Milw 25 At Othello

Courtesy of Dave Morgan.

Dave says:
"I just found this old slide of the Othello depot, and EMD unit MILW 25, waiting to go eastbound."

1913 NP AFE Schaefer Culvert

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

1913 NP AFE Deep Creek Culvert

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

BN Local Power At Wenatchee

Photo courtesy of Bill Edgar.

October, 1975

Bill says:

"Rush hour in Wenatchee, BN style five years into the 1970 merger. Far left, a former GN caboose, still red, observes a westbound freight ready to depart on the mainline featuring the usual GP9/F7B/GP9 helper set on the rear. They ran on both the rear and cut into the trains. Closer to the camera two pairs of Geeps also occupy the mainline, apparently preparing to set up on various locals based out of Wenatchee. Likely candidates was the Oroville train, and maybe a Winton local. Another local would have been the Spud local to Quincy, the Mansfield local or the Alcoa switching job."

2013 Spud At Trinidad

Photos courtesy of Bill Edgar.

March 07, 2013

Bill says:

"BNSF 3130 and 3120, both GP50s, lead a westbound Quincy Local into Trinidad, WA at MP 1625 on its return from Quincy, WA to Wenatchee's Appleyard. The train operates weekdays as a turn originating in Appleyard and occasionally may run as far east as Ephrata, WA."

Moses Lake Carp Prized In New York City Homes

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

April 8, 1931

Moses Lake Carp Prized In New York City Homes

1931

During the early days of the Great Depression, Fish hawkers in New York shout their wares in husky voices and gentlemen of commerce stop to admire the great delicacy-and buy. While far across the continent from New York, in central Washington, fishermen drag huge nets through a silver lake and large ugly looking fish, carp, are seined by the ton.

Once in the hands of the fish vendor their unsightly skins removed, they become a delicacy. Every year the Milwaukee Road  hauled gigantic refrigerator cars loaded to hilt to points east via fast express trains, where they were quickly handed off to eastern railroads for markets like New York, hungry for this delicious fish.

Moses Lake, with its then 105-mile shore line of beautiful orchards and fertile farm lands, makes it truly the oasis of the Columbia Basin Project.

During a high-water period some years ago, Moses lake broke through the sand hills and connected up with the Columbia River. When the waters receded, the lake found itself well stocked with carp. These fish multiply very rapidly and had it not been for the Minnawash Fish Company conceiving the idea of using them for commercial purposes, the fish could never have attained their present size.

Nets from 1400 to 1500 feet in length were used in seining the fish, which are then put into large boats and towed by motor to fish ponds made up for this purpose. There they are fed and fattened for the market.

In 1927 922,347 pounds of carp were shipped over the Milwaukee to points in the east.

Carp is not a game fish, and not being of a spectacular type, wasn't very well known to angler. However, it was not uncommon to see hundreds of people fishing for carp along the shore and nearly every one is rewarded with a good catch. 

The most common bait used was a dough ball made by boiling corn meal to a good stiff mash, then working ordinary cotton batting into it until it becomes hard and stiff, adnd then rolling into little round pellets about the size of a marble.

Serious carp removal projects have continued over the years, including a tournament held a few weeks ago. The largest known specimen to have been removed from the lake weighed just shy of 50lbs.

Rail Line Runs Again

From the "Spokesman Review."

August 22, 2006

1952 Reardan Depot View

Courtesy of Kirk Carlson.

August 20, 1953.

Lowboy trailer for hauling bulldozer used to build new elevator. 

“Into the Dark”

Guest post by Frederick Manfred Simon.

February 11, 2018

It’s been a long drive to and from the coast, and I still have a few more hours to drive – home. It’ll be near cockcrow by the time I find my lonely pillow and my old-school analog watch with glow-in-the-dark numbers and hands shows it to be a new day by a dozen swings of the big one. I’ve driven several hundred miles at this point when – doing some unposted speed limit on deserted SR28 East – I eek out the outline of a stack train hanging on the west side of Trinidad just as the underpass and its truss flash in my beam. Some quick self-talk. “God I’m tired! Do I really want to do this?” No matter, I think to myself. “Make it happen, Simon!” Ok. East or westbound? First left: Baird Springs Road. Damn! DPU. Uey. West on 28 where, in less than a mile, right. Out and up onto the massive mound of WSDOT road sand in near darkness, gear in hand, in seconds, frame, focus. Scanner: “Seattle East, BNSF [can’t remember the unit number] you can come on down into Wenatchee and tie it down.” Doesn’t take the hogger long to copy and let the mostly empty stacks push him downhill checking his speed with whining DB, winding, downgrade, slipping into the dark to where the railhead is all but water level with dammed Lake Wanapum. There above the right horizon electricity as light from the dam at Voltage refracts in the looming murk and opposite where Wenatchee illuminates its presence as a fellow nightrider streaks up 28. Scene captured. In 376 seconds it’s as if it never happened.