DIVERSITY BEYOND THE PORT
In 2004, PS&P reached a 20-year agree-
ment with Waste Management to transport
containerized municipal garbage from
Kitsap County area. The contract calls for
7,500 containers annually moved from the
transfer facility at Belfair, Wash., in a unit
train 300 miles to the Columbia Ridge
landfill site in Arlington, Ore. The short
line operates the weekly unit train to
Centralia, Wash., where it is handed off to
Union Pacific for the remainder of the trip.
Beyond Belfair, the U.S. Navy is PS&P’s
main customer. At the end of the line at
Bremerton is the U.S. Naval Shipyard that
sees occasional traffic, as does the subma-
rine base at Bangor, Wash., several miles
north along Hood Canal. Other smaller
customers include Lowe’s distribution cen-
ter, smaller mills, chicken and cattle feed,
bulk propane, and other general freight.
OPERATIONS AND INCREASED TRAFFIC
Puget Sound & Pacific employs 43 per-
sonnel and houses 12 locomotives placed
around its system. An all-EMD-powered,
four-axle railroad, the railroad does use
run-through BNSF Railway and Union
Pacific power on certain trains. “We have an
agreement with the Class I railroads to use
their power on the bulk AGP, auto, and gar-
bage trains,” Sorensen says. “All of our in-
bound bulk and auto trains are handed off
to us at the depot in Centralia, and they are
handed back to the Class I [railroads] at
Blakeslee Junction [Centralia].”
Inbound and outbound general manifest
trains are exchanged from either the BNSF
Railway yard at Centralia or PS&P’s Lake-
side yard at Blakeslee Junction. PS&P uses
its locomotives placed at the Port of Grays
Harbor to move grain trains through the
unloading loop and are operated under an
agreement with the International Longshore
and Warehouse Union. Class I power is
removed during the unloading and placed
back on for outbound empties.
As the short line has experienced addi-
tional traffic throughout the years, it has
addressed the change by adjusting its
operations plan and by adding a key
siding at Cedar Creek, between Elma and
Oakville, Wash. This 8,000-foot siding is a
radio-controlled, dual-tone, multifrequen-
cy-signaled siding activated by the train
crews. This siding allowed for PS&P to
have options for day-to-day operations as
it acts as not only a meeting point, but has
the capacity to hold an entire unit train or
it can be used as temporary staging for
bulk or unit trains for the port, if the port
lacks space.
“At times, we can have four-to-five
AGP unit trains on property,” Sorensen
says. “We need the flexibility to not only
handle that traffic, but also the other unit
trains and regular manifest. The addition
of Cedar Creek siding really allows us
that flexibility.”
PS&P continues to adjust its operations
to stay ahead of increased traffic. A large
capital expenditure in 2019 will see the re-
placement of about 22,000 ties. In a region
that sees an average of 4 feet of rain per
year, this is the minimum to stay ahead of
the maintenance curve.
“Our railroad essentially operates in a
rainforest,” Sorensen says. “The right-of-
way is always damp due to the climate.”
Another operating challenge for the
railroad is the short, but steep Stimson
Hill on its route between Elma and Shel-
ton. Topping out at 2.83%, the grade is
compounded by a series of sharp curves
that tend to bind up trains as they climb
west toward Elma. The railroad rises 400
feet in just 7 miles.
During the fall, leaves from trees can
cause additional issues with adhesion fortrains laden with heavy lumber or unit
garbage trains. Garbage trains operate
through this climb with two head-end, six-
axle motors and two additional locomo-
tives on the rear as distributed power. This
is the second-steepest, regularly operated
line in the state of Washington, although
due to its location is not well known.
As industries keep growing, Puget
Sound & Pacific continues to be an essential
link for the transport of a multitude of bulk
materials into and out of the Northwest.
This development along with the potential
for future expansion at the Port of Grays
Harbor demonstrate the importance of a re-
silient and invested railroad like PS&P.
Moving bushels of grain started as a
main goal in the late 1800s and now has
become a main commodity a century later.
This progress has brought with it a multi-
tude of other traffic that keeps the rails
shiny and the tonnage moving in this small
corner of the Pacific Northwest. 2TrainsMag.com 31An empty garbage train heads north through Rochester, en route to Belfair, Wash., Jan. 4, 2019.
The train is returning from a landfill site in Arlington, Ore.Engineer Brock Hansen is at the controls of Puget Sound & Pacific train No. 700 as it rolls
between Gate, Wash., and Rochester on Feb. 12, 2019.