Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Wenatchee Car Situation Better

Thanks to William Russ for digging these out.

From the "Spokesman-Review."

November 17, 1917


 

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!"


 

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Milwaukee 21 At Othello

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:

"Another view of the Milwaukee Road #21 and sister parked at the Othello roundhouse in August, 1978.
For as much grief as the railroad got--and justifiably--for their worn physical plant, it's plain to see in this view that the workers at the Othello Roundhouse took great pride in the spic-and-span appearance of their workplace. The tidy servicing facility wasn't the oily swamp that, for instance, Tideflats had. This isn't to cast aspersions on the workers at Tacoma--they had a HUGE facility that had become far bitter than the space required, and upkeep of the property wasn't the top priority. But Othello didn't seem to have a weed growing where it shouldn't."