Weyerhaeuser Woods Railroad

I originally posted the Weyerhaeuser Woods Railroad page on my website on May 17, 2005. I have expanded it with more information about the locomotives and cabooses, pictures my dad took on the trip in addition to my own, and updated information.

On April 16, 2005, in order to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the club, the membership of the Longview, Kelso & Rainier Model Railroad Club rode the Weyerhaeuser Woods Railroad from the Weyerhaeuser Mill in Longview, Washington to the "Weyerhaeuser Regional Landfill Facility," or simply "Landfill," 17 miles away and back. The Longview Daily News even covered the event, albeit a month after it happened. The train consisted of six locomotives (All EMD SW1500s) and three cabooses. Yes, the train was a little overpowered.

The Weyerhaeuser Woods Railroad is one of the last logging railroads in the US. It does not actually carry logs anymore; instead it carries rough-cut lumber and wood chips from the Green Mountain Mill near Toutle, Washington to Longview, and garbage from Longview to Landfill. Washington's actual last log-carrying railroad was the Simpson Timber line operating out of Shelton, but aside from a few miles between the Shelton mill and a log sorting yard, the Simpson operation has been abandoned, so the way I see it, Weyerhaeuser's Longview "Woods Line" is the last logging line, even if there aren't any actual logs on it anymore.

In 2010, the Weyerhaeuser Woods Railroad and the Columbia & Cowlitz Railway were sold to Patriot Rail.

The map below shows the route of the trip, in yellow. The Weyerhaeuser Woods Railroad actually continues east from Landfill to the Green Mountain Mill near Toutle (Toutle is just off the map, to the northwest of Silver Lake), and though I didn't show that part of the route on the map, it is still in operation. The trip to Landfill starts at the Weyerhaeuser Mill in Longview on the Columbia River, circles around the city of Longview and parallels the West Side Highway north before crossing over the bridge over the Cowlitz River, going around Rocky Point, and following Ostrander Creek into the woods. There's a tunnel on the line, plus lots of small bridges and waterfalls, making for a beautiful trip. The round trip took about three hours.

Here is a list of the following posts about this trip:

WTCX SW1500 #305
WTCX SW1500 #302
WTCX SW1500 #306
WTCX SW1500 #312
WTCX SW1500 #308
WTCX SW1500 #307
WTCX Caboose #1
Columbia & Cowlitz Caboose #5
WTCX Caboose #4
Departing Longview
Cowlitz River Bridge
Rocky Point Yard
Rocky Point Tunnel
North to Landfill
Landfill
Headquarters
Ostrander Tunnel
Southbound
Rocky Point
Back over the River
A Friendly Wave
Other Engines at the Mill

First, here is the consist of the train: Weyerhaeuser Locomotives #305, #302, #306, #312, #308 & #307, Weyerhaeuser Caboose #1, Columbia & Cowlitz Caboose #5 & Weyerhaeuser Caboose #4. Next, we’ll take a closer look at each one.

Continue to WTCX SW1500 #305…