I was working with a old-head the other day over Steven's pass and being a former MILW employee he said they operated over BN track to get from Monroe to Everett. At one time did the MILW have its own line into Everett? Kevin
Yes. In the days before the Milw reworked it's Divisional alignments, and issued the new timetable format, (April 1, 1939), subdivisions on Lines West were known as Lines. This was the Everett Line. It ran from Cedar Falls, into downtown Everett. There were two branches off of this, the Ebey Island Line, and the Riverside Line. Highway 2 in Monroe, roughly from it's intersection with Highway 203, to just west of the BNSF station of West Monroe, sits on top of the old Milw r-o-w. From that point, as you drive west on Highway 2, if you look at the BNSF r-o-w, you'll see in the trees, the old Milw r-o-w. More visible in Fall, after the leaves have dropped. The Milw moved onto GN tracks, late 1930's. After flood damage. At one time, there was decent agricultural business, between Monroe and Everett. By the 1930's, that was mostly gone. So no loss. The Milw gained GN tracks at a new location named Monroe Junction. Running to Lowell. Then back on their own tracks. Boxcab E50
Thanks Boxcab, I thought I could see parts of a old roard bed out by Monroe but then I though it also could have been an old dike or something. I was not aware they had a line running out to Ebey island though. Kevin
The Ebey Island Line served a mill, or two. I'd need to dig out my notes. But it went out many decades ago. Parts of the Riverside Line survived to the end, as there were several large mills in Everett. Boxcab E50
The Everett Branch has always held a great deal of interest for me as well, but from Cedar Falls south, the Milwaukee had its White River Branch down to Enumclaw. Not much has been written about this branch from what I have discovered. Does anyone have any information or photographs on this interesting operation from back when it was operating? I know that based on a 1943 Condensed Profile of the Coast Division that I have, there was a unique trackage rights/swaps arrangement between Bagley Jct. and Enumclaw with the neighboring Northern Pacific Railway. Anyone have some more information on this one? Thanks!
skytoplounge- Welcome to TrainBoard! The Enumclaw Line has been somewhat obscure. I believe it was Doug Nighswonger who wrote an article about in for the MRHA publication, TMR, many years ago. I'd need to do some digging for that issue. Allen Miller (a member here) also has good information on it. Not sure if he'll see this as he keeps busy with work, family, etc. The line was an important source of revenue for many years. Coal and timber products. The Weyerhaeuser FM switcher from their White River operation still exists. Is operational at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie, WA. Boxcab E50
Enumclaw Branch :thumbs_up: Thank you, Boxcab! Yes, I have had the pleasure of seeing the FM up at Snoqualmie on a few of the many trips I've made back to Western Washington. What a true gem from the past! In my research online, I did come across the following rare photo of the Milwaukee's Enumclaw depot. Looks to have been taken sometime early-on in the life of the branch, judging by the ancient car parked on the track out front. http://content.statelib.wa.gov/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/enumclaw&CISOPTR=1844&CISOBOX=1&REC=7
I was back home to western WA summer of 2008. So much was different, I had troubles situating myself in a few places. Cedar Falls.... Yikes. Yet some things seemed unchanged. It was an interesting experience. I am hoping to get back there once again, before too much longer. I feel the call of further re-exploration.... Boxcab E50
Yes! Re-exploration is definitely called for. Ever since Google Earth came out with higher-res photos, I've been a railroad archeology JUNKIE! One item that was helpful in my search for the all-but-obliterated right-of-way of the White River Branch was King County's iMap on their website. It shows the actual property parcels, and in most cases those parcels of 100-ft right-of-way which once belonged to the Milwaukee Road are still intact in a legal real estate sense. There are a few locations between Enumclaw Junction and Cumberland where the original right-of-way parcel has been incorporated into adjoining properties, making it difficult to trace. There are some very small portions of the abandoned line still visible on Google Earth. However, all bridges, track, and other structures are gone. I just hope that some forward-thinking soul from the distant past took the time to snap some good photographs of operations on this obscure piece of the ol' Milwaukee. I hope to one day pattern an HO shelf layout on this fascinating and scenic branch.
You're in ND now? Just wondering how you came to be interested in that line segment- Are you originally from the Enumclaw area? When I was there in 2008, I did follow the Everett Line. Walked a little of it around Duvall and in the Meadowbrook/North Bend areas. My last day there, before heading home, was a sultry, dark gray spitting rain day. Reminded me some of the last few days the Milw was operating, February of 1980. Also poked around the Kanaskat-Palmer Junction areas. Didn't take many pictures there. Missed the old NP water tank at Kansakat, with too many trees and leaves blocking the view, so must go back again. Didn't have enough time that day to head on down through to Enumscratch. Boxcab E50
I get questions like that alot, Boxcab--thank you for asking! I was Seattle-born, and I grew up in Kent, only moving to North Dakota about 5 years ago now to be closer to the Mrs.' family out here. Dad was--and still is--a huge railfan. We were fortunate enough to have lived only about 2 blocks from the Milwaukee's joint line w/UP through the Kent Valley for most of my younger days. I can remember quite a few brief hikes over to the parallel Interurban Trail on nice summer evenings to catch U-Boats and other (junk!) in action switching cars with the local industries. Sometime around 1976 or 1977, on one of these little walks to see the "big orange choo-choo's", the engineer leaned out of a U33C or U36C that was idling in a siding, and asked Dad if he and I would like a ride up north toward Orillia. Dad jumped at the opportunity, and with me in tow we hopped up to the cab and S-L-O-W-L-Y crept up the mainline to the north siding switch. I still to this day have a vague recollection of that trip, and ever since then have been a rabid and salivating Milwaukee Road nerd extraordinaire! Needless to say, it was a sad day for me on that March 15th, 1980, when the last cleanup train of my favorite railroad headed east out of Tideflats Growing up of course, my friends and I spent way too much time out on the back roads of King County around Kanaskat-Palmer. I've walked the spectacular BNSF bridge over the Green River (back in the Stampede mothball days) more times than I care to count! I've even taken a fourwheel trek once north from Kanaskat wye to almost Selleck on the old joint NP right-of-way. The branchlines of the Milwaukee have always been very interesting to me, and the Enumclaw branch most especially because it never really existed within my lifetime. I love the forested mountain scenery (something I SORELY miss out here in NoDak!), the soaring bridge-under-a-bridge over the Green River at Palmer Junction, and the history of it all.
It's always interesting to find out how a person becomes attracted or attached. For me, I grew up next to a busy NP branch line in King County. A member of a family full of railroaders. Especially Milw, Tacoma shop men. Seems like I was always around past or current railroaders. My family was full of them- Milw, NP, C&O, AT&SF, IC/ICG, some loggers on the Peninsula and, and.... I remember the Bipolars before yellow peril paint. We used to ferry to the Peninsula frequently, so would cross over the tracks on Dearborn south of US. Would see the passenger trains there. Where I was growing up, we were in the Snoqualmie Valley a lot, so I saw the SD units on the Everett Line. We went many places with our grandparents in the area, mushrooming, fishing, picnics. Seems like we were near the Milw quite frequently. Even visited a friend of my grandfather up at Lester on the NP. And, and, and the memories could certainly start flooding out!!! Rayonier steam on the Peninsula, a sloppy rodded steam NP switcher clanking along the Seattle waterfront by what is now Myrtle Edwards Park. Trains ambling along the waterfront under the Alaskan Way viaduct, and lines of cars inteferring as they scrambled to make the ferry via the old Colman Dock loading lanes under Alaskan Way. I worked for a firm that built those steel pole power structures down the old old PSE r-o-w to Auburn, so we spent a lot of time there starting early 1977. Watched the Milw and even some UP. I recall one lunch where we parked right by the Green River bridge south of Kent, and the Milw pile driver (X-135 I recall?) was busy pounding away. My mind is reeling... So.... I am attached to the Milw by family and more. Especially the Everett Line, and the old Olympic Division due to so much time out there. Maybe it's a childhood link. Maybe it's memories of better days? Hard to say. But it warms the heart! Boxcab E50
I saw a section of trestle as I rode the Empire Builder into Everett last week, that I thought was part of this branch. This has been an interesting thread and answered some questions I had through this area.
Here are some more photos of the remnants of the Everett Branch today. Monroe Depot, from Snohomish County's website: http://web5.co.snohomish.wa.us/prop...=1920&ImpId=C&ImpType=GENRET&StType=HAIRDEPOT Everett Depot, now a restaurant, also from Snoho Co's website: http://web5.co.snohomish.wa.us/prop...910&ImpId=C&ImpType=RESTURNT&StType=DEPOTCAFE Snohomish county's website is also an excellent resource for tracing those portions of the line that are long gone. After some flooding on the Snohomish River back around the time of the depression, CMStP&P used trackage rights on GN from Monroe Junction to just south of Everett. Their original line is all but gone, though the occasional treeline in a field is a giveaway as to it's former location. The trestle our GN friend saw while coming in the 'Builder was in fact the former CMStP&P line coming North from Cedar Falls and Snoqualmie, at the point where it joined the GN line. The Everett Branch is also one that could easily be modeled as a small HO enterprise. Duval, Carnation, Monroe, Everett, and Snohomish all still have their Milwaukee depots, though all are now in private ownership and on private property, with Carnation's being moved off of the right-of-way. Cedar Falls depot of course has been moved to Covington, restored, and had dormers added to it as is now a private residence. What a cool place to have as a house!
Actually, the MILW passed through what was at that time known as Snoqualmie Falls. It was an incorporated town until the late 1950s, completely separate from the town of Snoqualmie. With it's own school, stores, bank and so forth. Nothing remains of it today, except some foundations which are visible to a person looking carefully. My mermories of it have faded badly. Folks coming into that area today could be really easily confused by the various uses of Snoqualmie and Snoqualmie Falls. The second MILW Snoqualmie Falls depot survives as well. Located at Maytown, it is a crumbling section building now. There used to be a lady living up on the hill behind the town site, who was quite a collector of depression and 40s-60s glasswares. She sold off most of her stuff in the early 1990s. Moving Cedar Falls was an interesting project. I played a small part in that adventure. Fred is still slowly finishing bits and pieces of reassembling the exterior. Being a depot fan, he has taken care to remodel it in such a fashion as to keep it looking obviously depot. One of these days, he'll retire and may even move. Who knows? could be a big chance for someone to own a great piece of MILW history. Boxcab E50
Near Snohomish there's BNSF's former NP Sumas branch trestle which crosses over the former GN line used by the Empire Builder right about the spot where the GN's depot was located, down next to a sawmill. Could this be what you were seeing? Short of that, there aren't a lot of other wooden trestles or remnants in that area, just the aforementioned stub from Monroe that used to cross the Skykomish River further southeast of that point.
At the east end of Monroe, you must look hard and know where, to spot the remains of the Woods Creek bridge. It goes by quickly. West of Monroe, for a good distance toward Snohomish, there is a lot of the old Milw r-o-w intact. It looks like a row of trees along the north side of the BNSF/BN/GN. Along the north bank of the River, through Snohomish. You can still see pilings where the Milw actually was built above the water. Especially in August when the water level is down. Then on west of that town a few more odds and ends. These can be hard to spot sometimes, when summer growth is out. And when the track speed for Amtrak is up. You zip along fast enough to miss the artifacts. So many people have no idea the Milw was ever there. I should be getting out there sometime before Spring. I hope. Will try to have my camera handy. Boxcab E50
