Nostalgia & History > NP Prairie Line at Roy, Washington

Looking at Google street view you can note the changes between these pictures I shot on July 4, 1971, and the recent discussion on the Western board. The tracks appear severed between Yelm and Tenino.

1.  Looking north where the railroad crossed Water Street the switch is on the opposite side of the street from street view. Wooden crossing now paved over.
2.  The water tank is still there but the grass is very manicured.  There are fewer tracks in the yard.
3.  Where the CMStP&P crossed highway 507 and the Prairie Line north of Rainier, Washington, it appears the trestle changed from timber to a through girder span. Here the Prairie Line has been taken up.
 

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Compare my shot from February 13, 2015 of #1

Pretty sure this from the same location in Roy.


​Jay

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This line (the Prairie Line between Tenino and Tacoma) was the original NP main line into Tacoma. Construction was completed on December 16, 1873.

The southern portion of the line between Tenino and Yelm was abandoned on June 15, 1993.

The portion of the line between Yelm and Roy was sold to the City of Yelm on November 16, 2000.

The portion of the line between Roy and Lakeview Junction (or whatever it is called now) is still owned by BNSF.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/16 08:20 by czephyr17.

czephyr17 Wrote:
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> The portion of the line between Roy and Lakeview
> Junction (or whatever it is called now) is still
> owned by BNSF.

It was Lakeview, not Lakeview Jct. That place is now Prairie Jct because Lakewood became a city and has a station named Lakewood. In designing the line improvewments, I didn't want two similar names (for operating and safety reasons) and changed Lakeview to Prairie Jct.

TAW

TAW Wrote:
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> It was Lakeview, not Lakeview Jct. That place is
> now Prairie Jct because Lakewood became a city and
> has a station named Lakewood. In designing the
> line improvewments, I didn't want two similar
> names (for operating and safety reasons) and
> changed Lakeview to Prairie Jct.
>
> TAW

You are right, as usual, I looked back at my BN / BNSF timetables and track charts and sure enough, it was "Lakeview".  Not sure where I got the name "Lakeview Junction" from, perhaps must have come up in some informal conversation at some point.

czephyr17 Wrote:
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> TAW Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > It was Lakeview, not Lakeview Jct. That place
> is
> > now Prairie Jct because Lakewood became a city
> and
> > has a station named Lakewood. In designing the
> > line improvewments, I didn't want two similar
> > names (for operating and safety reasons) and
> > changed Lakeview to Prairie Jct.
> >
> > TAW
>
> You are right, as usual, I looked back at my BN /
> BNSF timetables and track charts and sure enough,
> it was "Lakeview".  Not sure where I got the name
> "Lakeview Junction" from, perhaps must have come
> up in some informal conversation at some point.

It's actually pretty common for "Junction" to be attached to places that were never called that.

TAW

TAW,did BN ever consider using the prairie line as a secondary through route.CJ

Posted from iPhone

trkinsptr Wrote:
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> TAW,did BN ever consider using the prairie line as
> a secondary through route.CJ

Not that I know of. We considered it as a passenger route as I posted earlier, but it was too far from the riders and the money.

There was a lot of work that needed to be done to turn it into a 20th Century railroad. We considered it worthwhile exploring as a passenger alternative, but the mountain grade at the north end made it unreasonable for freight operation.

I worked on a study for WSDOT 15 years ago or so that was done for an agency in Thurston County. They wanted to see if commuter service between Olympia and Tacoma via the BNSF main line and the Point Defiance Bypass was feasible if freight was moved to the MILW/Tacoma Eastern/Tacoma Rail route between Chehalis and Tacoma. I knew what the answer would be but always do the homework instead of making unsupported trust me because I'm a consultant and I know pronouncements. It could be used for one way traffic without building a lot of track, but the outlandish power requirement was still there, even downhill. It takes roughly as much power to hold a train back as it takes to pull it up the hill. Since the hill into Tacoma far exceeds the ruling grade on the BN or UP lines east of the Seattle area, a lot of additional power would be required for a really small distance.

Just to be thorough, I worked out how to get down into Tacoma using the current 1% ruling grade (actually, northward it is 0.9%). I don't have my stuff handy, but it was a really long tunnel. Were Mount Rainier to erupt, it would have provided an excellent route for a lahar right into downtown Tacoma.

TAW
 

So, Just curious, where does Wilcox Farms have their feed
unloaded ?

​I searched and can find no alternate place to unload unless
​they truck it from the Feed unload in South Tacoma. X-cell
is just north of the South Tacoma Sounder Platform I work
for the game trains. They have had lots of  hoppers lately.

Any other ideas ?

​Jay

Haven't lived anywhere near there for 40 years, but is Judge Roy Bean's (tavern) still open in Roy (not that I've ever been there)?

lamta_jay Wrote:
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> So, Just curious, where does Wilcox Farms have
> their feed
> unloaded ?
>
> ​I searched and can find no alternate place to
> unload unless
> ​they truck it from the Feed unload in South
> Tacoma. X-cell
> is just north of the South Tacoma Sounder Platform
> I work
> for the game trains. They have had lots of 
> hoppers lately.
>
> Any other ideas ?
>
> ​Jay

After the collapse of one of their silos a couple years ago, killing one worker, Wilcox dismantled the rest of their facility in Roy. Tacoma Rail has been delivering their cars to the siding at McKenna on the old Milwaukee line, just a couple of miles from Roy, where they are transloaded into trucks. I'm not sure where they go from there.