Can Grain Train cycles Improve?

Friday, October 21 was one of those nice fall days with warm sun and crisp air. It was the kind of day that makes you realize winter is soon coming. After our last class was out at 3pm, Amanda and I decided to take a drive to Steptoe Butte and enjoy a nice fall evening outdoors. We packed some soup, crackers and cheese, and enjoyed a nice tailgate dinner from the 3,612' elevation of the quartzite mound.

From Steptoe Butte one can gaze for 200 miles across the rippled Palouse landscape and its quilt-like pattern of fields, some tinted green by the sprouting winter wheat, others glowing brown with stubble in the evening light. Grain elevators rise above the ancient lake bed marking numerous townsites: Palouse, Garfield, Farmington, Thornton, Oakesdale and of course, Steptoe. Each town lies approximately 10-15 miles apart, or about days ride by horseback. The uniform distance is not an accident, railroads platted townsites and warehouses were constructed so that farmers could haul their grain from field to warehouse and back to the farm within a day. Amazingly, and despite the shrinking number of grain elevators in the Palouse - from a high of over 300 in the 1960s to roughly 100 in 2005 - a recent transportation study has found that most farmers still average about a 10 mile haul from field to elevator during harvest. The haul from elevator to export depends upon the mode of transportation.

As the sun set on the richest wheat producing land in the world, my thoughts kept drifting back to the long struggle farmers have had transporting wheat to market, and especially of the railroad's role. Three railroads constructed branchlines into the Palouse, each eventually representing the major transcontinental railroads of the region - the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Union Pacific - competing for the carloads of wheat generated each summer. The fourth transcontinental line, the Milwaukee Road's Pacific Extension, crossed the Palouse east to west, compared to the generally north to south route of the other railroad's branchlines. As a result the Milwauke did not have a major role in the transportation of eastern Washington wheat.

From the time the railroads were constructed until the the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 deregulated the nation's railroads, the branchlines in the Palouse were the primary outlet for grain transportation. The Staggers Act removed federal regulation of the railroad's rate structure, allowing the railroads to set rates at what the market would bear. Ironically, regulation occured in the early 20th century to protect shipper's, especially farmers, from exorbitant rates charged by railroads. Under the Staggers Act, the process which governed rail abandonment was also eased and by the mid-1980s the railroads were aggressively abandoning branchlines in eastern Washington. By the mid 1990s, the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern (former Northern Pacific) lines had all either been abandoned or sold to a shortline railroad.

Currently the remnants of UP and NP's branchlines are operated by the Palouse River & Coulee City Railway (PCC) and are connected by UP's former Moscow branch between Colfax and Pullman - see the map below (when I get it posted). The contractual agreement between the UP and BNSF with the PCC stipulates that only UP cars can be loaded on former UP lines and BNSF cars on former BNSF lines. This effectively makes the shortline a captive, contract hauler for the former railroad and ensures that the shortline cannot generate competition between the former railroads. However, this can be circumnavigated if the shortline owned their own cars. Beginning in 1995, Washington state created the "Grain Train Program" and began furnishing the PCC with covered hoppers. These cars were for the exclusive use of the PCC and the plan was to run the cars between loading elevators, initially in the Walla Walla region, to a barge reload at Wallula. In this way the Union Pacific and the BNSF were not involved with grain transportation on their former lines. There is no stipulation in place that prohibits the PCC from loading these Grain Train cars on the P&L and shipping them over the former UP lines to the reload at Wallula. Unfortunately, the PCC has not taken any advantage of their connection between Colfax and Pullman.

Since the PCC was formed they've been nothing but a puppet for the UP and BNSF. Rather than utilizing the Colfax to Pullman connection, the PCC interchanges the Grain Train cars to the BNSF at Marshall. From Marshall they go to deepwater ports in western Washington and are essentially in competition with the BNSF freight car fleet for priority. Because BNSF is interested in expanding 100+ car unit train loading facilities, such as the new high-output elevator at Ritzville, they're not interested in providing cars to the PCC. BNSF understands that slow car cycles on the Grain Train will encourage shippers to truck to the Ritzville elevator. In effect, despite the connection between Colfax and Pullman, the PCC essentially operates as two independent systems and remains tied to the former class 1 owner for car supply even for the Grain Train fleet. Based upon field observation, conversations with PCC crews and numerous elevator employees, this practice is not an effective or efficient use of the Grain Train cars. However, an alternative exists.

The critical missing link in the current rail transportation system for eastern Washington wheat is the former Union Pacific grade between Thornton and Oakesdale. This segment, just 8 miles in length, would connect the former Northern Pacific Palouse & Lewiston branch (P&L) with Union Pacific's former Pleasant Valley branch (PV) at Thornton. The abandonment of this 8 mile gap was contested by the grain growers and WA state when UP was abandoning significant segments of their Palouse branchline network in 1992. Union Pacific sought to remove the rails as far south as St. John, perhaps seeking to insure that the shortline would never connect their system at this crucial juncture. In the end they relented and left the line in as far as Thornton.


While imperfect, this panoramic view illustrates the short distance between Thornton and Oakesdale and the easy topography through which the former UP grade was constructed.

Athough the PCC has the connection between Colfax and Pullman, there is a 3% ruling grade for all westbound traffic from Colfax. The difficulty of running loaded grain trains up this grade has reportedly kept the PCC from running shuttle trains from the P&L to the barge reload at Wallula. Without adequate power at Colfax, westbound grain trains would have to double the hill to Mockonema. This reproduction (below) from a Union Pacific track profile illustrates the major grade west of Colfax.



By comparison, note the much easier grade of the former UP between Oakesdale and Thornton. Rather than the 3% pull out of Colfax, maximum gradient on the abandoned segment is just .79% against westbound loaded grain trains. The eastbound grade facing empty trains is practically identical on both routes.



Although new rail construction is extremely expensive, rebuilding the Oakesdale-Thornton segment would allow more efficient use of the Grain Train fleet. Rather than rely upon the BNSF connection at Marshall, loads off the P&L could join Grain Train cars already in use on the PV for movement to the barge reload at Wallula. Less reliance upon the BNSF could significantly increase car cycles and number of loads per car per year by shortening the distance the cars travel speeding their return to shippers. This would simultaneously improve the operational effeciency of the PCC, increased car cycles means more profit and theoretically, better customer service that shortlines should provide.


An empty grain train waits for another trip to the loading elevators near the huge ground storage pile at the Wallula reload. This train was loaded the previous week on the Pleasant Valley branch, perhaps someday P&L grain loads will unload here as well.