Big Bend Railroad History
This site features daily historical railroad posts from the Big Bend/Columbia Plateau region of Washington state. As a personal site, this is my online filing cabinet of interesting things I've come across about railroading in the area. Thanks for stopping by! --Dan Bolyard
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Monday, November 18, 2024
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Saturday, November 16, 2024
CBRW Between Warden And Bruce
Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.
Blair says:
"Between Warden and Bruce, Washington, the next "station" south going
to Connell on the Columbia Basin Railroad, there isn't a lot of road
access. A handful of farm roads, including the "10 road," at the south
end of Warden past the cemetery.
"The 10 road is your standard two-lane gravel road; after passing the cemetery is a gate, left open, with a lock on it. I didn't want to get locked in, and a little past that, at a tranformer station, a hard hat leaving in his pickup truck assured me he wasn't going to lock the gate with me behind it.
"I drove down to the end of the road, which crossed the former NP, then the former Milwaukee Road mainline, and an irrigation canal. A home was at the very end, with an interesting porch looking over the Milwaukee.
"I turned around and decided to shoot the CBRW train from off a little hill as it moved through an S-curve departing the yard, an alignment that replaced the original fill and flyover of the Milwaukee when BN consolidated trackage here post 1980.
"A guy in a white sedan soon left the house heading out on errands. He stopped and I talked to him. You won't lock me in behind you, will you? I'm just here photographing the railroad. Will only be a few minutes, i told him.
"The railroad? Thanks for letting me know. Those folks at that farm nearby"--the other side of the tracks--"grow marijuana and are pretty paranoid about people with cameras." It was then the skunky smell in the air made sense. He said he'd call them and let them know.
"Even so--they WERE paranoid. "NO PICTURES! PRIVATE PROPERTY" they yelled. I yelled back, telling them "TRAIN PHOTOGRAPHER! WILL BE LEAVING SOON!" They left me alone after that, and I got the shot of the train departing Warden.
"I'm sure they REALLY would have gone apeshit if they saw I was flying a drone here as well!"