Posted by beano on August 5, 2022 
Your right on time Bill. Excellent photo here. Wish the Road could of survived. So sad for a railroad to pull up spikes and rail and disappear. I always thought BN would pick up some right of way esp now with the price of fuel and shorten their route east a bit. Who knows maybe Amtrak might decide to rail the trail in the future.
Posted by Raul on November 23, 2022 
A beautiful picture
Posted by SES on December 28, 2022 
Yes, @beano, I heard way back in the very late 1990's or early 2000's that BNSF looked into purchasing back from the state portions of the old Milwaukee grade over the Saddle Mountains as well as Snoqualmie Pass in order to shorten the dip the NP route took between Lind and Ellensburg and ease the grade over the Cascades by taking the Milwaukee route from Easton to Renton. For whatever reasons, BNSF rejected the idea. One possible reason could've been that there'd be a trade-off with the Saddle Mtn grade being 2.2%, same as Stampede Pass in the Cascades even though Snoqualmie had a much easier grade. Other obstacles would have been rebuilding the collapsed portion of the Hull Creek steel viaduct on Snoqualmie's western slope as well as the fact that the widening of Hwy 169 near Renton ended up removing good piece of the Right of Way near the Cedar River crossing. Other factors could be at play but for whatever reasons, BNSF rejected the idea at the time. Would've been nice to see that happen, though.
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