Western Railroad Discussion > Tacoma Rail sells Mountain Division

The Tacoma City Council approved an agreement at its Feb. 28 council meeting to sell a portion of its Tacoma Rail line, leaving the future of a Tacoma to Mount Rainier trail outside of city control. The Mountain Division line is operated by Tacoma Rail, a public utility that is owned by the City of Tacoma. Tacoma Rail has 65 customers on 136 miles of track in three operating divisions, one being the Mountain Division. 

The complete story
https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article272702605.html

radar Wrote:
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> The Tacoma City Council approved an agreement at
> its Feb. 28 council meeting to sell a portion of
> its Tacoma Rail line, leaving the future of a
> Tacoma to Mount Rainier trail outside of city
> control. The Mountain Division line is operated by
> Tacoma Rail, a public utility that is owned by the
> City of Tacoma. Tacoma Rail has 65 customers on
> 136 miles of track in three operating divisions,
> one being the Mountain Division. 
>
> The complete story
> https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article2
> 72702605.html

So, in other words, your subject line is mis-leading and untrue.

I dont get it....  I know where the ex-MILW mtn div is in tacoma..but how the trail relates to it, IDK. 

The trail would have existed if the line were pulled up. The Hill won't be necessary anymore as the line can be serviced
from the West end, will make the train a bit less exciting to watch but a whole lot less expensive to run. They might be
able to sell that portion of the line back to the city. I think there's enough traffic for Rainier Rail to make a go.

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/23 21:37 by callum_out.

callum_out Wrote:
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...but a whole lot less expensive
> to run.....

Not so sure about that. It's a much longer run from Centralia to Frederickson than Fife to Frederickson. Thinking that long underutilized ex-MILW track will need a lot of upgrading to handle 286k cars on a daily basis. derailments may become frequent until the track is upgraded.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

If  an ever find a good RR map of the area, that would help.....

So the MILW went from Tacoma to Chehalis via the Mtn div?    Did it ever extend south/west of Chehalis?

I couldn't get the article, but I found this one. Hope it works for everyone:

Tacoma to sell 'unprofitable' rail line. What's that mean for a trail to Mount Rainier? (msn.com)

The situation was clear as mud to me, not being familiar with the area. 

Looks like the city is selling part of the Mountain Div. to Rainier Rail which is already operating part of the Mountain Div.

The trails people are getting screwed which is OK with me. I guess Tacoma Rail just has less trackage to worry about.

Am I on the right track?

Not the best map, but maybe this will help:

Tacoma Rail System Map - Tacoma Rail



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/23 22:45 by ts1457.

The Tacoma News Tribune article is just shy of useless.  The portion in the city has not been used for almost 2 years?  There are trains using it now and there are videos online showing freights last month. 

So, I am assuming they sold the line from Midland to the current connection to Rainier Rail at McKenna and to Morton to Rainier Rail??

As for a trail...always good to see those not get anywhere.  I lived near a rail trail for years and all it did was create a pipeline for burglars and drugs.  People were afraid to use it because of homeless camps and being attacked or followed.  Not to mention the issues of cars vs bicycles and pedestrians.  Just wasn't worth it.  My community said they would have thought differently if they had known the issues associated with it.

pdt Wrote:
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> If  an ever find a good RR map of the area, that
> would help.....
>

If you have an Android phone, a nice railroad map app is called "Rail Guide". You can switch through different eras and zoom in with map view or satellite view. It only covers US and Canada.
Bob P

Posted from Android

To Ted's comment on cost. Rainier Rail would have to buy sufficient power to drag whatever is available up the 4% grade out of
Tacoma so you have the increased cost of fuel plus the cost of additional motive power.
To the "article", sheesh! Looking at the price given for the purchase (which is $1M less than they paid for the line) I'd wonder too
as to what was actually sold. If they want a trail, keep the "Hill" and make a trail as said out to Midland or so. And the 2 unused
miles, the line to National? 
And, haven't checked lately but where's the STB filing for the sale? 

Out 

For some clarification,

Tacoma Rail sold from Freighthouse Square to Clay City Rd (North of Eatonville) and South to McKenna. They currently run from McKenna to Chehalis with interchanges with PSAP, BNSF, and UP They add around 10ish customers, including Boeing along with some new storage opportunities. The Interchange will be at Chehalis (LIC-55 I believe is already doing this off Main 1)

Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad retains Clay City Rd to Morton

WRL plans to maintain the ROW in its entirety and there is a possibility of a Sound Transit equation in the future for service to Frederickson. 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/23 12:25 by Macster.

longliveSP Wrote:

> So, in other words, your subject line is
> mis-leading and untrue.

I'm sorry if my headline is misleading, but I don't understand your comment.  Please explain.

Macster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For some clarification,
>
> Tacoma Rail sold from Freighthouse Square to Clay
> City Rd (North of Eatonville) and South to
> McKenna. They currently run from McKenna to
> Chehalis with interchanges with PSAP, BNSF, and UP
> They add around 10ish customers, including Boeing
> along with some new storage opportunities. The
> Interchange will be at Chehalis (LIC-55 I believe
> is already doing this off Main 1)
>
> Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad retains Clay City Rd
> to Morton
>
> WRL plans to maintain the ROW in its entirety and
> there is a possibility of a Sound Transit equation
> in the future for service to Frederickson. 

Thanks. Some clarification and more confusion.

Who is WRL?

Who does Tacoma Rail run over between McKenna and Chehalis? Tacoma Rail's map does not show that line as its own.

Macster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> WRL plans to maintain the ROW in its entirety and
> there is a possibility of a Sound Transit equation
> in the future for service to Frederickson. 

That's hilarious. My original proposed D - M street alignment included about 1500 feet of 3%. ST ran a test Sounder train up the 3% grade on the MILW and declared that it couldn't be done.

As Dylan said "The Times They Are A-Changin' "

TAW

Sooo....

1. The track from McKenna to Chehalis is all in service and used by Tacoma Rail?   The maps I can find only show them operating to McKenna.

2. Plan is that Rainier rail will serve customers on the Mtn Div out of Chehalis.  ?    Would make sense to me, to keep track into Tacoma  open...Seems there wouls be much bigger interchange potential in Tacoma than Chehalis.   Also is traffic for  Mtn Div cosignees is coming from the north, why waste another day of transit time going the long way.   And if Rainier wants to acquire new customers, quicker transit times and a Tacoma interchange would be advantageous.    Id think they could buy the 2 tacoma SD90's cheap..and used power, in general is cheap these days..especially big road power that isnt suitable for most shortlines.

pdt Wrote:
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> Sooo....
>
> 1. The track from McKenna to Chehalis is all in
> service and used by Tacoma Rail?   The maps I
> can find only show them operating to McKenna.

For what it's worth, here is Rainier Rail's map:

system-map.pdf (rainierrail.com)

I am still confused, but I probably should move onto other things.

radar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> longliveSP Wrote:
>
> > So, in other words, your subject line is
> > mis-leading and untrue.
>
> I'm sorry if my headline is misleading, but I
> don't understand your comment.  Please explain.

The City of Tacoma, who is the owner of the line, is who sold that line. Tacoma Rail owns no rail line, they are city ownerd operator/railroad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Rail
https://www.tacomarail.com/about/history/

Thx for all the info and the map....
So the city of Tacoma owned the Mtn Div.   Hardly surprising that they sold it..and Rainier Rail would definitely be the best choice, logisticallty,

City politicos know nothing about owning a railroad, not to mention that the seats change every few years.  When they could get some real $$ for the railroad, they were probably happy to sell something that was well out of their wheelhouse.

Nice that the WRL/Rainer rail wanted the whole thing.....to me indicates that they want the access to Tacoma. 

Appears that the trail nuts  wanted WRL/RR to serve customers from the south, and the north end toward Tacoma to be abandoned so they could have their dumb trail.  Glad its not happening.
Given the choice of getting real money for the mtn div track, or donating it to the trail ilk, and those folks also asking the govt ppl to spend money to convert it into a trail.....it was a good decision .

Also thanks for the info about one of these trails becoming a homeless/drug/crime corridor.    Good info to put out there when battling these nuts.  Like the Sierra Club....I agree with saving the planet and nature in general, but I dont have any need for those who are way off the deep end.   Sick of the trail nuts who want to force rail abandonment for their personal trail use.

And thanks to pdt for the final distallation! I couldn't quite figure out why Ranier Rail wanted the line to McKenna,
not much freigtht on that portion but with some forethought of the sale of the Mountain Division it now makes
perfect sense. 

Out 

Haha okay, my apologies.

WRL (Rainier Rail) operates currently between McKenna to Chehalis, formerly Tacoma Rail. 

All interchanges will occur in Chehalis off Main 1 (by the intermediate to Chehalis Jct), there are 2 storage tracks being built at this location as well. 

Tacoma Rail sold the rest of the Mountain Division to Rainier Rail, which is the Freighthouse Square (Tacoma) to Clay Street (Eatonville) and South to McKenna. 

The rails between Freighthouse Square and Frederickson likely will not be used for anything besides the sidings for storage (my speculation)