OK, I happened to get lucky this past weekend and catch some road trips to Wenatchee (usually I am in the yard in Spokane). Anyways I was working with a engineer who said that when he started 30 years ago the CW branch was still in one piece but he said they never used the bridge over the GN at Adrian (now gone). So my question is when did they stop using the middle portion? Thanks, Kevin
Seems to me it was severed roughly 30 years ago. It was intact in NP years. I have some BN ETT. But not certain if that would give an answer. Boxcab E50
Looked through what I have. But couldn't find a definitive answer. The problem being that In NP days, this line was entirely part of their Idaho Division. But after the merger, it was split right essentially where the NP crossed over the GN. In BN days, south of the old GN, was in the Portland Division. North of that line, was Spokane Division. Which I'd guess led toward it's demise. Instead of a through route, it became two branch lines, that were incidentally connected. The first change in ETT format, seems to come in 1978. But was that the date of severance? Boxcab E50
I can shed some light on this. A Moses Lake junk dealer scrapped the line between Wheeler and Odair in 1979. I recall seeing stored auto racks just north of the bridge at Adrian just before scrapping. He was very proud of having the station sign from Bacon. I have a letter from retired BN president Bob Downing I received back on Nov. 30th addressing this section. He states, "Prior to the BN merger in 1970 the NP had abandoned the branch line from Adrian to Odair and after the merger the track from Wheeler (near Moses Lake) to Adrian was also abandoned." There has been talk recently of rebuilding the branch from Adrain to Moses Lake, in order to remove the former Milwaukee Road from downtown Moses Lake, but still be able to serve industry as the airport. We'll see... Kevin, I live just beyond milepost 1601 on your trip to Wenatchee. Hope you enjoyed the trip.
Having some involvement in such matters- I have a feeling his use of the word "abandoned" is incorrect. As NP still showed it. And if used to store cars. Most likely, this segment was simply placed in "out of service" status. Boxcab E50
Thank you Dan and Boxcab for the help. Dan I played the boards on Christmas and was able to get 2 trips to Wenatchee. I had a christmas-eve Z-train and we made great time from Spokane to Wenatchee with only 2 quick meets then they fliped us back to Spokane. Then on Christmas day I deadheaded on another Z to wenatchee and caught a stacktrain back the next day. By that point though they had unleashed the fleet and we had 8 meets and a slow trip. All in all it was a great time on a "fast" route and a nice change from the yard. Kevin
