Down On 331

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:

"Down on: Washington Royal Lines #331, former Montana Rail Link SD45R, Othello, Washington, 30 September 2020."

 

2020 Royal City Branch Views

Photos by Blair Kooistra. 

Blair says:

"Wicked horseshoe curve up a 3% gradient and a sharp curve: Mliwaukee Road's Royal City Branch, built 1967, and amazingly still in (somewhat sporadic) use by Port of Royal Slope on a connection east to Othello, Washington.

"This is the big curve around Horse Corral Coulee, just below Royal City."

"A quite rare operation. I felt fortunate to stumble onto it running during a week's holiday in the area. And I wouldn't have gotten this without a phone call from the director of the port district that owns the tracks."

Difference Of Decades Othello

Photos courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:
"Difference of decades. . . . 

"The last #200 symbol arrives in Othello, Washington, on March 1, 1980, two weeks before the railroad's final train traversed the transcontinental mainline.  Five GP40s and a GP30 lead the last revenue cars east.

And September 30, 2020, and six empty fertilizer cars arrive at what's left of the Othello yard behind Washington Royal Lines SD45R #331, and ex-Montana Rail Link locomotive and the las SD45 rebuilt by Southern Pacific.  

"Since abandonment this trackage has been owned by Burlington Northern, the State of Washington, and now Columbia Basin Railway. The WRL is the contracted operator for the Port of Royal Slope, which owns the remnants of the Milwaukee Road west of here to Royal City Junction and the five mile branch up to Royal City. Operations are sporadic, but after years and years of trying, the operation is starting to gain a little traction in building traffic in an area where admittedly it's usually easier and cheaper to use trucks.

"One advantage of being old enough to have made both photographs 40 1/2 years apart that the amazement of having experienced the railroad wither and die, then waiting most of a lifetime to have the opportunity to see the rail line come back to life--however tenuously such a revival may be."

WRL At Corfu

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

September 2020

Blair says:

"The Curse of Corfu has been lifted! NEVER in my life did I think I’d photograph a train here again.

"Thanks to the employees and officials of the Port of Royal Slope who didn’t give up on the importance of keeping a railroad link to the outside world.

"This time, I didn’t rip out an oil pan to get this shot."

 

Taunton

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

September 2020

Blair says:

"Had never driven into the substation at Taunton before. The road was always chained off and NO TRESPASSING signs and stories about an excitable owner was enough to keep me away.

"Now, no chain, no signs, and no respect by the kids whov’ve desecrated place over the years. The building and the mainline rest between trains; a dead freight is called at Othello, and the substation operator will soon crank up the juice so E-39 can head west for an overnight trip to Tacoma.

"Or so I imagine."

 

The Bad-Ass Railroad

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

September 25, 2020

Blair says:

"I drove along the Milwaukee Road from Othello to Beverly today, and was reminded what a bad-ass piece of railroad this is, especially from Taunton to Smyrna. Perhaps my callow teenage mind didn't realize this 40 years ago, but I'm sure Rob Leachman spent far more time and effort photographing this stretch--even in boxcab days!--than I ever considered.

"The railroad was always a maintenance headache, especially in the 40 years since abandonment, and the entities who have owned or operated this stretch since then have found this out, with silpouts, slides, and range fires. Amazingly this piece of mainline survives. Here's a view looking east a bit west of Corfu. It looks more like an under-maintained Sand Pass on the WP than the Milwaukee, as the expected code line and electrical apparatus are long gone. But oh, the possibilities! This is just an east spot to drive to; I didn't bother hiking up to the REALLY cool spots!"

 

WRL At Othello

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

September 2020

Blair says:

"Forty years after the Milwaukee Road shut down, there isn't much left of the railroad's west yard at Othello, Washington. Once several long tracks and several classification tracks in addtion to spurs to serve cold storage houses, it's been reduced to this. A rare move off the Port of Royal Slope at Royal City is shoving its six empty fertilizer cars into a track to interchange with Columbia Basin Railway, which serves Othello several evenings a week from Warden. Hard to think this was a major division point, roundhouse, switching yard and icing station on a transcontinental railroad."

 

Hommage

Guest post by Frederick Manfred Simon.

Harley Kuehl – aka Byron Kuehl – and I had the opportunity to visit the remains of Harley’s former employer yesterday – 14Nov22 – Milwaukee Road’s (formerly) electrified main line at Royal City Jct., milepost 2009.5.

The cutting cold wind amplified the forlorn scene of an ambitious and proud Transcon, like a bridge too far, it was a railroad too far. And while it appears Harley is silently bowing to a relic of a dead god, he’s instead marveling the 115.20# rail which is still in pretty damned good shape. Just the same we easily let ourselves be amazed at the efforts and engineering expended by the Milwaukee to reach Royal City's “industrial” economy via an impressive horseshoe curve on an even more impressive fill on one helluva grade.

One has to wonder what it was like running the line into and out of Royal City with tonnage in tow. Just the same, one wonders if there still are any T&E with us that could share their stories about running on the Royal City line or have they too now passed away like the Milwaukee taking their untold unique experiences into whatever lies beyond? We will likely never know.

One thing’s for sure, our visit was a time for reflection on what was, what is, and what might have been.

Thanks Harley for sharing your Milwaukee memories with me!

Ghost Of The Milwaukee Road

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:
"Pinch me. I'm surely dreaming.

"Forty years after Milwaukee Road abandoned its mainline across the Northern States, precious few pieces of it remain as viable transportation routes. Twenty miles of it from Othello to Royal City Junction in Washington state has teetered on the edge of viability for decades; now owned by the Port of Royal Slope and operated by ColumbiaRail as the Washington Royal Line, this mainline section and the six-mile Royal City branch is attempting another revival to secure its future.
Traffic has been sporadic, but Port officials are hopeful that this attempt will be successful.
Moving slowly eastward to Othello and interchange with Columbia Basin Railroad, six empty fertilizer cars cross a fill on the flank of the desolate Saddle Mountains between Smyrna and Corfu on September 30, 2020. A former MRL SD45, #331 leads this improbable train on trackage that logically should have been removed forty years ago. In this case, it's a good thing that logic doesn't always prevail."

 

CWW 330 Near Taunton

Photo courtesy of Chris Guss.

Originally posted on October 20, 2021.

Chris says:
"During my PNW trip last week, I was able to catch Royal Slope running from Royal City to Othello. Just east of the substation at Taunton, I discovered this set of trolley poles still standing with the wire connecting them across the top still in place. 

"The substation, these trolley poles, a complete block signal just east of here, and a pair of block signal posts at the west end of Othello were the only structures of consequence I saw during the chase. 

"For those interested, WRL SD45 331 in trail has been sold and was left at the interchange in Othello with the three cars. SD45-2 332 will replace it at Royal City at some point. I saw it in Walla Walla the day before I made this image."

WRL On The Move!

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

October 1, 2020

Blair says:

"Very little of the Milwaukee Road's trancontinental mainline survives intact in Washington State--nearly all of it has been preserved as a trail from near the Idaho line to the Seattle area.
Most intriguing to me was the segment from Othello to Royal City Junction and the branch to Royal City, a total of 26 miles, which was sold by the State of Washington to the Port of Royal Slope in 2015. The Port has moved to upgrade trackage, clear and repair slides and washouts, and contracted Paul Dideius' ColumbiaRail to operate the line. Still, train movements have been very sporadic.
What would be the chances I'd actually see train move on this most tenuous--and tenacious--survivor of the mainline?

"I called the Port's phone number last week listed on their website, and talked to Port Director Bonnie Valentine. She was fascinated by my story about photographing the branch in 1978--even then operations were only around once a week, often at dark, and seldom photographed. Milwaukee Road was only moving around 300 cars a year. . .only a fraction of what the railroad thought the branch would generate when it spent $1 millon in the early 1960s on a developing area of the Columbia basin.
Bonnie said there were in fact six empties released from the shipper awaiting a crew to take them away. When that would happen was anyone's guess. Bonnie said she'd call me if she got and update on when the train would move. That was on Thursday. Several days later, Bonnie said there was no news.
It seemed like one of those "bucket list" train movements I knew I didn't have much chance of photographing wasn't going to happen during my week in Eastern Washington.
Wednesday morning, Steven J. Brown and I got up early in Spokane and drove to Valley, to photograph BNSF's Chewelah Turn coming south. The plan was follow that train for a while and then head north to spend the rest of the day on the Pend Orelle Valley.

"I was set up for a shot of the Chewelah Turn at Jump off Joe Road above Springdale, on the climb to Loon Lake. With the train approaching, I got a phone call at 0820 from Bonnie: the outbound train crew would be at Royal City at 10am if you wanted to photograph the train. Would I??? But it didn't seem like it would be possible--from where we were, we'd have to travel 167 miles in 2'48" according to Google Maps. Surely, that train would be long gone by the time I got there. . .but then I thought: the crew would have to fire up the power, run the power around the train, inspect the cars. . .railroading being railroading I figured if I drove REALLY FAST, I had a 30% chance of seeing the train on the branch. I called Bonnie back and said I'd be there--but if the train, parked outside her office window, moved, please give me a call.

"I was impressed how fast my rental Grand Cherokee could move; I don't want to know how poor my mileage would be with lots of miles at over 90 per on the two-lane mostly-straight back roads down to the Interstate at Sprague. I pushed it a bit on I-90 as well. . . . getting stopped by a state trooper for being "a bit" over the limit. My pleasant attitude and cooperative demeanor got me a warning to keep my speed down.

"I did that 167 mile trip in 2'15", shaving a half hour off the Google estimated time. Alas, the train had departed Royal City. .. .but dropping down the coulee a mile south of town, there it was!! Stopping for some unknown reason. I was in business, and a bucket list item was ticked off.
Bonnie and a coworker, it turns out, were chasing the train as well, and I met port commissioner Skeeter Mianecki as well, out with his camera. Apparently, train movements are still rare enough out of Royal City that much of the Port staff took some time off to chase it for photos.
Of course, I chased it to Othello. It didn't move much slower than the mainline trains did in the final months of operation--around 90 minutes for the 20 miles from the Junction to Othello, where the SD45 #331 dropped its train and returned to Royal City.

"I shot the train in 8 locations, aided greatly by drone technology--those locations as a 20 year old I could run 900 feet across a field and climb 200' up ahill side to get the shot was done with a flying camera. Even so, I was able to shoot this train at several places I'd photographed Milwaukee Road trains at 40 years ago.

"I was pinching myself hours later at what I'd seen. I never expected to see that again!
"Here are a couple drone images from today's chase."

 

 

For reference, a vintage view.

 

WRL 331 At Taunton

March 21, 2018

I stumbled across the 331 shut down on the main at Taunton, with a cut of tank cars on the other side of the road crossing.

The Day Of Two Horseshoes

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

September 2020

Blair says:

"As the Bureau of Reclamation opened up a new region of irrigation west of Othello and Moses Lake in the early 1960s, Milwaukee Road spent a huge sum for the time--a "Million Dollars," as Dr. Evil would say--to build a 6 miles branch from its mainline between Othello and Beverly up one of the few natural breaks in the basalt cliffs along Crab Creek and to the new community of Royal City. Expectations were sky high, but the traffic reports I've seen of the line never broke more than a few hundred carloads off the branch a year, farmers preferring to truck their business to Othello, 22 miles away, or just ship by truck, using the Milwaukee's service as a way to depressing trucking rates.

"The line was a pretty incredible piece of engineering, including a 3 percent grade and a 10 degree horseshoe curve. Milwaukee generally only operated it with the Othello switch job when cars needed to be spotted or pulled.

"Amazingly, the branch--and the mainline connecting it to Othello--survived the abandonment, purchased by the state, which essentially neglected its potential. The Port of Royal Slope recently purchased it and secured a government loan to improve the entire line, hoping for a resurgence that never took place since it was built. Already, over 300 cars have been shipped this year.

"I lucked out on shooting a Milwaukee train on the branch in 1978. Today, armed with a drone, I did some aerial studies of the horseshoe curve below Royal City. And here are a few photos circa 1978."

 

CCET And WRL Power at Royal City

Courtesy of Nick Arnold.

WRL Power At Royal City

Courtesy of John Barnhill.

Frontier Rail Chosen For Port Of Royal Slope

From the "Royal Register."

September 28, 2015