The Meeker Southern Railroad is a Class III

shortline railroad A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that operates over a relatively short distance relative to larger, national railroad networks. The term is used primarily in the United States and Canada. In the former, railroads are ...

owned by Ballard Terminal Railroad Company LLC that travels approximately between East Puyallup ("Meeker") and McMillin in

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, United States. The Meeker Southern runs on former

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

tracks originally laid by the

Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...

History

The Meeker Southern's tracks were originally constructed by the

as their main line into the railway's original terminus in

Tacoma Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, northwest of Mount ...

. The completed rail line formerly connected Puyallup to Palmer Junction via Buckley. From Palmer Junction, the rail line joined the Main Line (currently the BNSF Stampede Subdivision) to continue east over

Stampede Pass Stampede Pass (elevation ) is a mountain pass in the Pacific Northwest, northwest United States, through the Cascade Range in Washington (state), Washington. Southeast of Seattle and east of Tacoma, Washington, Tacoma, its importance to transport ...

. After the opening of the main line extension to Auburn (or the "Palmer Cutoff" through Kanaskat) which branches off from Palmer Junction, the former trackage was transitioned to a branch line, named by the Northern Pacific as the "Buckley Line". In 1984, the former Northern Pacific Main Line over Stampede Pass (the Stampede Subdivision) as well as the Buckley Line were mothballed as redundant by the railroad's successor company, the

Burlington Northern The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroad ...

. While the Stampede Subdivision would be reopened again some 15 years later, the Buckley Line fell into disuse. Currently, the Buckley Line is truncated with 5 miles of track branching out from Meeker operating as the Meeker Southern, and 5 miles of track branching out from Palmer Junction owned by the BNSF Railway as a storage track in Veazie. A roughly 30 mile gap without rails exists between these two sections; built-over in several communities. The Meeker Southern was established as a subsidiary of the Ballard Terminal Railroad to operate on the former Buckley Line. Currently the Meeker Southern serves customers in both East Puyallup and McMillin.

Locomotives

The Meeker Southern owns two locomotives. Primary power is provided by number 103, an

EMD SW9 The EMD SW9 is a model of diesel switcher locomotives built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between November 1950 and December 1953. Additional SW9s were built by General Motors Diesel in London Ontario Canada from December 1950 to M ...

. In 2020, after the shutdown of the Eastside Freight Railroad (another subsidiary of the Ballard Terminal Railroad), the Meeker Southern acquired their locomotive, an EMD SW1200 numbered 109. 109 currently serves the role of backup power on the Meeker Southern.

References

Switching and terminal railroads Washington (state) railroads Spin-offs of the BNSF Railway Puyallup, Washington {{US-rail-company-stub