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."

 

Othello Motor House Plans

 

Hand Drawn CW Map

Drawn by Robert Scott for a feature on the Eastern Washington Gateway he was working on at the time.

Grand Coulee Dam-Ten Good NP Trips

2019 Govan Derailment

Guest post by Rodney Aho.

"Five years ago a serious derailment occurred on the Washington Eastern Railroad just east of Govan, between Wilbur and Almira, about 70 miles west of Spokane. Seven loaded grain cars left the tracks, six of which were damaged beyond repair; hundreds of feet of track were ripped up. Thankfully there were no injuries. (I was not the engineer.)
 

"The cause of the accident was initially believed to be a broken rail. Our maintenance crew immediately began the arduous task of pulling the wreckage off the right of way and rebuilding the track so service could be restored.
 

"It was shocking to see how much damage occurred, even though the track speed limit at that location was just 10 mph. My back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that if the kinetic energy of the train’s 27 cars was concentrated and released at that one spot, it would equal six tons of TNT.
The potential for accidents always lurked in the back of our minds; consequently we took great care to work safely and always adhere to the operating rules."

CBRW And Mt. Rainier

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

September 2020

Blair says:

"Less than two weeks after wild fires, wind, dust and smoke cut visibility to near zero across much of eastern Washington, Columbia Basin Railway's Connell turn crosses a country road between Warden and Bruce, with 14,410' tall Mount Rainier visible in the clear morning air 129 miles to the west. . . . amazing. By the end of the day, with plowing in the fields and trucks on the gravel roads stirring up dust, there's no way you'll see even a fraction of that distance."

 

1942 Moses Lake Branch Abandonment Study

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.