This layout is a free-lanced prototype running from Yakima in the
east to Olympia and Tacoma in the West. I had originally wanted to have the layout be based in the northern part of the state, but a fellow
model railroader convinced me otherwise as the terrain is much too rough to route a railroad through. Alas, that is where things stayed for
quite awhile until the same friend suggested moving it to the southern part of the state going over White Pass. This way, it could be another
route through the Cascades to reach the lucrative shipping and industry that was there. The route I chose follows highway 12 over the pass and down to Packwood, Randle, and
to Morton. I would really like to model Packwood and Randle as these were home to Hampton Lumber (and Morton too). This would mean more
business for the White Pass & Olympic. Freight hauled consists mainly of timber, timber products, paper, woodchips,
perishable fruit, cement, chemicals, petroleum, and some coal.
The railroad has leased trackage rights to the Burlington Northern and
Milwaukee Road. There is also an interchange with the Chehalis Western (was Curtis, Milburn and Eastern) which hauls logs out of the
mountains. The WPO handles all online customers from Yakima to Olympia. There is some consideration of expanding the line out to Moxee
City east of Yakima (see below) to handle Bay Zinc and Weaver's Flowers right next door. However, the railroad is so incomplete right now that the
focus is to get up and running with what there is so far.
This line is not so fictional as the Northern Pacific seriously considered a route through White Pass as evidenced in the following 1928 map of the Yakima area railroads. Notice the dotted line
designating a future railroad line from Naches to the west.
Here is a line diagram showing the entire railroad. Dotted line to Moxee City shows a future plan for
expansion. The end of the line at Mineral does double duty as Western Jct as well. This way, WPO can also interchange with the Chehalis Western. Staging is
in an adjacent room and will be of the active fiddle type which the UCW affectionately calls the "mole".