Eastern Washington Gateway - Biodiesel and Deer

From Eastern Washington Gateway 2009

In the Summer of 2008 I commented on an article about Eastern Washington Gateway testing biodiesel in one of their locomotives. Just last month I got an email from a 10 year old girl in New Mexico on the subject, asking if the test was successful. I was able to get in contact with Bruce Butler of the EWGR, who not only replied to the girl with some sweet photos but also brought us all up to date on their testing:

We are not using the biodiesel anymore as the plant where they made it has closed. To the best of my knowledge the biodiesel worked just fine in the one locomotive (8925, a EMD model SD45) that we used it in, but with the plant closing, we lost our source. I have attached a couple of pictures of the 8925. #313 shows the 8925 being fueled from a truck. You should know that these locomotives can move a lot of weight for the fuel that they use; they are much more fuel efficient than trucks.

We see a lot of deer along our railroad. For some reason, they run alongside of the train, rather than away from the tracks. I haven't hit any of them yet, but we have had some close calls. Picture #612 shows a young mule deer doing almost 30 mph alongside of the train.

We haul a lot of wheat. Picture 689 shows a loaded grain train near Hite WA. It is after harvest, so the grain fields in the picture have already been cut. Picture 589 shows the fields right at harvest time; the field on the left hasn't been harvested yet while the field on the right has already been cut. Picture 590 shows a combine at work harvesting wheat. All of these pictures were taken from the train. You get to see things that you never see anyplace else. We do have some scenic areas on our railroad; picture 105 shows a view from the Engineer's seat last winter.

Regards,
Bruce Butler

Check out Bruce's pictures from along the line. If you don't see the slideshow below, click HERE to view the photos in Picasa!




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Photo Link: http://picasaweb.google.com...
Blog: http://www.warail.com

News - New Pasco Branch in Design Soon

A new industrial park means a new BNSF branch line in Pasco. Design contract has been approved, and now the work to connect the railroad with this new commerce resource is underway.

It's nice for once to see "Add" instead of "Abandon" in terms of tracks!



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Fatality on BNSF Tracks In Ephrata

Pedestrian fatality on the BNSF Mainline through Ephrata, away from a designated crossing. A very tragic story, sadly repeated many times throughout the year.

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Eastern Washington Gateway Line Part II

Looks like the state and US Rail Partners have come to an agreement on how to move forward with the EWGRR. Both finances and operations will be addressed, and the carrier is no longer in jeopardy of being kicked off the line by July.

Woohoo!

Eastern Washington Gateway Line in Trouble

View Map of EWGRR

We seem to be getting all sorts of new out of Eastern WA lately. While Old MILW trackage near Othello is on the radar for recovery, another shortline is at risk.

The State of Washington and a shortline operator may part ways on the Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad, which is owned by the State and operated by US Rail Partners Ltd. A number of issues are in play with the shortline that runs from Cheney to Coulee City. Required rail tie maintenance has not been done. Also, a rough wheat harvest would typically be a majority of the traffic on the line, but this year the harvest was bad. It's hard to point blame at one thing here, but the end result is one less railroad and a ton more trucks on the road.

Talks are ongoing

Eastern WA MILW Line Being Resurrected?

According to this article, The Port of Royal Slope wants to lease the old Milwaukee Road right-of-way from the State of Washington, to start moving freight once more between Royal City and Othello. The project has been on the Port's books now for at least three years, but at this point they have been getting no response from the state on how to proceed.

However this pans out, it will nice to see a transportation resource like this get reused in one of the more unique parts of our state. I'll be interested in comments from our readers in Eastern WA!

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Milwaukee Road at Othello, 1972

CZ17 took this photo in Othello back in 1972, when the wires were still up and the GEs still ran. If you visit Othello today there is very little left of the Milwaukee Road. Even a caboose left town for South Cle Elum. But the city still associates with its railroad heritage. After all, the Milwaukee Road provided jobs and a connection to the world for 60+ years.

Othello is on Washington State Route 26, which runs 133 miles from I-90 to Colfax. Over the miles you can literally see the terrain change from scrub land to wheat field!

TCRY Serves New Transload Facility in Richland

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The Tri-City & Olympia is a feisty little railroad. Not only do they operate on both sides of the Cascade mountain range, but they have also been known to solve their problems with creative solutions.

Adding to their credentials, TCRY is now serving a new Richland transload facility, which connects with both UP and BNSF. A spectrum of Eastern WA products and produce is stored and then loaded on railcars from this new site. TCRY's connection on the Puget Sound allows those products to travel the miles on a Class 1 and then get loaded onto ships in Olympia.

Railroad Testing Biodiesel This Summer

View EWGR Rail Line Map

The Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad is testing biodiesel on the 100 mile line over the next three months, at which point they will evaluate the project. Biodiesel fuel is locally made and easy for them to get.

The line runs along US Highway 2, between Cheney and Coulee City, and is owned by the State of Washington. EWGR is contracted to operate.

SD60s in Eastern WA

Washington is a very diverse place geographically. What goes in terms of weather patterns for Western WA gets cut off at the Cascade Mountain Range, leaving Eastern WA with an entirely different set of weather rules. The sparsely vegetated hills and desolate beauty are testaments to the amount of sun and rain the area receives.

In one photo Kyle Weismann-Yee captured that desolation plus the quiet terrain of Eastern WA by shooting this photo of Oakway SD60 locomotives hauling freight past John Day Dam. Check out the color of the clouds. Yeah, that's real. Many of photos I've taken in and around Seattle have that same color, which means that the east and west parts of the State do share at least one thing.

See more of Kyles photos by visiting his PBase archive HERE!

Columbia Basin Herald

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In this article Columbia Basin Herald writes about the ongoing Moses Lake project that will link the airport to BNSF. Everyone has been pushing to fund this one, because it involves a very big airport and and region full of opportunity.

FP9 on The Palouse

Fellow Coug Mike Bjork has captured yet another great scene in his one-man battle to bring rail notoriety to The Palouse! On April 19th he captured this pair - an FP9 plus bonus GP30 - hauling revenue cars through the region. One might think this was taken in 1968, rather than 2008.

These are quiet, lonely, rolling hills which hold their own kind of beauty. I miss this region very much, and am thankful that Mike - plus my niece Emily - can experience Whitman County as I did two decades ago.

Nice work Mike!

Look Ma...No Brakes

Federal investigators have released their findings about a Yakima derailment - unstaffed train with no handbrakes set backs down a track and hits the end of the line. That last four cars - double hulled and filled with propane - came off the tracks and thankfully did not break open. To add embarrassment to the slow-moving derailment, the Sherriff's Office had to be evacuated after the accident because of its proximity to the cars.

I'm thankful that nobody was hurt!

The Milwaukee Road in Tekoa

This remains as one of my most favorite photos from The Milwaukee Road. Taken in the last days of the company's work in the Western US, the shot captures the essence of the MILW. Lonely. Quiet. Working hard despite scarce resources. Although The Road survived until the mid 1980s, my feeling is that the glory days were long over by the time Paul Greenfield snapped this photo outside of Tekoa WA in 1979.

His backstory about the photo makes it even more interesting:

"The shot itself was an exercise in patience," Paul writes. "Myself and another railfan, Art Riordan, waited near Rosalia for about three hours in the late afternoon. We watched as the sun got lower and lower. We finally heard the Milwaukee dispatcher talking to this guy and he indicated that he was on his way to Rosalia. We then chased him eastward for as long as the light held. Chased being a relative word since the track was in such bad shape slow orders had him down to 15 or 20 mph. If he hadn't been so late we wouldn't have had this shot. Somehow it summarizes the lonely Milwaukee Road traveling off into the sunset."

I totally agree with Paul on this one. Chance, along with a lot of patience, captured this moment for history, and for that I'm eternally thankful.

Make sure to check out Paul's other railroading photos HERE!

Palouse Sunset and a GP30M

This Mike Bjork photo combines two of my favorite things - a Palouse Sunset and an EMD GP30.

What are some of my other favorite things? Pie, lots of it. Cars that are older than me. Two cylinders, two tires and 50mpg.

Nice work Mike!

Yakima Under Wire - 1971

Drew Jacksich took this RailPictures.Net Photo of a GE B+B Electric with Yakima Valley Transportation in 1971. It's nice to see these photos from eras gone by. YVT is not well known, but was a subsidiary of Union Pacific (hence the colors) and abandoned by the railroad in 1985. A portion of the right-of-way still operates the Yakima Valley Trolley.

Great footage of the YVT can also be seen on a nicely priced video from Green Frog - Pacific Northwest Kaleidoscope. Check out more of Drew's photos HERE. Thanks Drew for a great picture!

Amtrak to Add New Leavenworth Station

Great news for folks who like Leavenworth! Amtrak will be adding service to the town with the Empire Builder. This is historic, since Leavenworth was bypassed with the Chumstick Cutoff in the 1920s. No tracks run through the town anymore, but the BNSF Stevens Pass line runs close enough for bus service.


For people like me who love Leavenworth, this comes as great news because it means my family can take the train there rather than drive. And someday we will!




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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!

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!