacific.

Seiler Aerial Photo

Guest post by William Russ.

Here’s a Lines West station with a 58 car siding and 2 (or is it 3?) other tracks with a capacity of 77 cars. All that capacity is needed to service the industry we see here plus two others west of here. I count 60 cars on train occupying the main line. I think this train has stopped here to do some work. That said, I can’t locate the power. This makes me think the crew left their train to go switch one of the other industries. One of those has a pair of spurs coming off the main about 1.5 miles to the west. The other is accessed down a long spur just 0.4 miles to the west. All of these industries are agricultural related. The aerial was taken July 29, 1966.

1975 Milwaukee "Night Letter"

Courtesy of Allen Miller.

Allen says:
"Here are some line-ups of a different kind. Kind of like a Chief Dispatcher's "Night Letter" these are instructions for calling and making up trains out of Othello by Trainmaster Gerry McCole (G.A.M.)."

"This is page 1 of 2 pages dated 8-15-1975. I haven't figured out what "RC" means. "M/U" means Make-Up or Made-Up. "OIH" means Old Ice House" referring to a track."

"Page 2 of 8-15-1975."

"Page 1 of 2 dated 8-28-1975."

"Page 2 of 8-28-1975."

"This is a one page list of things for the Mosey Local to do on a given night. "MBW" is Marve Williamson, agent at Moses Lake."

I asked Allen about the coal at Warden to be moved to Seiler:
"The coal went to the U&I Sugar Plant at Scalley. It was probably just being stored at Seiler."

BN Takes Milwaukee Tracks

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

March 21, 1980

Chuck Grow

I recently learned of his passing, via his granddaughter, Sarah Mendoza.

I related my encounter with him a few years ago in this posting.

Here is the text of his obituary, found at the Stevens Funeral Chapel webpage.

"Charles “Chuck” Grow, beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather, passed away June 28th, 2015 at his home surrounded by family. Chuck was born on November 6th, 1931 in Colorado. His family moved to Othello, Wa. in 1946 where he met the love of his life, Betty Bluhm. They were married in 1949 and had five beautiful children. He had a lifelong career as an engineer with the Milwaukee Railroad, as well as in construction and farming.

"Chuck was a talented athlete, avid sports fan and made friends everywhere he went. He enjoyed coaching as well; starting with his sons and continuing on through his grandkids and great grandkids.

"He loved hunting, fishing, and camping, boating, and wood working. He enjoyed attending community events, participating in parades, fair, and he never missed an Othello PRCA rodeo.

"He is survived by his wife, Betty; children Deborah (Robert) Russell, Chuck Grow, Theresa (Wil) Pickel, Michael (Sheree) Grow, and Lori (Darwen) Wheeler, sister Kathy (Paul) Shaftic, 10 grandkids and 8 great grandkids. He is preceded in death by his parents Tom and Nora Grow, and sisters Mary, Bettie and Sybil.

"At his request there will be no funeral services. In lieu of flowers, please send donations on behalf of Chuck to the Othello Senior Center where he enjoyed coffee with buddies daily."

Ms. Mendoza passed along the following photo from her collection.

Note that the current operator of the line where Mr. Grow worked, the Columbia Basin Railway, still has Grow marked on it's system map, the former Milwaukee Road station of Seiler.

1969 MIlwaukee Road Tenth Subdivision Timetable

1956 McDonald And Seiler Topo Map

BNSF Track Segment 456

Compiled by the late Alan Eisenberg.

BNSF Track Segment 395

Compiled by the late Alan Eisenberg.

BNSF Line Segment 395 & 456

Compiled by the late Alan Eisenberg.

Green segments were in service at the time the list was made. "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.

My First Encounter With The Washington Central

I was living in Moses Lake at the time the Burlington Northern sold off its mixed former Northern Pacific and Milwaukee Road branches between Connell, Wheeler, Warden and Othello in 1986. At the time I did not appreciate the change very much.

I finally got out to check out what the Washington Central was up to out in Wheeler in November of 1988. This photo is all I can find anymore of those days.

The 203 started out life as a switcher for the Missouri Pacific before getting picked up by Ceeco out of Tacoma, WA. They rebuilt this one and a few others for the WCRC.

Those were fun times for me as I got to know some of the crew members. One that stands out was an older gentleman named Chuck Grow. Mr. Grow lived in Othello and had worked for the Milwaukee Road up until 1980. He really liked to railroad and missed the Milwaukee. The Washington Central thought enough of him to rename one of the siding switches at Seiler after him.

He invited me and a friend for a cab ride to Warden. On the day of out trip, some of the refrigerator cars they were shuffling at the Carnation plant at Wheeler went on the ground and it took a few hours to clean up. As a result, our trip to Warden happened after dark. Fun times!