Matt- We drove past #9 late last week. Sad to see her as is. Gold Creek is sure looking good for her age. I believe Ravenna might now be owned by an area ranch. You might try the Montana Cadastral Mapping and you should be able to spot it in there. If there is an ownership record, the Cadastral site will show it. There is a track side elevation of #9 on my web site. See the link in my signature. Look in the "Tour" section for blueprints.
Wow, amazing thread, I just spent a lot of enjoyable time looking through it all. I passed through Lines West country only once, on my cross-country tip when I was transferred to WA in the Army (I got out and stayed, now live close to a MLW grade to Aberdeen). I so badly wish I'd known what I was passing through, I drove by all kinds of stuff I either never saw or didn't know what I was seeing. I have not been East of Yakima by car since moving out here in 98. I haven't been to the depot in Cle Elum since before they started the restoration. Man, I really need to spend a few days looking it allover. The closest I ever got to Beverly was at a gunnery exercise at Yak, I took my Humvee down to the river, and my driver and I walked the MLW grade to Hanford, but I didn't know what RR it was at the time. Too many bridges knocked down on that grade to get over to the bridge easily.
The longer days are coming. Get your camera ready, pack a big lunch and go. Watch the parking at Cle Elum. It's State Park, so requires the permit. The bridge at Beverly is off limits, but you can get close for photos. Remember that is rattlesnake territory. If you stop in Beverly, watch yourself. The population there is not the best caliber these days. Not much to see except the old oil tower base.
I'm pretty familiar with the wildlife on the 'other side of the mountains,' having choked on more dust and fought off more critters than I care to remember in my Army days at Yakima (the mere mention of that name still sends shudders down my spine), so I'm good (that, and I used to catch poisonous snakes for people when I was a kid, for extra spending money) there. I've heard already that Beverly has turned into a hangout for the meth crowd. I also know the bridge is fenced off, but I can't understand why that is, as the horse/bike trail would be an amazing use of that bridge which is otherwise just sitting there. The closest I ever got to it was probably 1/4 mile as there were a few small bridges which appeared to have burned and only left the concrete abutments and gaps, along the Hanford line right where it branches off Southward, on the West side of the bridge. As for the rest, I just need a long day and motivation to go (that, and decent weather over the passes). Alone, I rarely go very far to look at old locations. But lately a pal of mine has bene talking about going across the mountains, and I plan on taking him up on that, to see some of the stuff on the other side I haven't been to in so long. I still kick myself that I came so close to two MLW electric engines on display and no clue they were there, back in 1998, as I don't see me going out to Montana again for any reason. That said, I was lucky enough to find myself in central Illinois in 2002 for business with a free weekend. So, on that Saturday I drove to St Louis and saw MLW E-2 at the museum near there!
I've spent some brief time at YFC. The bugs flying around used to bother me the most. Most interesting experience was awakening one morning to something poking and snuffling around my sleeping bag, and when I sat up quickly, several coyotes scattered. I guess after a few days out there, I smelled like road kill/free breakfast. The Beverly bridge is fenced off for good reason. Litigation. Some fool would do something stupid, and.... Even worse, if you are not already familiar, are the winds through there. So bad the RR had containers blown off into the River. At least one diesel showed up in Tacoma, with part of it's hood missing, in the River. They had to install a signal system to stop trains when wind speeds got high. So, you can imagine what would happen when some naive cyclist was crossing, and poof. I can remember coming home from a race on Moses Lake, crossing at Vantage during winds, and looking in the rear view mirror to see my boat trailer was above pavement.
Yeah, good point on the winds, I keep forgetting that as it was never windy in the valley the two times I went down there (we buzzed the bridge in a CH-47 once but I was strapped in up front so I couldn't get a good photo). I had a team one time at YTC, we were at a gunnery exercise and slept under some HEMMET tankers on old cots. One of my 63Ws woke up screaming like a kid being stabbed. A tarantula had crawled onto his face in the early morning and used his face to warm itself up. It wasn't the largest I've ever seen (That is reserved for the ones I saw along the highway going to Chama last Fall, those suckers were massive), but it was big enough. He'd woken up staring into a set of fangs. Someone smacked it off his face and ten people went all 'Riverdance' on it until there was nothing left of it but a stain in the sand. The kid went stone cold insane and we had to restrain him and have him taken back to Lewis under guard. He went out of his mind for a while afterward, I was later told.
My time was well before you were there, so we still knew it as YFC. And of course we were never near the railroad areas, this was some years pre-expansion. Had we been near the tracks, I might have been "lost" a few times. Ha ha.
I can't believe the train order signal is still there. Someone should have long ago worked to acquire it, and get that artifact to a museum! Yes. That is the train order signal. Instead of as normal being in front of the operators bay, it was across the main track.
There are some ghosts on this page. It is under construction, and I have a huge amount of scanning to do, before anywhere near completion. So it is not actively linked on my web site as yet. Scroll down to see Martinsdale, but do so slowly as there are other Lines West items: http://www.train-orders.com/TOUR/CMSPP/CMSPP.html
From a bit further west than the majority of what's in this thread, here's the Milwaukee depot at Maytown, Washington (originally at Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, later moved about 60 miles to Maytown)
I'm trying to recall where this came from, when moved to Snoqualmie Falls. Guess I'll need to dig out my notes tomorrow.
I had no idea it had been moved more than once. I'll definitely be interested in hearing any additional information on the old building. There also looked to be another old railroad structure nearby. I believe I have a picture in my files of it, I'll have to look into adding that to the thread, also.
I believe what you saw might have been the old section foreman's house. I've looked for my notes on Snoqualmie Falls. For some reason I cannot find the information. I have it, somewhere.
Recently stumbled across a news item about BNSF knocking down the last piers from the Milwaukee Road's viaduct at Lind, Wa, so that they can extend a passing siding there. Should be the other way around. Also, do your rail fanning in Tacoma quick, because the well known curved wooden Milwaukee Road trestle there is scheduled to be replaced by a new, modern double track concrete viaduct within the next two years.
The Lind bridge pier removal should have actually been a while back. Seems like it was a couple of summers ago.
Well, I did just stumble on it recently, but the only news article I can find is dated 2014. http://www.ifiberone.com/news/railr...a-b08e-11e3-b53d-0017a43b2370.html?mode=image Railway Age also mentions BNSF's siding extension as a 2014 project, so who knows? http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/blogs/bruce-kelly/bnsfs-best-days-are-just-ahead.html The information about the trestle in Tacoma is current, though.
Just traded emails with a local to that area. He says it was about late (November?) 2013 when BNSF blew down those piers. Of course the rest of the (steel) bridge had been gone for a while prior to that. All that was left were the two end abutments and those two piers. Someone who was there sent me photos of the demolition, but darned if I can find that email.
