2006 Inland Empire Chapter Report

We started the year with our annual banquet meeting in January. The program was given by Dick Green, the author of 2 books based on the photos of Warren McGee and Ron Nixon, men who worked on the Northern Pacific but covered other northwest railroads too. A very interesting evening, we learned a lot.

We learned the State of Washington had not signed an agreement with WATCO setting the price of the Central Washington railroad (CW). WATCO owns the 108-mile CW from Cheney to Coulee City. This is the track on the north side of our 30-acre museum site in Readan, putting our progress virtually on hold awaiting the outcome of negotiations. This made the year somewhat frustrating because WATCO stopped operating trains.

We turned our efforts towards other projects. We pulled up an ex-Great Northern siding into Mutual Materials that yielded twenty-four tons of 90# rail, a complete switch, tie plates, spikes and 130 useable ties. We also bought a 40 ft. 1972 Brown flatbed semi-trailer. It took quite a lot of work to get it back on the road. B-Line Transport helped with the trailer repairs and let us store the trailer while we moved the rail and ties into the back of their yard. Another purchase was an ’81 GMC flatbed truck from Reardan Grain Growers. The low-mileage truck had been used for parts. After 3 weeks of work, Gene Hawk built and installed a new hoist, a bang board and a new door. Everything works now.

We worked on ex-GN Café/Coach 974 installing angle iron on the walls to support the seats. Twelve inch channel iron was cut and drilled to make legs supporting the isle end of each seat. We also installed paneling, patching the floor and installing carpet and most of the seats. Before the fair, we prepared and painted our ex-GN and ex-Milwaukee cabooses, ex-NP coach 589 and ex-UP sleeper "American Scene".

Thanks to good weather, our Display Train looking its best and our crew of 24 fair volunteers, some of whom worked up to 12 hours a day for the 10 days of the September fair, we did well. Our store at the fair in our depot and at several northwest area swap meets did the most business we have ever done, thanks mainly to the merchandising skills of Mike and Donna McMackin.

In October the WATCO/State of Washington situation looked better and grain trains started moving again. We took 2 loads of rail to Readan with our 40ft trailer and a leased tractor. We assembled the switch on our best switch ties next to where it needs to go in the CW line, so it can be moved into position, pulled by our D-8 bulldozer. Then at last, we will be able to move our equipment to the museum site.

In November, reports from a study done for the State of Washington say the CW is a good investment. Over 15-years, purchase, maintenance and operations would cost from $18 to 24 million. To rebuild and maintain the state highways used by more grain trucks would cost $18 to 45 million. Five and half million dollars of state and federal funds are going into connecting the Geiger Spur to the CW near Medical Lake. Construction is scheduled for 2007 bringing additional carloadings and a trans-loading facility.

The volunteers doing the heavy work in 2006 were: Jennell Branson, Gene Hawk, Al Hinkel, Larry Parker, John Simanton, Max Kunze, Tom Heckler, Bruce Juneau and Lee Tillotson. And thanks to the people who helped during the fair, president Bill Graedel, Sidetrack editor Dale Swant, Secretary/Treasurer Wayne Shaw, Librarian Jerry Fey and all our friends, we had quite a productive 2006.