When I took this picture in January 2006, this track went north to Bellevue, Woodinville, and Snohomish. In 2008 the line was severed just south of Bellevue as part of a freeway-widening project. Now, in 2013, the active line ends in the Kennydale area north of here. From there northward, it has been abandoned. The main---and perhaps only---rail customer is The Boeing Company, whaich receives Next generation 737 fuselages that are made in Wichita and sent here via Seattle and Black River Junction.
At bottom is writing molded into the concrete.
It appears up close in another photo.
Historical note: up ahead, about where the silver box is on the left side of the track, there used to a switch with a track angling , going under the freeway. That was where the main line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad ("The Milwaukee Road") branched off of this line. It went east all the way to Chicago. In 1980, all the western lines of The Milwaukee Road were abandoned as the result of bankruptcy. The last Milwaukee Road train traveled on this track in March of that year. The Washington State portion (from Cedar Falls/Rattlesnake Lake to the Washington/Idaho border) is now a rail trail.
|