"HO-key" Railroad Backstories - Part 2

A six-axle Baldwin working at Harvard, ID, Spring 1967.  Fact or fiction?  You be the judge.

This much is true:

Logging by rail vanished completely from Potlatch Forest Industries’ Bovill and Elk River operations in the mid-Fifties. PFI abandoned its last logging branch, from Elk River to Camp 43, in 1950 and only maintained a small steam engine at Bovill for another year or two to shuttle cars around the truck-to-rail reload yards there. Down on the “Headquarters Side,” logging by rail continued to the close of the decade, but that was it.

Many logs still traveled by rail from the PFI reloads at Bovill, Elk River, Headquarters, Jaype and Clarkia to their respective mills. But, only common-carrier railroads, like the Milwaukee Road and Camas Prairie, actually switched and hauled these log loads. PFI still owned the Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway, also a common carrier and built expressly to serve the mill at Potlatch. But, most logs arrived at that mill by truck after about 1955; leaving the WI&M to handle mostly finished products, not raw timber. Finally, in 1962, PFI sold the WI&M to the Milwaukee Road for its scrap value and was officially out of the railroad business from then on.

This is where the story starts to get hokey:

. . . or so they thought.  Only two years later, PFI management selected a large section of timber for harvest in the hills above Laird Park, not far from Harvard, ID. Although the distance from the harvesting area to the Potlatch mill was not great, and although building truck roads into the timber had become old hat to PFI, the company opted to try rail again. This was intended to be an experiment – one last chance for rail to demonstrate whether it offered any economic benefit to a modern-day logging operation.

Operating on a shoestring, PFI decided to build the line using “in house” resources rather than contracting with Morrison-Knudson or similar firms as sometimes had been done before. PFI gathered several of its old timers to consult on routing and constructing the line. Salvaged rail from PFI lines abandoned the previous decade was used for the loading tracks, while newer steel was brought in for the main line.

As built, the new rail route left the WI&M mainline at the Harvard siding and followed the Potlatch River for the first few miles before heading up a small draw to reach Camp. PFI hadn’t assigned the logging site an actual name, so everyone just called it “Camp”, even though no loggers actually lived there. The last several miles into Camp featured a few undulations, which resulted in short sections of stiff grades facing trains in either direction. A heavy duty locomotive would be needed to conquer these hogbacks, but it needed to be light on its feet to safely tread the budget-built line. That budget also would not tolerate a new locomotive, so PFI management went looking for a used engine to fill their needs.

The Baldwin Locomotive Works, known as Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton toward the end, had exited the locomotive business years earlier. Its products had a reputation as maintenance intense machines, and had never been very popular with larger railroads’ shop crews – or accountants. On the other hand, Baldwins were known as “luggers” that could tackle nearly any grade with a loaded train, as long as speed was not of any essence. With several Baldwin-owning railroads eager to purge them from their rosters by the Sixties, Baldwins could be had on the second-hand market for very reasonable prices. A six-motored example would have the needed tractive effort while keeping the axle loadings low.

Where PFI actually found their Baldwin is up for conjecture. It arrived in a weather worn yellow and green scheme with red striping at the color separations. No other railroad used this exact scheme – it looked like a mashup between the colors used by the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Ry. and the striping pattern found on Oregon & Northwestern Ry. diesels. Did it come from one of those roads, or from a larger trunk line? No one still seems to know.

It arrived with the letters "Wash Ida & Mont Ry." already painted on the sides in red, but there must have been some misunderstanding -- the WI&M had never been part of the purchase arrangement.  To avoid any conflict with FRA mandates requiring 90-day inspections for common carrier railroad locomotives, the locomotive would need to be lettered for PFI instead. Also, no one was certain why it had been numbered 33 when it arrived – was that its original number, or the result of another misunderstanding between PFI and the seller?

The crew at the Potlatch roundhouse, which still stood at the time, was somewhat befuddled by this acquisition. The Potlatch crew were all Alco men – this was right after they shipped their two Alco switchers off to Tacoma for sale by the Milwaukee – and they weren’t sure what this creature was or how to properly care for it. Clearly, someone down at the corporate office in Lewiston had not been thinking clearly when they bought a Baldwin instead of an Alco.

Still, it fired up easily enough the first time, so the first order of business became fixing the lettering on the engine. Not having the resources for a full paint job, and not having a particular corporate scheme to follow, they decided to stick with the existing colors. After removing the WI&M lettering, the yellow underneath seemed a little thin, so, the workmen applied a long rectangular patch of yellow and hand painted the words “Potlatch Forest Industries” across that patch using the same lettering style as PFI’s then-current letterhead.

Choosing what number to give the locomotive also required considerable discussion. Back in steam days, the Bovill Side had numbered most of their Shay engines consecutively, starting with 101. The last one in this series (except for #200, which was acquired late in the program) was 110, so one suggestion for the Baldwin was numbering it 111. Someone else mentioned that on the Headquarters Side, numbering had been based on the locomotive’s tonnage, i.e. 70 ton locomotives had been numbered starting with 71. Looking at a spec sheet for Baldwin road switchers, someone noted their tonnage was in the 160’s, so maybe it should be numbered 161 - it also fit well with the engine's 1600 horsepower. That idea was rejected for the sake of simplicity, or maybe because the Bovill Side men preferred not to follow any Headquarters traditions. 111 it would be.

Lettering by hand was time consuming, so for other lettering needed on the unit, the shop used their standard set of stencils. On the short hood, they painted “Bovill Unit”to make it clear whose locomotive this was. They also painted safety reminders, “Caution” and “Work Safely” next to the step wells, and safety warning stripes along the edges of the pilot plates to hopefully prevent accidents at crossings and when working around other equipment.

One question the loggers asked the shop crew was about the need for a spark arrestor. Steam locomotives in logging service generally had them to ensure embers from coal or wood burning did not ignite any forest fires. Even though the PFI steam fleet mostly burned oil, spark arrestors had usually been applied as a precaution. The shop proposed a wait and see plan. The 111’s 608A engine had a turbo-supercharger which ran the exhaust gasses through a turbine, compressing the intake air to boost overall horsepower.  Turbochargers were often enough to prevent sparks, but if the crews operating the train noticed any sparks, the shop crew was sure they could cobble up something.

A few arrangements had previously been made to allow log trains to reach the mill. In 1962, PFI had sold off the WI&M to the Milwaukee Land Co. The WI&M continued to exist on paper, but was now operated by the land company’s sister, the Milwaukee Road. Now that PFI was seeking to operate its privately owned locomotive and trains on the WI&M, legal arrangements had to be made. To avoid issues with union agreements, PFI basically contracted with the WI&M to operate the log trains on its behalf. Also, all locomotive and rolling stock maintenance would be provided by the WI&M, while PFI would maintain its own logging trackage.

Logging started at Camp just as the snows receded in Spring, 1965 and the 111 went right to work. Typically, the 111 would haul two strings of log cars from Camp to Harvard siding each day. Once the crew arrived with the second cut of cars, they would couple up to the first cut, tack on their caboose (WI&M X-5), and head for Potlatch. Most days, the "mainline" WI&M train, led by Milwaukee GP-9s, had passed westward through Harvard an hour or more earlier. Still, the log train conductor would call the dispatcher for clearance and authority to occupy the main track. With no lineside phones installed, he simply walked across the street to the HooDoo Cafe to call the dispatcher from the pay phone inside. Having a nickel in his pocket each day was just part of his job description.

The rest of the rolling equipment used on the Camp line came from a variety of sources, in various stages of disrepair; NP flatcars, MILW gondolas, and even a few of the remaining serviceable original WI&M truss-rod flatcars. Because of their condition, none were allowed in interchange service, but that was not necessary and not a problem. Over the few years the Camp line operated, the wood flatcars finally wore out one by one and were scrapped so that only the steel-framed cars remained.

No caboose was used for moves between Camp and Harvard, although it may have been safer to have used one for the backup moves. Per the tradition of earlier years, the locomotive always worked from the downhill end of the train, facing Harvard, to prevent runaway cars. For the shove up hill, a lone brakeman rode the first car heading up. Because there were no loads, the engineer could usually keep him in sight, and he watched for any indication from the brakie of the need for a stop. The brakeman usually carried a fusee with him, prepared to strike it and wave for a“washout”, but that seldom happened. The moves were never very fast, and he could jump off to protect himself if needed.

For the mainline runs to Potlatch and back, a caboose was necessary. One of the old WI&M ex-NP cabooses usually sat on the Harvard siding, just east of the Camp spur switch. Once the downhill train was past the switch, the crew would shove back onto the caboose and perform their air test while the conductor called for clearance. As with moves on the logging line, the eastbound empty train nearly always backed up for the eight mile run from Potlatch back to Harvard. The brakeman appreciated a more secure perch on the rear platform of the caboose, and used his pea whistle and lantern to signal for right-of-way at the few crossings they encountered.

PFI’s operation at Camp lasted only six years. By then, the useable trees had been harvested and it was time to move on. Looking over the books, the accountants were not happy. Whatever savings may have been realized from operating a single daily train instead of a fleet of trucks had not been enough to cover the initial cost of building the line.

In October, 1970, the last daily log train rolled out of the woods and off to the mill. The following spring, the old Baldwin made one last run to retrieve the few derelict log cars remaining at Camp. There was a final burst of activity for the 111 as it spent a busy week that May hauling off loads of rail removed from the Camp line back to Potlatch. The older steel got loaded into gondola cars and carted off for scrap, while the newer rail from the Camp line was stockpiled at Potlatch for future use by the WI&M. The log cars got cut up at Potlatch and loaded for scrap as well.

The 111 sat behind the Potlatch depot for several months, and then one day it was gone. PFI sold it to a used equipment dealer, but no one knew where it went exactly. PFI had maintained it in reasonable condition, so another Baldwin-oriented railroad somewhere, possibly ITT Rayonier, may have snatched it up and put it to work or dismantled it for parts.  No one is certain.

"HO-key" Railroad Backstories - Part 1

Getting this locomotive onto my HO-scale layout required a lot of imagination, and a little bit of compromise

On my HO-scale railroad layout, I always try to emulate my prototype railroad, the Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway (WI&M).  Of course, I realize that compromise is a necessary ingredient in any model railroad, and I can’t even count the ways my little version of the WI&M differs from the big one.

But, I do take some pride in those few instances where I can say that, to the best of my knowledge and ability, a particular part of my railroad is “just like the real one.”  And in other instances, I can show a clear correlation how some feature of the prototype WI&M is directly represented by the model I have built, even though it isn’t exact.

But sometimes my modeling muses (sirens?) lure me in a totally different direction.  Most often, I can ignore them when what they suggest deviates too wildly from my chosen prototype, but sometimes the urge is too strong.

Take my infatuation with Baldwin diesel locomotives, for instance.  I don’t know when, but at some point in my early years of rail enthusiasm, the boxy lines of those Baldwins caught my attention.  I hadn’t even seen any in person, but because they were different from what I did see around me, I found them strangely compelling.



A grainy black-and-white photo of this particular locomotive in an old issue of Trains Magazine is what sparked my initial interest in Baldwin diesels.  Photo by an unknown photographer from my collection.

The good news for me was that two particular examples of Baldwin diesels once did serve the area I model.  The Northern Pacific bought two DRS-4-4-1500 road-switchers in 1947 for use on their Eastern Washington branchlines, and they could be seen leading freight and passenger trains through Palouse, WA (the WI&M’s western terminus) up until about 1954.  But, to my knowledge, they never operated on the WI&M, and why would they have?

I did detail and paint an HO version of the NP road switchers for interchange work on my WI&M layout – I even installed sound in it recently, and it sounds pretty friggin’ awesome.  I also obtained an NP Baldwin VO-1000, which were used extensively by NP in the Spokane area, but not on the NP's Palouse & Lewiston branch. (Again to my knowledge – anyone want to show me a picture and prove me wrong?)  The DCC sound installation is currently in progress on this one.

But then, there were those 6-axle Baldwins that other logging railroads operated!  One enclave of these worked the Oregon & Northwestern RR up until 1984, and another flock of them hauled logs on the Rayonier operation north of Grays Harbor, also until 1984.  If only I’d been older and had gotten turned on to those two outfits a few years earlier, I could have witnessed those monsters in action!

An example of ITT Rayonier's 6-axle Baldwins that roamed the Olympic Peninsula.  Photo by an unknown photographer from my collection.

One of four Oregon & Northwestern RR 6-axle Baldwins that worked in the 'desert' of Eastern Oregon for many years.  Photo by an unknown photographer from my collection.

Any model railroader’s balm for missed opportunities is to make a trip to the hobby shop.  I acquired another Stewart Baldwin road switcher, and started wondering how to fit it into my plans for a WI&M layout.  My first divergence into fantasy railroad modeling, to align my interests in Baldwins and in the WI&M, fell along the lines of “what if the WI&M had bought new locomotives from Baldwin instead of Alco?”

Logic said a shortline like the WI&M would probably have accepted Baldwin’s suggestion for a paint scheme, and I liked the ones that had been applied to the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic’s and O&NW’s engines.  I hybridized them using the DSS&A colors (yellow and green with red strips), but using the O&NW striping pattern (their colors had been yellow and rust, with horizontal rust-colored stripes wrapping around the hood ends).  It didn’t hurt my case that Rayonier also shared a similar scheme – yellow and green with no stripes.  For lettering, I also followed the DSS&A’s use of red “railroad roman” initials along the side of the hood, and I selected the number 33 for the cab sides.  I then applied some airbrush weathering to the sides, and I used “Baldwin dust” to smudge up the roof.

Baldwin dust?  Well, that came from an interesting relic.  This locomotive modeling project began while I was completing college in Utah.  A local hobby shop was selling a consignment item for another customer – an actual piston removed from a Baldwin diesel engine.  The nearby US Steel - Geneva mill had recently scrapped or re-engined nearly all its old Baldwin switchers, so this piston likely came from there.  I wanted to buy it and turn it into a glass-topped end table, but a look at our student budget put a stop to that idea.  So, with permission, I scraped a bunch of the carbon deposits on the crown of the piston into an envelope for use in weathering my HO Baldwins.  Although I’ve misplaced that envelope since then, a healthy coat of Dullcoat applied to this and an Athearn Baldwin S-12 project I’d painted in a matching scheme ensured they’ll never lose that (to me) key element of realism.

 

One of the Geneva Steel Baldwins - could this have been the source of my 'Baldwin Dust'?
Steve Gartner photo from my collection.

I did not have an operating layout at the time this, so my WI&M Baldwins went into their boxes and suffered through several moves.  About 20 years later, I dug them out to see how they would fit into my layout scenario.

Like Dorothy in Oz, they awoke in a whole new world.  My prototype-based WI&M layout was well underway and populated by a series of more accurate WI&M models.  I had thrown most of my “what if” ideas in the trash, and had committed myself to “representational” prototype modeling.  That’s a catch phrase for my modeling philosophy:  get the key elements as accurate as possible, and fill in the rest with close-enough stand-ins to represent what was really there.

In a nutshell, these Baldwins really didn’t fit.  It also hurt their case that their mechanisms were hopelessly out of date Athearn-clones and that Stewart’s original in-house design for the six-axle Baldwin trucks sucked, to be ‘blunt’ (serious diesel fans will notice the lame pun here).  Stewart had upgraded its Baldwin road switchers to much smoother Kato-style mechanisms several years later.  Their newer motor, drive and truck design were more conducive to DCC operation and sound, and they matched the quality of the mechanisms on my newer fleet of locomotives.

I bided my time watching eBay and soon nabbed a four-axle Stewart/Kato model for cheap.  That went to re-power my NP Baldwin, which I knew would find work on the layout.  And then, I got my hands on a newer six-axle model to upgrade my WI&M Baldwin.  But, I still had a hard time stomaching a “fantasy” WI&M locomotive.

One of my biggest hang-ups with fantasy modeling, or free-lance as it’s often called, are the often hokey backstories modelers conjure up to justify their layouts and models.  A healthy imagination is a good thing, but retaining some plausibility is also important to me.  If I was going to work this engine into my operating schemes, I would need some justifiable reason for it to have been that way.  I puzzled on this for a while.

The idea hit me while I was writing an article on the prototype WI&M for the historical society newsletter I edit.  I was writing how the Potlatch Lumber Co., the WI&M’s builder and owner for many years, had maintained a separate fleet of steam locomotives for running up to the harvesting sites and herding the logs down to where the “mainline” railroad would haul them to the mill.  They kept their WI&M and logging company locomotives separated mostly to avoid government-mandated inspection frequencies that only applied to “common carrier” railroads.

A Whitcomb diesel owned by Potlatch Forest Industries, circa 1955.  Tom Kreutz photo from WI&MRy. HPG collection.

Would this thinking also apply to a diesel?  Again, there were lots of examples where lumber companies maintained their own diesels, including a handful of other Potlatch Forest Industries operations around Idaho and the country.  But, railroad logging in the Potlatch/Palouse watersheds ended in the early Fifties – trucks were more flexible and cheaper for the short hauls either directly to mill or to truck-rail reloads.  So here was where I inserted another “tiny” bit of reality.
When I built my 1955 and later era WI&M layout, I located a single logging spur that left the Harvard siding and “disappeared” through the backdrop.  There had not actually been any such siding at that time and in that place.  I’d intended it to represent all the old logging spurs east of there and the rail-side locations where I knew logs had been occasionally loaded onto trains.  What if this represented an active spur?  What if it was of fairly new construction in the mid-Fifties or later to reach some new harvesting site?  What if PFI needed its own diesel to handle traffic on the spur?

Actually, the mid-Sixties made even more sense to me.  By that time, PFI had sold off the WI&M to the Milwaukee Road, who, in turn, parceled off the WI&M’s old Alco switchers to other owners (the WI&M continued to exist, but used Milwaukee locomotives and equipment from then on).  So, to operate their own logging railroad, PFI could follow the lead of Rayonier and the Hines Lumber-owned O&NW and acquire used Baldwins from class one railroads.  And, as in earlier days of cooperation between PFI and the Milwaukee Road, PFI could contract for permission to haul the trains all the way to the mill over the WI&M tracks (using WI&M crews to allay any argument from the unions).

So, with that thinking in mind, I went ahead and made some minor changes to my HO Baldwin, and concocted a ‘hokey’ backstory (see Part 2) to justify my decision.

A Personal Potlatch Connection

As I have mentioned in earlier blog posts, I have a particular affinity for the 'Potlatch Country' of North Idaho.  That interest originated with the railroads that once ran, and to a limited extent still run, in that region.  And then, as I have spent time there and learned more about it, I have come to find many other appealing aspects of that area.  I doubt that my circumstances will ever allow me to live there, but I certainly hope to return there frequently.

Although I first “discovered” the Potlatch country as a high school student in the early ‘80’s, the region seemed vaguely familiar as I began exploring it. When I told my parents about what I had found, I was surprised how well acquainted they were with it already. My mom especially, who had grown up in Spokane, mentioned our having visited Laird Park with her parents when I was much younger, and that got me to remembering...

My mother's parents, Ivan and Frances Brady, loved to travel and camp.  Grandma enjoyed camping with her family as a girl, and Grandpa had a particularly strong wanderlust.  He had spent his first forty years moving constantly around the West in search of new opportunities. Although he settled down in Spokane to raise his small family, travel was always part of their life, and that only increased when grandkids came into the picture.

My grandparents, Ivan and Frances Brady, were pretty adventurous.  This is from a trip I took with them to ride the Royal Hudson steam train out of Vancouver, BC in August, 1984.  My last trip with them, too, as Grandpa passed away the next spring after I arrived home from a year at college.

As the great symbol of freedom before the age of the Interstate, railroads always fascinated Grandpa, and that was something he certainly passed on to me.  But, almost everything about the West fascinated him, too.  He was always poking around in the hills for old mines or similar relics of the past, but he was also interested to see new things being built.  And, he always wanted to bring family along so we could share it with him.

So, somewhere in my memory, I had a faint recollection of taking a day trip with my mom, sister and grandparents to a campground somewhere.  It was raining, and I remember eating peanut butter and honey sandwiches while standing under a big tree to stay as dry as possible.  I also remembered a small river running across from the campsites.  And, I remembered that a few months later, my grandparents had spent a whole week at that same campground, and that my family had joined them for a few of those days.

That rainy picnic in 1971.  I'm the one copping an attitude with my pose.

A couple months after my first solo visit to Potlatch, I suggested that our family take a day trip down to Laird Park so I could see it again for myself.  It did seem familiar, and at the time I decided this must be the location I remembered picnicing and camping with my grandparents.  But there was also something about it that didn't seem quite right, and that nagged on me.

Many years later, I was looking for a place to camp while attending the 2012 Milwaukee Road Historical Association convention in Moscow.  I remembered reading about a small USFS campground a couple miles south of Helmer.  That would be close enough to Moscow, and staying there would be a new experience for me, as opposed to Laird Park where I’d stayed numerous times before.

As I drove down the hill from Highway 6 and through the gate of Little Boulder campground, I realized I’d hit personal pay dirt!  The main camping loop skirted the south bank of the Potlatch River, and there was no question in my mind this was the place I remembered visiting with my grandparents!  It gave me a great deal of satisfaction to re-discover this place.  Even more satisfaction came from learning that the campground had once been a Potlatch Lumber Co. logging camp!

Almost all the comforts of home in an old logging camp.

Fast forward to a few days ago:  I was leafing through my grandparents’ photo albums (they’ve passed on, and the albums are now in my possession) looking for something else, when serendipity struck.  Here was a snapshot from that rainy picnic, and several shots from their later week of camping at Little Boulder!!  Even better, the date stamp on the border of the photos gave me a good guess when these events took place.  My grandpa was also a prolific diary writer - a lot of what he wrote was pretty mundane, but he seldom missed a day between 1950 and his passing in 1985, and there are a lot of nuggets to be found in his notes.  I also have those diaries, and the photo dates directed me to his 1971 volume.

Leafing through the June entries, I found mention of our picnic trip.  All it says is that we drove down through St. Maries and Bovill to reach Helmer.  I can only speculate, but I’d like to think we returned by way of Potlatch.  So, even though I may have been oblivious to the passing scenery as a 4-year-old, I can now pinpoint my first trip through Potlatch country.  If I was awake for it, maybe someone pointed out the big sawmill in Potlatch as we drove past.

His entries a few weeks later indicate that my grandparents took their travel trailer down for a week leading up to my grandpa's birthday on the 4th of July.  He also noted that my family joined them for the last couple days - we didn't want to miss out on his birthday, of course.  Also, on a couple of those days, I went with them to visit Bovill and Elk River.

Dad was a fisherman, and he tried his luck in the Potlatch River when we arrived that June.
Grandpa's diary says his son-in-law didn't have any luck.

Of course, I would have loved to find photos of trains he might have taken on those trips, or at least a mention of them in the diary.  But, I’m not surprised I didn't.  As much as Grandpa loved them, I think railroads were still pretty mundane items to his generation.  He came from a time when railroad corporations seemed as solid as granite – they weren’t going anywhere, so there was no need to photograph their trains very often.  Also, diesels were seldom worth noting; to him, steam was the only “real” locomotion on the rails.

Through some other resources available to me today, I can actually speak to the presence or absence of trains in that area on those specific dates.  There had been a train running from Bovill to Potlatch the day of our picnic, although it probably ran early enough in the day that we would have missed seeing it.  Then, the week they camped there, a train ran between Bovill and Potlatch that Wednesday and Thursday (June 30th and July 1st), so Grandpa may have heard the engine's horn passing through Helmer a couple times.  However, because my family did not arrive until late on that Friday, I would not have seen any at all. 

Grandpa didn't take any pictures of trains on these trips, and I was too young to think about such things.  I have to settle for my friend Carl Sonner's photos of Milwaukee Road trains on the WI&M Railway - not far from Little Boulder Campground at Deary (above) and Avon (below)

None of this lessens my excitement to have so many pieces of my personal puzzle come together and help me to better understand my own connection to a favorite part of North Idaho.  More importantly, it’s one more reminder how great a legacy my grandparents left me – not just Grandpa’s interest in railroads, but also their combined love of travel, history and adventure.  I hope I can pass along equally significant traits and experiences to my kids, and to theirs when that time comes.

Shortline Railroads

Hard to beat an ex-NP GP-9 and ex-C&S SD-9 crossing a timber trestle in the Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington - in 2015 and on a former NP brachline, even!  The Columbia Basin Ry. near Warden, WA.

Not long after I first developed a serious interest in railroading as a young teenager in the late 1970’s, I began to feel a particular attraction to shortline railroads. You can probably blame that on Doug Leffler, and maybe on Tony Koester, too. Doug was a prolific author in the pages of Railroad Model Craftsman, and Tony was that magazine’s editor at the time.

How I got bit by the shortline bug . . .

In January, 1981, RMC published two Leffler articles, one on the prototype Lenawee County Railroad, a shortline operating in southern Michigan, and one on Doug’s HO-scale tribute to that line, the Lenawee Central. I knew next to nothing about southern Michigan, but the idea of a compact prototype that could be modeled in a small space, like the small room where I had permission to build my own layout, was very compelling to me. Almost immediately, I started conceiving ideas on what my own HO-scale shortline railroad might look like.

My personal exposure to real shortline railroads was minimal. Growing up in Spokane, the only trains I saw on a regular basis were those of giants Burlington Northern and Union Pacific. But, I soon became aware of two shortline railroads not too far beyond Spokane, and on a couple family outings, I had the chance to see them for myself.

I had already visited one of them:  the St. Maries River Railroad (STMA) over in the Idaho panhandle. A family picnic to St. Maries in June, 1980 gave me a chance to photograph a former Milwaukee Road switching locomotive, along with a couple odd-ball rebuilt diesels. Unfortunately, it was too dark for my photos to turn out very well.

I had more luck the following summer when I rode an excursion on the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad (POVA) between Ione and Metaline Falls, WA. By that time, I at least recognized that the locomotive pulling our one-car train was an “Alco” – a product of the American Locomotive Co. – but I had no idea exactly how rare such a bird was, even at that time. Fortunately, those photos turned out a little better!

POVA's chop-nosed ex-SP RS-11:  "I had no idea exactly how rare such a bird was"

Both these railroads had sprung into being very recently as a result of the Milwaukee Road’s bankruptcy and the abandonment of its Pacific Extension. Some shippers on the Milwaukee’s more remote lines that depended heavily on rail service could not economically shift that traffic to trucks. In these two instances, they found ways to retain their rail service, either by buying the tracks and organizing their own railroad, as Potlatch Corp. did with the STMA, or in the case of the POVA, by encouraging the formation of a local government authority to acquire the route and contract out for an operator.

The Milwaukee Road's failure and the resulting crop of new shortlines was closely mirrored by the collapse of the Rock Island railroad in the Midwest and the formation of Conrail in the East. These episodes left many marginal mainlines and branchlines without service, except in the case where shortline operators stepped into the breach. That’s how Michigan’s Lenawee County RR came to be, for instance.

As interesting as I found shortline railroads, their existence on the fringes of my teenage range of freedom made my visits to them very limited. The financial limitations of college life didn't make this situation any better.  Also, in the pre-Internet era, information about the best time and place to see action on these shortlines was not easy to come by. I believe now that if I’d had the courage to seek out and dial a phone number to any of these operations, that information might have been available to me.  But I didn't.

As it turned out, my most significant exposure to a shortline was one that, counter to the trend, had been independent before being taken over by a larger railroad, first by the Milwaukee Road and later by Burlington Northern. The Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway has come to be my all-time favorite railroad and the subject of my HO-scale modeling efforts. But I have already written plenty about that line, and will here leave it behind to discuss other shortlines I've come to know.

Right out of college, and nearly by accident, I fell right into a situation Mr. Leffler would have envied. I took a job in a small town in southern Michigan, Sturgis to be exact, and came face to face with a shortline railroad serving a different segment of the same route the Lenawee County RR operated. Like the LCRC, this one had Alcos, but not just any Alcos!  The Michigan Southern Railroad (MSOU) operated the very first example of Alco’s model RS-2 - arguably the very first four-axle road switcher. It was nearly 50 years old by this time, and still in daily use. Two model S-2 Alco switchers rounded out the roster, and were as fun to watch as their larger sister.

MSOU RS-2 #466 at Sturgis, MI:  "a situation Mr. Leffler would have envied"

I lived only a block away from the MSOU, and crossed its tracks twice a day driving to and from work. Photographing its comings and goings became a frequent occurrence, and occasional cab rides were not unheard of either. And then, a friend suggested I should write an article about the MSOU. I accepted that challenge, and was soon on a first name basis with its owner, Gordy Morris, and maintenance guru, Barney Gramling as I interviewed them for my article.

But, by the time that article appeared in print (in the March 1996 issue of RMC's sister magazine, Railfan & Railroad), I had left the area. I’d had strong urges to get back to the West, so I found a job in Hoquiam, on Washington’s Grays Harbor. In fact, you couldn't get much farther West, but it sure was a lot closer to my hometown than Michigan.

The newly formed BNSF Railway owned the railroad branch serving the twin “cities” of Aberdeen and Hoquiam, but it wasn't long before I witnessed the birth of a new shortline! In 1996, BNSF began a system-wide purge of its branchlines, and parceled the Grays Harbor branch off to a brand new shortline, the Puget Sound & Pacific (PSAP).

The PSAP was fun to watch, with its old workhorse locomotives gussied up in shiny green and cream paint that really caught the eye. Plus, the PSAP’s marketing team really went to town and drummed up a lot of new business. Soon, 60-plus car trains were running to and from the Harbor on a daily basis.

PSAP's former IC GP-10:  "workhorse locomotives gussied up in shiny green and cream paint"

Meanwhile, the same branchline purge had affected the opposite side of the State. In September 1996, BNSF sold off two former Northern Pacific branches and my favorite, the old WI&M, to another new shortline, the Palouse River & Coulee City RR (PCC). The PCC received a lot of my attention, and I had opportunities to photograph it numerous times while visiting family in Spokane.

My interest in writing about shortlines also got a boost when a fellow shortline enthusiast, Jim Davis, offered me his position as Shortlines Editor for a bi-monthly railfan newsletter entitled Flimsies! Northwest. In the pre-Internet days, this and similar newsletters were a common way for railfans to share timely information on regional railroad activity.  By the time I took this position, most news items came from contributors via e-mail, and ironically, it wasn't long before e-mail groups, and later social networks, led to the demise of Flimsies! NW

Still, I put together the Flimsies! NW shortline news column for its last few years, and I appreciated the news items that came to me from a variety of sources.  It was fun to compile them into a single column for others to read, and they also helped me be in the right place at the right time to see a few of these lines in action for myself.

Two examples: at least once, back on the POVA in North Idaho, a Flimsies! Northwest business card I’d printed out for myself helped me arrange a cab ride with the crew. Contributed news items also helped me catch a Camas Prairie RailNet train running up Lapwai Canyon to Craigmont, ID in the closing months of that operation. Another time, blind luck put me in the right place to catch the first movement of a unit grain train out of Schrag, WA on the Columbia Basin Railway (CBRW), which I was then able to report in my column.





Blind Luck:  CBRW SW-1200's haul the first movement of a unit grain train out of Schrag, WA 

Along with all this Flimsies! Northwest writing, I also managed to put together articles on both the PCC and the PSAP which appeared in Railfan & Railroad and Trains magazines, respectively.

The PCC and PSAP were also good examples of a growing movement in the shortline industry away from individuality. Neither of these railroads had been organized by local interests panicking to retain rail service. In both cases, a larger company operating multiple shortline railroads in different locations across the country saw an opportunity to make money by taking over another “spinoff” route from the Class One carriers. These Shortline conglomerates include WATCO, owner of the PCC, and RailAmerica, which took over the PSAP when it bought out ParkSierra Rail Corp., the smaller conglomerate that originally founded the PSAP.

Shortline conglomerates aren't a bad thing – they can bring lot of efficiency to shortlines with their shared management and marketing structures. But, with fewer ties to the local economy, it’s easier for them to give up on routes that don’t meet their standards for return on investment. This actually happened when WATCO’s PCC stepped away from the former NP and WI&M lines it was originally organized to run. Fortunately, the State of Washington took over, and has since farmed out those lines to independent shortline operators, Eastern Washington Gateway (EWG) on the route out to Coulee City and Washington & Idaho RR (WIR) running down through the Eastern Palouse. The PCC still exists, but now operates some former Union Pacific branchlines in the Western Palouse, where, supposedly, there is more money to be made.

Back to my story now.  A rapid series of life changes soon found me unemployed, and living with my family at my mom’s house in Spokane. I now had lots of time between job prospects, but money was pretty tight.  Nevertheless, my wife let me burn some gas money when I was invited down to ride along in the cab of a PCC train running on the old WI&M Ry. This probably was, and still is, the highlight of my shortline railfan “career” so far.

A view from the cab of PCC GP-35 #2357 - the highlight of my railfan career so far.

Rebounding from the layoff, I took a job on the Hanford Site and moved my family down to Richland, WA, where again, I ran smack into another shortline. The Tri-Cities Railroad (TCRY) operates from an industrial area north of Richland to a connection with Union Pacific in Kennewick, utilizing portions of the former US Government railroad serving Hanford and UP’s old Yakima Branch. Its original roster of two ex-Dept. of Energy MP-15AC road switchers, and its less-than-colorful trains of black tank cars and white refrigerator cars (shipping vegetable oil to, and frozen French fries out of, a Lamb-Weston plant in North Richland) made the TCRY seem pretty mundane. Since then, three rebuilt SD-40-2's and a increasingly diverse traffic base make it more interesting to watch now. The only problem is, after 13 years of watching the TCRY, I’m running out of new photo angles!

TCRY's ex-UP SD-40-2 #31 crossing Columbia Park Trail in Richland - this photo angle may never get old

Outside the immediate Tri-Cities area, I've managed to visit a few of the local shortlines, including the Blue Mountain Railroad (BLMR), another WATCO affiliate operating out of Walla Walla, the PCC and WIR in the Palouse, and the CBRW on two separate routes, between Sunnyside and Granger, WA and, most recently, between Warden and Wheeler, WA (see the photo at the top of this blog entry).



Former Western Pacific GP-35 #784 leads an eastbound BLMR train out of Wallula WA, May 2001

My railroad enthusiasm is not limited to shortlines exclusively.  I'm always interested in nearly anything running on rails. But, even when chasing trains on the Class One lines I still tend to seek out their less standard operations, perhaps a local train powered by smaller and older locomotives working on an industrial spur. These really aren't that different from a shortline after all.
Of course, my available time and money are never sufficient to permit everything I would like to do, so I will never visit and photograph as many shortlines as I hope to. But, on family trips I am usually able to negotiate a few hours, or minutes, to investigate some nearby shortline. And, I do have a constantly growing “bucket list” of shortlines I hope to visit someday. Some are not too far away, and others will require a trip to Pennsylvania, or some other locale where there is a large collection of different shortlines in a fairly small area.

Among various shortlines I have visited are:  

Northwest shortlines - like the Wallowa-Union Railroad in 2006 near Minam, OR . . .

Down South shortlines, like the Meridian & Bigbee RR, near Pennington, AL in 1999 . . .

Foreign shortlines, like Lollandsbanen (Lolland Railway) at Nykøbing-Falster, Denmark in 1986 . . .

Even dead shortlines!  A former Oregon & Northwestern Baldwin road switcher at MK in Boise, ID.

So what is it that fascinates me about shortline railroads? Again, they are compact and easy to comprehend, not the behemoth Class One carriers with thousands of miles of track and nearly as many locomotives on their rosters. Shortlines are each unique, again unlike their much larger sister railroads. They usually serve in very obscure locations, and there’s a challenge and sense of discovery to locating and photographing a train working their often weed-covered routes. Finally, in many ways, from their locomotives to their work practices, shortlines are modern-day reminders of how railroading used to be, with relaxed employees, a slower pace, and simply more personality than the Class Ones.



A CBRW local train approaches Granger, WA in October, 2013. - a modern-day reminder of how railroading used to be



Given a choice between a day spent along a mainline, watching dozens of varied freight and passenger trains roll past at high speed, and a day chasing a 10 mph freight train that may break down or derail before it gets to the next photo location, you know where you’ll find me.

Dear Washington State Dept. of Transportation:

Washington & Idaho Railroad operates the former NP Palouse & Lewiston branch.  At Palouse, WA, March 2011



The State of Washington owns over 200 miles of agricultural railroad in Eastern Washington, known as the PCC Rail System.  The State then contracts with three separate railroad operators who service separate segments of the system. In addition, the PCC Railroad Authority, comprised of county and port district officers from the areas served by the rail lines, has some level of oversight on how the lines are managed.

Recently, the Washington State Dept. of Transportation (WSDOT) published a draft strategic plan for the PCC Rail System outlining its plans for maintaining rail service on the system.  Public comment to the draft plan are being accepted through April 2, 2015, which WSDOT will then incorporate into a final strategic plan sometime soon.  Here's a link to the web page where the plan is discussed, with further links to the draft plan itself and the comment page:


http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2015/03/33_PCCdraftplan.htm


I read the draft plan, and although it seems to mostly make sense to me, I decided to chime in with a few of my thoughts.  I wrote the following letter and posted it to their comment page.  No telling if my thoughts will have any impact:

Dear WSDOT:


Thank you for making your draft strategic plan for the PCC Rail System available online, and for accepting public comments on that plan.  I have read through the report, and I do have a few comments.  I am a private citizen with a personal, but no direct economic interest in the long-term growth and development of the Palouse region.  I hope to see increased employment opportunities in the region, both inside and outside the agriculture sector, so that families who choose to live in the Palouse may do so without concern for their long-term livelihood.


Jobs require businesses, and the businesses with the greatest potential employment needs are often most productive when they can choose railroads for receiving or shipping their various commodities (as your report mentions on page 3).  I applaud WSDOT’s far sightedness in acquiring the PCC Rail System in the first place to ensure rail access to Palouse area grain shippers.  For the most part, I believe the strategic plan you have outlined covers most of the issues vital to the system’s longevity.  And if this plan is followed closely, I believe it will result in many long-term benefits to the Palouse region and its families.


There are a few items that caught my attention and that may warrant some changes to the final draft:
There are a couple places in the document where mention is made of rail service to Moscow, ID (page 9, for instance).  For most readers, it is a small technicality that the rail line only extends to the now-defunct fertilizer dealer at Wilson, WA, just across the state line from Moscow.  Still, it may be helpful to address this so that no future misunderstandings result.


I applaud the acquisition and re-use of rail materials from the former Hanford Railroad for repairing and upgrading the PCC system (page 44).  I actually work at the Hanford site, and am pleased to know those loads of ties and rails I see leaving the site are going to good use.  Similar opportunities in the future must be sought after and seized.


This is my primary issue with the report:  I am greatly concerned by the potential for rail removal on the Colfax to Pullman line segment that is suggested on page 57.  I do not believe “rail banking” necessarily requires rail removal, but that is often what a community comes to expect when that term is mentioned.  Recreational trails are, of course, a very common re-purpose for rail-banked routes.  However, once the rails are removed and a trail laid in their place, it is nearly impossible for those rails to be re-laid without years of lawsuits and related hassles.  How can a potential rail customer be expected to bring their jobs to any community when they realize that the needed rail service is years away?


Rail-banking may still be the right answer for the short term, but I believe it will be a big mistake to allow any community-based entity or organization to replace the rails with a recreational trail.  I can foresee many individuals and groups, especially among the population of students and families living in Pullman, who will want a trail.  But for the community’s long-term wellbeing, WSDOT needs to make it their policy not to allow rail removal from that route, and to stick to their guns on that point when approached by potential trail builders and users.


Of course, I understand the main reason for rail-banking the route is to minimize or eliminate the costs involved in maintaining the route.  However, looking at the few instances when rail service has been re-established on a line previously embargoed or abandoned, the costs involved in restoring that service have usually been several times the amount it would have cost to provide minimal upkeep.  One alternative to rail removal that would provide a small offset to the maintenance costs would be making the route available to rail cyclists.  This service is offered on the public-owned line between Enterprise and Joseph, Oregon (see their website at jbrailriders.com).  I’m certain it’s not a big money maker, but it is a reasonable compromise between rails and trails, and may draw additional riders from outside the area because of its uniqueness.  After all, Pullman and Colfax are a little easier to get to than Joesph, OR.


Another key reason why that route should not have its rails removed is to maintain access to both major Class One railroads.  I am under the impression that both the W&I and PCC (WATCO) railroads have contracts with BNSF and UP, respectively, that compel the shortlines to deal exclusively with only the one Class One connecting line.  To truly address competitiveness and capacity issues on the Class Ones (page 46) I believe it is necessary to maintain the Pullman-Colfax route toward the day when these contracts may be re-written to allow either shortline access to either Class One.  That also should be a point WSDOT addresses – encouraging the Class Ones to re-negotiate with the shortline operators to allow more open access.


Your report mentions the possibility of catastrophe (page 48), and maintaining the Pullman-Colfax link may prove wise if the worst ever happens.

A video I shot on the Pullman-Colfax route in question back in 1998

Also, the line segments between Fallon and Wilson, and from Palouse to the State Line, should also be maintained.  Although WSDOT has little direct interest in providing rail service to customers in Idaho, there is still a positive effect to many Palouse families and communities when their neighbors across the line are thriving economically.  Maintaining access to Bennett Lumber and other shippers that may locate in the Idaho Palouse should also be important to WSDOT.


Additionally, WSDOT should pursue the possibility of shuttle trains from smaller on-line elevators to the McCoy grain terminal as another way to minimize heavy truck traffic within the Palouse region.


Finally, I believe the Grain Train program has been immensely successful, and that program should be expanded as resources permit to make more dedicated-service grain cars available to Washington grain shippers.

Thank you again for allowing public comment on this document.  I believe it is a solid and viable plan that WSDOT has laid out, and with a few minor adjustments, it can establish a foundation for strong economic growth in Eastern Washington.


If possible, please let me know when the final report comes out.  I look forward to reviewing it.


Sincerely,

Thomas Hillebrant

Richland, WA



WATCO-owned Palouse River & Coulee City RR still operates the PV-Hooper segment of the PCC Rail System.
Near St. John WA, June 2012