The Washington Eastern Railroad is a
shortline railroad located in
Eastern Washington in the United States. It runs on the CW Branch built by the
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, whic ...
from 1889–1890 and was previously used by the
Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad
The Washington Eastern Railroad is a shortline railroad located in Eastern Washington in the United States. It runs on the CW Branch built by the Northern Pacific Railway from 1889–1890 and was previously used by the Eastern Washington Gatew ...
until 2018. The WER was owned by The Western Group; on November 1, 2020, it was acquired by
Jaguar Transport Holdings
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the thi ...
of
Joplin, Missouri.
History
The Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad was established on June 1, 2007, after the purchase of the CW branch of the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad (PCC) by the
Washington State Department of Transportation
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT or WashDOT, both ) is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Establi ...
(WSDOT). The branch, which saw low traffic and high deferred maintenance costs, was slated to be abandoned by the railroad. The state purchased the line in February 2007 for $5.6 million, after lobbying from grain growers in the region.
Th
Inland Northwest Rail Museumwas constructed in 2016 in
Reardan, Washington
Reardan is a town in Lincoln County, Washington, United States. The population was 637 at the 2020 census.
History
Founded in 1882 and platted in 1889, Reardan was named for Central Washington Railroad engineer C.F. Reardan. Reardan was incor ...
, adjacent to trackage owned by EWG. The museum is home to several pieces of historic railroad equipment from
Eastern Washington.
EWG went out of business on November 4, 2018, with operations assumed by Washington Eastern Railroad, a new entity operated by the Western Group. The last EWG train ran on November 3, 2018.
The Western Group won the bid from WSDOT to operate the CW Branch on September 4, 2018. In late 2018, WER began building an extension on the Geiger Spur to serve
Spokane International Airport and surrounding industrial facilities.
Jaguar Transport Holding acquired the line on November 1, 2020.
[
]
Route
The WER operates on the state-owned CW Branch. The route runs starts in Cheney in a junction with the BNSF Railway line. The route then proceeds along SR 904 to Four Lakes. At Four Lakes, the tracks cross under I-90 and meet the grain elevator operated by HighLine Grain Growers.
Operations
The WER currently hauls scoot trains one to four times a week depending on the time of year. It goes out to Coulee City dropping off empty cars at various communities and comes back one to two days later picking up those loaded cars and taking them to the grain storage operated by HighLine Grain Growers in Four Lakes. After the grain is unloaded, WER heads back out and repeats the process.
See also
*List of Washington railroads List of Washington railroads may refer to:
* List of Washington (state) railroads
* List of Washington, D.C., railroads
The following railroads operate or once operated in the District of Columbia.
Current railroads
Freight
* CSX Transpor ...
* List of reporting marks: E
Jaguar Transport Holdings
References
{{Reflist
Rail transportation in Washington (state)
Railway companies established in 2018