Greg, I, too, am EXTREMELY excited about your book! Excellent website, by the way. The book looks great, from the preview clips you have shown us, and it is a subject that I am also very interested in. Can you tell us if you have any information in the book or elsewhere on the Milwaukee's presence through the town of Ellensburg? CWU has seemingly wiped our favorite abandoned railroad from the face of the earth, and I have seen little written about it. I actually obtained a copy of the Ellensburg Milwaukee Depot's architectural plans several years ago from the Milwaukee Road Archives for a future modeling project. I would love to see some more photos which show the right-of-way and depot, freighthouse, and trestles through this area sometime if anyone has any. I wish you the best of success on your book, and count me and my two other railfan pals among those who'll be first in line when it goes on sale!
Getting ready to go now. See you there! I actually did not originally plan to even go to Kittitas from Beverly but at the suggestion of others and after really thinking about, I decided to go as far as Kittitas. It only made sense as this was the other point of the Beverly Helpers operation. I honestly don't have the room in this book to go to Ellensburg in great detail. Between Beverly and Kittitas, I’ve filled about 320 pages. Ellensburg is surely mentioned in the book when discussing some of the other stations and stories, but I don't want to mislead anyone and have them get the impression there is a whole chapter dedicated to the Station. That's pretty cool you were able to dig up drawings for the depot. It was a pretty unique depot compared to many of the others along the line. I’m sure you saw my videos filmed by former Ellensburg Agent Ed Emanuel on the books website; it shows a lot of action at the depot. During my research for the book I also collected info for other areas I was interested just in case I may need it for the future. I've got drawings in my collection of many of the other depots along the line in this area, didn't know one of the E-burg depot existed. I’ve also got several maps that show the right of way and locations of buildings too. Does the drawing you picked up include the small freight building that was located next to it? You mentioned freight house. If you’re thinking of a rather large building this is not the one I called the small freight building above. The larger building was located further away from the depot. I believe a portion of it or most of it is used by the college. The small building located right next to the depot survives today. It's only a couple of blocks from its original location and is used as a garage/art studio. Check out my recent photos of it here Ellensburg - RailImages.com If all goes well with this book, somewhere in the near future I’d like to do another book on the Milwaukee. Not sure which direction I’ll want to go but I’ve got some ideas.
After my Coast Div. adventure last week, I really am seriously looking forward to this book. I want an autographed copy!
With packing up, etc, I would guess that was your last opportunity for any exploration? Any thoughts where you'll hope to go, after Germany? Maybe Washington? Spokane? Tacoma? Boxcab E50
Follow-on assignment from Germany? I hope Wyoming. Montana is as far north and west as I can go. I thoroughly enjoyed WY. Closer to the Moffat, too.
Hemi! Glad to hear you had a good trip out and found a small place in your heart for the Coast Division. I'll be happy to sign a copy for you. Thanks!
Thank you for signing up guys! I hope to have more of a update coming before the end of the year. I'm currently waiting on 2 out of the 7 review copies to come back to me. The review drafts were sent out with about 320 pages. The current version of the book (after seeing those returned copies) is now at 345 pages. More text and also more photos are being added. Really looking forward to the next update as I think at that time we'll be ready for pre-orders and for the printer.
Ken, I'm getting good feedback and you've been a lot of help, thank you. How are things going for you?
Is Lind, WA out of the scope of this volume? I would LOVE to see a photo or two of the monster trestle there, not just the piers that are left.
Thought I'd post a link for you all. One of my friends, who has supplied me with some of his photos for use in my book has posted a flickr album of his time photographing and drawing the milwaukee. Check it out! Flickr: brownlg34's Photostream
