From "CTC Board."
May 1984
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! Shoutout to Kirtus Dolorina for stopping by to borrow other people's work!
Courtesy of James Belmont.
Doug Harrop Photography
May 25, 1976
Burlington Northern (former Colorado & Southern) 900 leads BN train No. 88, climbing the 20-mile, 1% grade from the Columbia River basin just east of Trinidad, Washington.
Courtesy of Dean Ferris.
Dean says:
"The other day Nick Dumas asked about videos of entire BN trains in the 90's and I responded with a train list. There seemed to be some interest in seeing additional lists so here's the 2nd section of train 699 (Spokane-Interbay) from November 30, 1990. This section appears to be terminating at Wenatchee with a whopping 39 loads and 90 empties all for Wenatchee or locals originating at Wenatchee. It's a stark reminder of how much business used to exist there - all the big sources of traffic are gone (Alcoa plant at Malaga, woodchips coming off the WO branch, reefer biz for apples and spuds, the piggyback ramp). I've added a few notes to help with interpreting the lists. We'll see how much interest there is before I go to this much effort again (I've got examples of just about every regular BN train from this era in the PNW)."
From "CTC Board."
June 1984
Photo by Blair Kooistra.
Of note, the caption should note this is the NP Connell Northern branch being ducked under, just south of Raugust. After the Milwaukee pulled out, BN simply filled in this location, with just the tops of the trestle still visible today.