ABOVE: As the crew shoves empties into the elevator track at Willada, an 18-wheeler heads into town with a load of grain on August 23, 2011. RIGHT: North of Winona, the PV Sub follows the Palouse River closely for six miles. At the mouth of Big Cove Canyon, the line sweeps through a reverse curve between the river and Lancaster Road. WAMX 5012 and 4043 snake 31 cars through the countryside on September 16, 2013.


cross one last ridge and drop into the Thorn Creek drainage. At the bottom of the hill lies Thornton


and a former crossing with the other S&IE interurban line connecting Spokane, Palouse, and Moscow. The PV Sub today ends in Thornton at another Pacific Northwest Farmer’s Coop elevator, but once continued east under U.S. Highway 195 to pass through Oakesdale on its way to rejoining the mainline at Seltice.


Railfanning the PV Hooper Branch Watco operates the PV Hooper on


an up-and-back cycle based out of Wallula on the Columbia River, where the company’s Blue Mountain Railroad (BLMR) line from Walla Walla also connects. PCC crews report for duty early in the morning at Colfax, then drive to where the train is parked. Typically, the train will depart Wallula on Tuesday mornings and run up UP’s Ayer Sub to Hooper Junction to join home rails. The crew can usually reach Winona before their hours of service expire, and a good trip over UP can allow extra time to


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continue further and spot industries. Wednesday morning finds the crew working east or north of Winona to serve online industries. On Thursday morning, they collect cars from the industries, assemble the road train at Winona, and haul down to Hooper Junction. The cycle concludes on Friday morning with a southbound return over UP’s high iron to Wallula. However, cautions Watco Vice President Ted Kadau, “We do have fluctuations in our schedule based upon such issues as grain harvest, maintenance and track work, and customer’s needs,” so days of operation can change.


The predominant traffic on the PCC


is grain moving in 26-car blocks from online shippers to the Northwest Grain Growers barge dock at Wallula. A portion of the railcar fleet is owned by WSDOT and branded as the Washington Grain Train, providing a pool of cars dedicated to serving Palouse growers. From Wallula, the grain is barged downriver to deepwater docks at Portland and transferred to oceangoing ships for export. The PCC’s only inbound loads move to the McGregor plant at Mockonema. Watco’s Kadau details how non-grain traffic moves to and from the


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