While the fate of BNSF's Renton-Snohomish line remains in the balance, one of its former tenants is cooling its (w)heels in an unlikely place.

The consist for the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train is currently in storage at Battle Ground, Wash., on the former NP Yacolt Branch northeast of Vancouver. The eight cars are stored on the branch track itself inside a temporary fence behind the city's Fairgrounds Park, just north of the Wash. Hwy. 502 grade crossing.

The train's owner, Nick Temple, operates freight service between Vancouver and Battle Ground under contract with Clark County, which owns the line. There was some talk about the dinner train operation moving to this location, but such a move would involve construction of support infrastructure (parking, platforms, etc.) that currently does not exist.

The train's two F9H cab units, #82 and #84, did not accompany the cars to Clark County when the Tacoma operation shut down last October. These went instead to Yakima, Wash., where Temple's Columbia Basin Railway maintains its locomotives at the former NP shops there.