Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, BNSF Acquisition Corp., and Burlington Northern Railroad Company-Control-Washington Central Railroad Company

 

1997 Warden Views

Photos courtesy of Steve Vincent.

1997

WCRC 203 At Warden

Guest post by Lauren Scrafford. 

Washington Central Railroad, WCRC 203 has just picked a switch and is on the ground at Warden, WA on August 11, 1995. The switch had just been rebuilt and was locked but the first axle on the 203 went on the ground while going through the switch.

The WCRC 203 was an SW1200 EMD switcher built for the Missouri Pacific in April of 1966 as the MP 1148. It came to the Washington Central as the 203 and worked for the Columbia Basin also as the 203. I photographed it at Warden in 2001 and 2002. The CBRW retired it in 2014, and it went to the SMTX as the 203 before going to SVGX as the 1363 where it was also repainted.

2012 Warden Views

Photos courtesy JP3.

June 6, 2012

NP Storage Boxcars At Warden

Photos courtesy JP3.

June 6, 2012

1995 WCRC At Warden View

Photo courtesy of Blair Kooistra. 

Blair says:

"Wayback Wednesday."

"I'm glad I stopped for a photo of the four SW1200's tied up on the Washington Central Railroad at Warden, Washington, on August 26, 1995.

"I'm guessing I was headed back from a two-day trip from Seattle to the BN Lakeside subdivision with Brian Rutherford to photograph CSX AC4400's operating on a test train. I can't recall if Brian and I had split up for our return trips by this point or not; if he was still with me, I'm guessing he spent his time photographing the NP and GN freight cars in a junkyard nearby.

"In 1996, Washington Central spun off the lines north of Connell into their present day Columbia Basin Railroad subsidiary; there wasn't a lot of traffic on this branch in 1995, but that soon changed. WCRC had four SW1200s (ex-MoPac), and here they are MU'ed and tied down near the Warden station. MU'ed SW1200's certainly would have been just as worthy to photograph as more BN green SD40-2s, so maybe we should have spent more time HERE? Today, lots of traffic, and SD9s and GP9s have replaced the switchers."

Difference Of Decades Warden

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:

"Back in 1995, Columbia Basin Railroad had been operating a cluster of former Burlington Northern and Milwaukee Road lines in the Warden area for nine years. While business had grown from BN days, it certainly hadn't boomed yet, and traffic didn't tax the four SW1200's assigned to the line from parent Washington Central's roster.

"A lot has changed in 25 years, and with it, a boom in the agriculture business in the area. Now the nightly drag to the BNSF interchange in Connell and two nightly switch jobs require a stable of at least five SD9's and a single GP9. Facilities have expanded as well with a new maintenance shop for track machinery under construction as well as a clean locomotive fueling and inspection facility. The old steel yard office from Northern Pacific days is still there, and is one of the few constants in these two views."

 

WCRC Power At Warden

Photo courtesy Jonathan Fischer.

August 1995

WCRC 2087 At Warden

Photographer unknown.

August 1999

2012 Timeline Of The Line To Royal City

Guest post by Lauren Scrafford.

The BN operated the Royal Slope as part of the Portland Division, 10th sub branch line Warden to Royal City until the sale of the line to Temple Industries Washington Central RR in late 1986. It was not operated at first until 1982 after the Milwaukee abandonment and sale of properties, though there was residual operations of the line after the Milwaukee shut down. The line from Warden to Othello originally was the 21st sub of the Portland Division of the BN. The Port of Royal Slope had purchased the main line from Othello to the Junction and out to Industrial Park from the Milwaukee for $300,000 and then spent a lot more money rehabilitating the line.

Washington Central operated the line for a period of time after 1986, but eventually refused to serve the line anymore due to lack of traffic. Somewhere I have the figures but there were only about 100-200 car loads most years and if I remember correctly the last year Washington Central handled the traffic there were only 51 car loads.

The Port brought in Yakima Valley or Toppenish, Simcoe and Western to operate the line, which they did for a couple of years. I think the last year they handled 9 car loads.

In 1994 the Port sold the line to the Washington State DOT. Sunfresh bought the former US Army MRS 1 from Toppenish, Simcoe and Western in 1993. I think the last car loads shipped were in 1991.

1989 Othello Yard View

Photo by Gary Brown.

August 1989

Gary says:

"This was a very sad scene to come upon as I came down Main St. and arrived at the yard crossing. MILWAUKEE ROAD-Othello,WA was gone. Anyone who had not been here prior to about 1977-78 would never guess what had once graced this yard . What a loss Othello had suffered with the passing of MILWAUKEE ROAD LINES WEST."

Car Back On Tracks

From "The Bulletin."

November 29, 1988

WCRC Royal City Turn

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Fischer.

June 1987. 

Jonathan says:
"WCRC 203 is seen near Royal City Junction, on its way back to Othello, on a spring afternoon in June, 198.7

First seen heading downgrade between the 'Natural Corral' and RC Jct., the 203 was spotted crossing Crab Creek, and finally was noted entering the Othello yard."

WCRC 4491

Photograph by Steve Vincent.

September 3, 1995.

Car Back On Tracks

From "The Bulletin."

November 29, 1988

WCRC GP7s

From the collection of Ted Curphey.

1988 WCRC Views

Photos by Jonathan Fischer.

August 14, 1988

 

 

WCRC Power At Warden

Courtesy of Steve Vincent.

WCRC 4492 At Warden

Photo courtesy of Steve Vincent.

I have not been able to find my photos of this unit, nor of the trailing one. These were both former C&NW units, rebuilt by the Northwestern. Both units were sold when the BNSF bought out the WCRC. At the time of this writing, the 4492 was the Nebraska, Kansas & Colorado number 2. The 4491 went on the the Illinois Railnet, as their number 2. That line also picked up one of the former WCRC CF7s.

Anyway, I got an extended cab ride on one of these 2 units, as an engineer at the time was a close relative. His complaint about them at the time is they didn't pull well anymore, thinking they were worn out junk. 

WCRC At Othello And Milwaukee Road At Taunton

From an old copy of the Milwest "Dispatch."

Found in the collection of the late Ross Sterling.