Battleground, Yacolt and Chelatchie Railroad

Peter Hoffman

Right, entering the yard at Chelatchie.  There is an occupied residence on the property with a highrider parked outside. I saw no one here or a quarter mile further up the track where the equipment is stored.

Below is a history of the railroad's owners and names:

 

       Vancouver, Klickitat & Yakima Railroad (1888)

Portland, Vancouver & Yakima Railroad (1897)

Washington & Oregon Railroad (1903)

Northern Pacific Railroad (1903)

Harbor Plywood (1948)

Longview, Portland & Northern Railroad (1950)

Chelatchie Prairie Railroad (1981)

Clark County (Lewis & Clark Railroad) (1984)

Battle Ground, Yacolt & Chelatchie Railroad (1998)

    After conditioning myself to the fact that there were no longer any abandoned railroads close to my home in Beaverton, Oregon, low and behold, I find a little gem just 30 miles away in the neighboring state of Washington.

    Abandoned actually is not the right word, but the railroad is in a chronic state of disuse.  The details are

somewhat confusing, but the freight operator, who leases the entire line from Clark country and does not

run any trains, has canceled the rights of the tourist operator to use and maintain a small section of the

track.  Meanwhile, the operator

is attempting to sell his lease back

to the county for four times what he

paid for it.   Isn't greed wondrous?

   This little railroad started off with

big hopes, as so many did, of

connecting with a major trans-

continental line that would bring

prosperity to the region.  Never

accomplishing this during its early

stages, it depended on lumber

until the area was logged out. Once

the mills shut down, the railroad

lost it's viability.

    All that remains at Chelatchie,

the lines eastern terminus, is a

massive inoperative mill, a couple

of engine sheds, and a long siding

of dilapidated and disintegrating rail equipment.

Yacolt, another little town that died with the end of

logging in the area, is a sleepy village of but a few

hundred souls  ( I rode right through town and

directly in front of the sheriff's office without any

concerns).  Battle Ground, on the other hand,

is prosperous, thriving and one of the fastest

growing areas in Washington, owing to its beautiful

pastoral setting and proximity to Portland,

Oregon, just south across the Columbia River.

Besides its reference to a skirmish, in which an

Indian chief, mistaken for a white man because of

his costume, was killed by his own warriors, the

Above, check out the moss on the side of the rails.

It was wet and slippery even without rain for several days.  In descending order, the railroads single tunnel, a 330 foot curved natural bore, its only major bridge

across the Lewis River,  some interesting maintenance or inspection pits out in the middle of nowhere, and a section of right-of-way high above Lucia Falls Road.

name Battle Ground has no true descriptive value.

    I started my ride at a small country store at a place indicated on the map as Heisson.  From this point the rail line

leaves the proximity of the country roads and heads into the forest high above the Lewis River.  The ride is

shaded by tall Douglass Fir and

and Big Leaf Maple.

    Five and a half miles northeast the

railroad spans the Lewis River and a

busy grade crossing on Highway 16

at Moulton Falls State Park.  Although

the route is mostly away from highway

view, the roadway swings back and forth across the tracks several times.

I had to dismount and wait for breaks

in the traffic and twice, to my embarrassment, cars stopped to let me push the bike across the road.

    There is a passenger loading dock

at Moulton Falls where the tourist line

stopped before returning to Yacolt.

Just past Moulton Falls is the only tunnel on the line.  As the railroad

approaches Yacolt it leaves the forests and crosses a high prairie.  Here the road runs parallel to the tracks, but I encountered only friendly waves from passing motorists.  The only thing visible in Yacolt was the old station and the Sheriff's office with a single patrol car parked in front, although the

"main street" might have been hidden

a few blocks away.

Above, a monument to the Burlington Northern. 

Eight of these diesel cabs are buried next to

the yard in in Chelatchie.  Left, the BGYX #1, an Alco F2, was most recently used to haul tourist trains. The tourist operation is really a volunteer railroad historic preservation group with little or no funding.  Its roster boasts of ten diesels and two or more steam locomotives, which were not in evidence, three passenger cars and numerous cabooses, freight cars and MW equipment.

The terminous at Chelatchie

    A few miles outside Yacolt

I came across two isolated pits

under the tracks, which appeared to be for maintenance or car inspection, but why they were where they were is baffling.

    In places the environment was much like a rain forest, the

trees covered with moss, the banks crowded with ferns, and

the ground wet and slippery even through it hadn't rained for several days.

    Arriving in Chelatchie, the quaint railyard was the first indication of any railroad activity.

Sadly, the equipment stored here is badly deteriorating as it waits for better times. Its future,

however, appears as dark as the approaching  rain clouds (see opening photo).

The round trip from Heisson to Chelatchie was approximately 30 miles.