Hey, Hemi. I just spent maybe the better part of a couple hours going through this thread and I have to say, Great Job! It makes me appreciate that the WP, while it's a Fallen Flag, it still exists as a UP sub. I can't imagine if it ever went the way of the Milwaukee. I'd be out there, doing what you're doing! Good luck in Germany! My son is in his fourth week of Basic in the Air Force, down in Texas. I wonder what wonderful place he'll get stationed at. Japan? (hopefully!)
John, I appreciate the kind comments. I spent many hours chasing down these ghosts, logging hundreds of miles, and still haven't seen all I want to see in MT. I haven't even touched ID, WA, and anywhere east of Lavina, MT!
The November issue of Trains magazine is all about electric railroading and on page 27 there's a beautiful photo of a Little Joe crossing a bridge with a freight. This thread jumped to mind when I saw it.
Hello Guys, I must have spent several hours reviewing this blog. I remember when I was a kid my parents took me to the Seattle Worlds Fair and we went one way on the Olymipian Hi and I spent most of my time in the Great Dome while my parents rested in the Obs. This was a treat and an eye opening experience for me as I was raised along the PRR electricified area and only thought they ran catenary to operate their trains. Having spent 25+ years flying with the USAF and haveing many layovers in Germany, I had a lot of time to ride their trains and the trams in the cities. In the late 60's I attended Ricks College now BYUI, Rexburg, Id and drove north to check out some trains around Butte and the trolley wires heading east and west. Now, I'm retired from the USAF and living in So Cal. Before the economic slowdown I would watch the double stack freights head east on the UP and BNSF. This made me think if there are alot of double stack freights on the MRL and would there ever be enough traffic from the Seattle area to restore the Milwaukee Road or does the MRL use any of the ROW. Thanks again for the history lesson. Robert
Robert- The old transcontinental route is severed in many places now. Restoration would be a major undertaking, insofar as lengthy court battles. MRL main line is all ex-BN/NP. There are or were a couple of sites where they served a spur of former Milw industrial tracks. Boxcab E50
Boxcab, I've read that Amtrack would like to resore passenger service on the Empire Builder Route. Of course they would need additional Superliner cars as they haven't purchased any for 20 years or so, bummer. I don't know how the MRL would like passenger trains on their tracks. Robert
I need to take my car to port for shipment to Germany. What of the MILW is to be seen in SEA-TAC area? I would like to see what's still around.
The Empire Builder route has Amtrak service- With daily Trains 7 & 8. It's the old North Coast Hiawatha Route which is being mentioned. MRL right now would be able to handle Amtrak traffic. The economy has their movement levels down. The question is what work needs to be done in upgrading infrastructure to passenger standards and speeds? Crossing protections, signalling, track geometry.... Boxcab E50
How much time do you have? Riding the EB back home? Or will you have other wheels? The old D Street Freight/dispatchers office in Tacoma. (BNSF/Amtrak is right down the hill.) Various bridges. The Kent depot, The Renton Substation, UD in Seattle. Non-Milw: Right across from D street is the Tacoma interurban stop. Those rails run you right past Tacoma Union Station and the museum. West of BNSF is the TEMCo facility with a switcher or two. Over in the Port area is Belt Line facility, etc. High up on the hill above TEMCo is the old NP Office bldg. In old downtown Kent is the former NP depot. King Street in Seattle is right across from UD. Various yards throughout Seattle. Louis Dreyfuss facility along the waterfront with a switcher or two. A nice hobby shop nearby with N scale! Damn! Wish I could hitch a ride! Boxcab E50
Sort of.... Depends upon the snow pack. It's right off the Hyak exit. But how close you can get depends upon what they've plowed, and how high the snow banks... The path from their hiking area to teh tunnel mouth won't be cleared. But a few folks may have walked that way. You just need to stop and look- Only takes a few seconds.... Boxcab E50
Not loads of time, but I will take the Cascades train and EB back to Montana. A couple Q's: is it advisable to walk from the vehicle drop off point (near old Tideflats Yard) to the Tacoma Amtrak station? It's a mere 2.4 miles. Renton? How far from Tacoma? What LHS is near King St Station?
Which portal has the snow doors? The west portal accessible at all? Bevery and Renslow should be easy to find. Kittitas--anything still left? Any other substations still around?
RATS!!!! This topic is making me homesick! Renton- Distance is a good half hour, and traffic with mitigate that- Both I-5 and in Renton. Side roads not a good option. You can make that walk. But if wet weather, miserable. Shouldn't be any adverse human activities to avoid. But you can never tell. Plus, there'll be plenty of traffic zooming around. The area around D Street had declined some when I was there, summer of 2008. Boxcab E50
East portal has the doors. West portal is bike/hike in summer. Should be able to get there via Asahael Curtis, except this time of year- Snow conditions most likely make that idea impractical. At Kitty is the pump house, depot, section building, substation foundation and the substation bungalows. An easy hop (turn north into Kittitas) off the freeway. It's the first major freeway interchange at the bottom of the hill below Renslow. Can't think of the Exit number. There is a gas station right at the north end of the overpass.... Everything is easily spotted from the street into town. Boxcab E50
Kittitas is exit 155. Someone painted one of the buildings at Kitty in some fresh Milw colors. Looked sharp. Snow pack is down. My trip on the EB over Stevens a little over a week ago had no snow for most of the west slope, and a bit more snow on the east side. Lower elevations had none. I would suspect with Snoqualmie being lower than Stevens, there is even less snow. However, that could change quickly.
If there's time, on the east side of the Columbia, you can dash to Beverly and see the bridge up close. (Beverly has some weird folks lving in the area these days. Watch...) Or view at a bit of a distance, from the west side, exiting southward at Vantage. It's not hard to jump off I-90, and zip into Eburg to see the NP depot. The Milw freight house is a bit more work to find. West of town is EE-384B- An interesting bridge over old US 10, and then the Canyon. If staying on I-90, a quick jump off the north side of the Thorp exit gets you a picture of the former Thorp NP depot. And don't forget to allow some time for a dash into Cle-Elum (nothing RR to see in CM), and across the River into South Cle Elum. See the Milw depot, substation, plus bungalows. If only you had some time! Boxcab E50
Ok, I have loads of places I wanna visit, but not loads of time to do so. What would be my top 10 areas to visit that are: Easy to find Easy to drive to in a family sedan Quick to find Must-see I would list Beverly bridge, S. Cle Elum, Snoqualmie Tunnel, Renslow trestle in that list. What else meets this criteria? How hard is EE-384 to find? Is it visible from I-90?
