White Pass 114 Heads Home

On October 24th I blogged about the White Pass & Yukon 114 in a Then and Now segment. This week my buddy Robert McDonald also blogged about the rare narrow gauge diesel in a couple of posts:

Oil-Electric: "Going home!"

Oil-Electric: White Pass & Yukon Arrives in Skagway

In short, the first one has photos of the engine being loaded on a barge for Alaska, and the second has a link to Skagway's news about the engines arrival.

Nice to see this unique machine get home!

Roster Shot Shenanigans Part I

What do you do when a good shot is ruined by urban flair, like a power pole?

Well forget the Photo Of The Week award and do something with the snapshot anyway!

Photo editing courtesy of Tux Paint, which is an open-source kid-friendly art program. My son loves it, and I'll say that leaf stamp sure comes in handy here!

WSDOT Rebuilds Between Walulla and Dayton

So just how long have trains been running in Washington State? A quick check of Ask.com brings up the old NP Depot in Dayton that opened in 1881 and is now listed as the oldest surviving. But there isn't any list of who operated a railroad first in the Evergreen State. That said, how does the date 1875 grab you? While it might not be the oldest in the state, the line between Walulla and Walla Walla is still pretty stinkin' old.

The Washington State Department of Transportation - WSDOT - has scheduled a rebuild of this historic line. Check out all the maps etc at the WSDOT Site.

Last Operational Wig-Wag in Washington?

Mike Bjork - fellow rail nut and Coug - sent me this picture from the Kamiaken Street crossing in Pullman WA. This could possibly be the last operational Wig-Wag signal in Washington State. The line that runs through Pullman is now owned by the Dept. of Transportation - WSDOT. A representative from that agency indicated to me in email that the State would definitely be interested in preserving this signal once its time has come. Until then, it will remain to warn drivers of the occasional train that runs through this intersection.

If you are interested in making sure this wig-wag gets saved, send me an email. I'll find out what we need to do!

MILW Trestle Getting New Deck for Trail

Peninsula Daily News recently reported that an old railroad trestle will get new life as Discovery Trail link. Volunteers from the Peninsula Trail Coalition will deck the near 100-year old structure with concrete and add to the constantly expanding trail that is built on portions of what used to be The Milwaukee Road's 14th Subdivision.

I rode portions of this old right-of-way back in the 90s on a bicycle. It's a shame that no trains run out that way anymore, because a ride up the Olympic Peninsula would be beautiful. Thankfully the Peninsula Train Coalition is accomplishing the next best thing by restoring much of the right-of-way to pedestrian and bicycle use.

100 Years Ago: The Milwaukee Road Crosses the Columbia

The Othello Outlook posted a nice historic piece today, discussing the 100th anniversary of the Milwaukee Road crossing the Columbia River at Lind. Sounds like it was a big job, with unexpected geological problems and cold unending winds that drove workers away.

The writer Curt Andrews refers to the Milwaukee as "the St. Paul Railroad," a description I hadn't heard before. In an email today he explained this unique nickname as the manner in which The Milwaukee Road was called prior to 1927. So now I've learned something new! It would make sense that he would use that nickname for the article, since the subject occurred in the early 1900s.

Nice work!

Eastside Corridor Sale Approved

King County signed over the rights for purchasing the Woodinville Subdivision to the Port of Seattle yesterday:

Rail corridor plan approved

It's not over yet, but on its way. The line needs to be purchased by December 31, 2007, otherwise BNSF will offer it to private buyers. I'm not surprised, because BNSF announced they wanted to sell the line at least 4 years ago. What yesterdays paperwork does is clear the way for public ownership of the line, by an agency that can afford it. How it is used - or even dissected - in the future is still up in the air. But by the end of the year at least it should be safe from being developed into condos etc.

Tacoma approves Sounder route over Pacific Avenue

Last week Sound Transit got approval to build over Pacific Avenue to connect with South Tacoma. It's a mere distance of 1.2 miles, but will bring rail service back to South Tacoma by 2012. Some people are concerned that Pacific Avenue will suffer from being lowered; guess we'll have to see how this plays out.

If you don't know what this project will look like, here's a handy map courtesy of Google.

Yakima County railroad crossings -- Safety off track?

This Yakima Herald article quantifies how dangerous rural crossings can be:

Yakima County railroad crossings -- Safety off track?

Best quote from the article is poignant: "I don't trust that just because the lights aren't flashing that there isn't a train coming." The more of these I read, the more likely I am to look both ways - and even stop completely - before crossing tracks.