Headed to Sieler Columbia Basin Railroad’s turn to Wheeler from Warden is on the former Milwaukee Road branch to Moses Lake, Washington, moving two covered hoppers to the Wilbur Ellis grain elevator at Sieler siding on September 29, 2021.
Milwaukee Road had a grain-gathering branch off the main line at Warden that ran northeast to Marcellus. Not far out of Warden at a place called Tiflis, the railroad had a branch to Moses Lake. On this branch, between Sieler and McDonald, Milwaukee Road built a 4.23-mile spur that ran north to U. & I. Sugar. Northern Pacific, later Burlington Northern also served this plant from the north and connected to the Milwaukee trackage here as well.
When Milwaukee Road departed the west for good, BN took over operations of Milwaukee trackage down the 4.23-mile spur, and on to Moses Lake. The Columbia Basin Railroad was established in 1986 as part of the Washington Central Railroad Company, which bought 230 miles of trackage in Central Washington from BN, which included all the routes that were still extant out of Warden. This line is now abandoned east of Sieler siding to Tiflis, along with the Milwaukee Road branch trackage from Warden to Marcellus.
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