The Columbia and Cowlitz Railway is a short-line railroad owned by

Patriot Rail Corporation Patriot Rail Company LLC (Patriot Rail) is a holding company for a number of short-line railroad, shortline railroads across the United States. In June 2012, Patriot Rail was acquired by SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners (SteelRiver). On August ...

, and is headquartered in

Longview, Washington Longview is a city in Cowlitz County, Washington, Cowlitz County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. It is the principal city of the Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cowlitz County. Longvie ...

. The railroad serves an route from the Weyerhaeuser Company mill in Longview to the junction just outside the city limits of Kelso. From there, traffic is either switched to the Patriot Woods Railroad, formally known as the Weyerhaeuser Woods Railroad, where it is transported to Weyerhaeuser's Green Mountain Sawmill at Toutle or it is switched to the

BNSF BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide ...

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

joint main line for movement to either

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, or

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington. The railroad employs thirteen people and hauls around 12,000 carloads a year.

History

CLC was incorporated on April 9, 1925, and the line was constructed between 1926 and 1928. The railway was a wholly owned subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser Company until its sale in 2010 to Patriot Rails. Patriot also purchased the Weyerhauser Woods Railroad, changing its name to Patriot Woods Railroad. The two railroads connect and work as one railroad with of track.

Rolling stock

The railway owns a fleet of 500

freight car Goods wagons or freight wagons (North America: freight cars), also known as goods carriages, goods trucks, freight carriages or freight trucks, are unpowered railway vehicles that are used for the transportation of cargo. A variety of wagon types ...

s including a mix of

boxcar A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...

s, centerbeam lumber cars, and flat cars. The Railroad utilizes seven locomotives. All CLC freight cars are painted a navy blue color with white lettering, although some have worn a mineral red color, and the CLC's locomotives are painted navy blue with white lettering and white pinstripes across the top quarter of the bodies and across the frame sill. However, in times past, some of the locomotives also wore

Weyerhaeuser The Weyerhaeuser Company ( ) is an American timberland company which owns nearly of timberlands in the U.S., and manages an additional of timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada. The company has manufactured wood products for over a c ...

's color scheme of yellow and black. The lone caboose is painted safety yellow with black lettering, Weyerhaeuser colors, and seems to be one of Weyerhaeuser's old cabooses, most likely either #1 or #2. A signature safety feature of CLC's locomotives is the blue

strobe light A strobe light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a strobe, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. It is one of a number of devices that can be used as a stroboscope. The word originated from the Ancient Greek ('), meaning ...

on the roof of the locomotives. CLC chooses blue as their safety light color because of the large number of yellow and red flashing safety lights around the Weyerhaeuser mill in Longview.

Commodities and customers

The main commodities transported along the rails are newsprint, plywood chips, pulpboard, industrial waste and chemicals. Companies using the railroad services are

Georgia-Pacific Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, and is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of Tissue paper, tissue, Pulp (paper), pulp, paper, toilet and paper towe ...

, NORPAC Foods Inc, Flexible Foam, Equa-Chlor,

PPG Industries PPG Industries, Inc. is an American Fortune 500, ''Fortune'' 500 company and global supplier of paints, coatings, and specialty materials. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 70 countries around the globe. By ...

, Canexus and Solvay Chemicals.

References

Washington (state) railroads Weyerhaeuser Railway companies established in 1925 American companies established in 1925 {{Washington-transport-stub