| Posted by SES on July 6, 2020 | |
I remember as a young teenager, we were travelling to the Tacoma area to be with relatives on Thanksgiving 1987. I always enjoyed seeing all I could of the abandoned Milwaukee Road right of way as we travelled I-90, especially as we got to Hyak and down the West side of the Cascade range. This particular trip, after we passed the collapsed Hull Creek trestle, there was the BN rail train, getting ready to yank a section of rail. At the time, I only thought the track at Hyak was intact and was sore disappointed to find that Easton to Renton still existed and BN ripped it all up that November to Cedar Falls! The section from Cedar Falls to Renton remained in use by BN to serve the lumber mill at Snoqualmie/North Bend until spring 1992, when that was all ripped up. I believe Washington State wanted that section from Renton to Maple Valley for a trail and make room to expand Hwy 169. Sad! Thanks for sharing.
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| Posted by SES on July 6, 2020 | |
I recall later that BN purchased the abandoned Milwaukee route over Snoqualmie Pass to send trains over the Milwaukee's much easier gradient. They planned to connect at Easton and would abandon the much steeper Stampede Pass. Two things ended that plan. First, BN deemed the old NP route surplus in favor of more direct routing over Stevens Pass and the Columbia Gorge. The former NP line was leased to Washington Central between Pasco and Cle Elum. Stampede was mothballed. The second thing that ended the use of Snoqualmie Pass was the Hull Creek Trestle partially collapsed during a storm some time in 1985 - 86 as debris washed down the creek and took out the center support and 3 spans. I heard BN had plans to run coal drags as well but the traffic never materialized. So the line was taken up in November 1987 and less than 10 years later, BNSF would revitalize Stampede to alleviate congestion on the other 2 routes, leaving trains to struggle up the torturous 2.2% former NP grade. There was a rumor around 2000 that BNSF looked into rebuilding over Snoqualmie and possibly the Saddle Mountains to bypass the "dip" down to Pasco and Northwest again to Ellensburg but must have deemed too costly.
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