In 1869, as the transcontinental railroad made its way west, Olympic Peninsula residents of Washington State were ecstatic! They reasoned the area was the premiere candidate for the western terminus. Speculators gambled on the location of the railroad up and down the peninsula and cities along Hood Canal started building in anticipation. Unfortunately for them, the Northern Pacific terminus was granted to Tacoma in 1873. In my revision of history, a group of investors motivated by the rich Spruce and Douglas Fir resources as well as ocean ports of the area, brought the railroad to the Olympic Peninsula shortly thereafter.

The Washington Northern is a freelance HO scale railroad modeling the mid-1990s. This regional line is centered in the fictitious deep water port city of Port Andrews. Geographically, it is located it on what is Discovery Bay off the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It then travels west around the Olympic Mountains before turning south along the Pacific Coast side of the peninsula to Hoqium and Aberdeen, before continuing to Portland, Oregon and the Willamette Valley. 

As a regional carrier, the WN handles large volumes of oversea traffic from Port Andrews and online industries to connect with BNSF, Union Pacific and several short lines off the modeled portion of the layout. While the railroad still handles a significant amount of freight associated with the timber industry, traffic in those commodities has declined over the decades.

The railroad also hosts run through traffic in the form of Powder River Basin coal off of the Union Pacific to an overseas transloading facility at Discovery Bay. Canadian grain also arrives from north of the border via CN and the Canadian Pacific in addition to Eastern Washington grain to the large Pacific Agricultural Exchange or “PAX” elevators for shipment overseas.

In the late 1970s, the WN was looking for more boxcars to handle the increasing volume of manufactured goods and products coming out of the growing Port Andrews area. Enter the Pullman-Standard 5277 Cu. Ft. Exterior-Post Boxcar. The railroad purchased a total of 229 beginning in 1978, numbering them 333700 thru 333929. This was also during the per diem boxcar period which saw these cars appear throughout the country far from their Pacific Northwest home. The cars are used in all types of service including packaging materials, canned seafoods and produce, as well as paper, forestry and manufactured household products.

I am delighted that the Washington Northern has been chosen to be represented in this newest Home Shops release. It is indeed an honor to have the WN appear alongside so many great names in the freelance model railroading arena.