Tacoma Rail ends service to Frederickson, Wash.

Another little piece of the Milwaukee Road is fading away in Tacoma, Wash.

Tacoma Rail aka Tacoma Municipal Belt Line Railway consisted of three divisions. The Tidelands Division, the Mountain Division and the Capitol Division, now known as the Lakewood Division.

The Capitol Division included lines in the Olympia, Wash., area and industries in South Tacoma and Lakewood, Wash. Leases for operations on the Olympia lines, owned by UP and BNSF were not renewed several years ago, leaving just the freight franchise agreement with Sound Transit for operations on the Lakewood Subdivision.

The Tideflats Division is the heart of Tacoma Rail’s operation, and it continues to thrive along with the Lakewood Subdivision.

The Mountain Division is another story. The division lost $11 million in the past 10 years. There is a $40 million estimate for maintenance and infrastructure rehabilitation, while the income projected for the next decade is about $20 million. As it stands now, the line runs from just outside UP’s Fife Yard to McKenna, Wash., (about 28 miles) plus the M Line or Morton Branch toward Mt. Rainer Scenic Railroad. Several years ago, the southern portion of the original Mountain Division, all ex-Milwaukee Road lines, was sold to Western Washington Rail. With that purchase, WWR, which will officially become Rainier Rail, gained an interchange with BNSF at Centralia, Wash., and UP at Chehalis, Wash. The line ran from Chehalis to McKenna.  By purchasing the remaining Mountain Division, Rainer Rail will have access to Frederickson, Wash.  This will allow Rainier Rail to service the industries at Fredrickson, including a Boeing facility, two James Hardie facilities, makers or HardiePlank siding board, and several others.

However, the sale does not include the portion of the line within the Tacoma city limits. The line leaves Tacoma near the intersection of East 72^nd Street and McKinley Avenue, leaving just under 6 miles of the Mountain Division in the city and owned by the city. Many years ago, a 1-mile section of the Mountain Division through Freighthouse Square was sold to Sound Transit for use by Sounder commuter trains. Tacoma Rail retained operating rights over this 1-mile stretch, which they will retain for Lakewood Sub operational purposes.

In the end, the city retains ownership of about 4.75 miles of track. Tacoma Rail plans to abandon this section, the costliest to maintain, which includes the steepest part of the line, a 3.75% grade, a bridge over the BNSF and UP lines, and a bridge and trestle over the Puyallup River, which are both Milwaukee Road structures built in 1937.

The portion of the Mountain Division between the Lakewood Sub and Frederickson will end up with two owners, the Tacoma and Rainier Rail, and no viable freight traffic.  Ideas for its use include a bike and hiking trail or an extension of Sounder service to Frederickson. It’s hard to tell what might happen, especially with two owners and a large number of residential properties along the line.

The 1-mile portion of the Mountain Division that used the Lakewood Subdivision is also used by Tacoma Rail for light engine moves between its operations further south on the Lakewood Sub and its Tidelands Division engine servicing facilities. Those moves required the use of the Highline, the northern most section of the Mountain Division, a 1.1-mile section running between the UP’s Fife yard and CP Portland Ave on the Lakewood Sub. The Highline, too, will be abandoned, although it was offered for sale, with no takers.

Without the Highline, Tacoma Rail’s light engine moves will require using the BNSF’s Seattle Sub over a short Z-shaped route. Going from the Lakewood Sub to Bull Frog Junction over BNSF tracks and avoiding the UP.

Rainier Rail will use the north end of the Mountain Division for car storage. There are four sidings, with two needing significant work before they be operable.

On May 16, 2023, Rainier Rail rolled into Frederickson with a pair of ex-Southern Railway high-hood GP38s, the lead unit in its original number (5119) sported a new Rainier Rail paint job. Currently wearing the reporting marks WRL, which will be changed soon to RNIR. These two units are set up for remote control. Initially, Rainier Rail will work with a crew of two, whereas Tacoma Rail had an additional crew member in a vehicle. Plans also call for leaving a single switcher locomotive at Frederickson. The track is currently rated at Class 1, however, upgrading to Class 2 or 3 is also planned for the near future.

Rainier Rail’s endeavor in Frederickson, will keep a little bit of the Milwaukee alive but more importantly will continue vital rail service to the growing industrial area.

Meanwhile, Tacoma Rail is now free of the maintenance and operation of a challenging line and will be returning the unique SD70ACe-P4s back to Progress Rail.

On May 14^th, 2023, the last regular run to Frederickson took place. The train consisted of the two SD70ACe-P4s (Nos. 7001 and 7002) and dead-in-tow SD40s (Nos. 3000 and 3001), 19 cars, 2,852 tons, at a length of 1,746 feet. On this last run, the gulch had the last laugh.  Just south of the 34^th Avenue bridge, the train began to slow from 19 mph.  When the countdown reached 3 mph, the locomotives were grinding and bucking, until it felt like we were on the ground. A cloud of sand dust enveloped the lead unit as we came to a stop.  An attempt at laying down some additional sand as the train was backed a little way down the hill, also failed. As has happened many times before, doubling the hill was the solution.

Leaving not quite half the cars and the conductor behind, we headed for an 85^th Street siding to drop of the first cut, then back down for the second cut and the conductor.  Once the train was put back together, we traveled the remaining 4 miles to Frederickson, where the train was tied down to await another crew on the next day.

On May 15^th, an experienced Tacoma Rail crew, arrived about 10:30 am and got started with their work. Switching several customers and leaving some work for the new owners.  After putting the train together and doing an air test, the last car to be spotted by Tacoma Rail was shoved into the Parr Lumber spur on the nose of No. 7002.  When the conductor re-joined the locomotive, we backed onto the main and headed north to Tacoma with 6 cars.

A fitting end to this operation was waiting for us in Fife. The required poke into the Fife yard to get home was not going to happen anytime soon, as the UP had both tracks between the Fife Yard and Tacoma Rail’s Muni yard bottled up, with an intermodal cut hanging out into the Fife yard, we couldn’t even get to the truck for a ride back to the Tacoma Rail offices. Just sit and wait a while.

Thus ended an era of service to Frederickson by Tacoma Rail over a storied rail line.

For more on Tacoma Rail, including a maps of the railroad, please see the June 2022 Trains.