When I took the 'Builder from Shelby to Portland and back in June this year, we got off at the smoke break stops, and I photographed our train. Here we are at Appleyard, and the famous Cascadian facility as the darkness engulfs eastern Washington:
That should be Train #8. (Eastward). A side note- That's not really Appleyard. Which is a bit further (about two miles) ahead. Boxcab E50
"Cascadian Apples" Named after the local GN train that ran so many years ago! Back when I was 5, Dad took us over on the Empire Builder in 1970 and when we stopped here, we got free apples from that very building from a nice old guy that worked there!! We ended up in Spokane to layover for the WB EB! Conductor gave us a handfull of the GN BSB "Rocky" buttons, now that the train was BN. Ah, memories! Thanks for the pic!!
Ok, I guess Appleyard was further from the depot than I thought. Eastbound, yes, it was the #8 train. What a ride!
Your train went right past my house about a mile and a half west of the Ephrata depot, though it would have been dark by then. The "Cascadian" building is proclaimed on one side as a "pear house" now. So I suppose the apples are no longer stored there. I was at an antique store outside of Malaga, just a mile or two out of Appleyard, and on the wall they had an old copy of the Wenatchee World newspaper with the 1974 headline of the huge explosion of a tank car at Appleyard. The newspaper came home with me, for free. A retired railroader who worked into Wenatchee at the time got the inside scoop as to why the tank car exploded, which never came out in the ICC accident report.
Guess we just "missed" each other... hehehee... I came through earlier in May on my way home after visiting my daughter in Vancouver, WA. Great shot... :tb-biggrin:
It went something along the lines of a tank car was carrying the detonator liquid that was used in mining. The car was unloaded but not washed out. Some of the detonator hardened in the valve area below the car. It was then loaded with the explosive liquid (the mine shaft would have the explosive poured down into it and then the detonator would be poured in, with a very sharp explosion being the result). Time, heat, and the coupling of the tank to a cut of cars during switching in the yard. Kaboom! The guy who was riding the tank car was never found. His brother was the hogger on the switcher.
