After photographing the BNSF Engineering Special at Easton I headed back towards Cle Elum and then South Cle Elum to see the Milwaukee Road Depot and Substation.  I was also planning on riding my bike up to Bullfrog to complete the section from Easton to Cle Elum. 

As I had never been to South Cle Elum before I was eager to check it out.  I missed the turn to get to the trailhead and Milwaukee facilities but discovered the Iron Horse Inn Bed and Breakfast.  I was surprised to find four cabooses that are a part of the Inn you can reserve as well.  The center of attention was the Northern Pacific 24′ caboose 1743. 

It had its flaws, wrong color, incorrect Monad and blanked out side cupola windows but there was no mistaking it was an NP caboose.  Nice to see the original number on it too, made research a lot easier.  It’s BN number was 10955, one I had not seen before. 

To the left of the NP caboose was a former Great Northern steel caboose which turned out to be the GN X307/BN 11393.  To the right of the NP caboose is an extended vision in Milwaukee Road colors. 

I have the feeling this is not one of the few extended vision caboose Milwaukee owned but a former BN caboose painted up like one.  It still looks very nice though.  And hiding in the trees was an ex-Southern Pacific bay window caboose that looked like it still had its original paint!  Eventually I’d like to stay in all four cabooses to do some “inside research” so to speak.  Apparently the main building actually housed the Milwaukee Road crews inbetween runs when Cle Elum was a crew change point.

I then left and drove over to the John Wayne Pioneer trail and easily found the depot and substation as well as an actual Milwaukee Road bay window caboose on display.

I checked my Milwaukee Road roster book for sightings of the 01988 and there were none.  The pedestal in front of the caboose has some information on it stating the caboose came from Othello which is probably why I did not see it.

Here are some more photos taken around the yard area showing the depot (in its original colors) and substation.

There is also an interpretive trail around the old yard I will have to check out sometime.  The depot houses a museum and the Depot Cafe but they were closed on my visit.

I got my bike out of the back of the truck and started west along the Milwaukee Road ROW first photographing the substation.

A little west of here is a shack with “Easton” signs on it.  Not sure if they were the original signs off the old Milwaukee depot or replicas perhaps.  Beyond that is a small bridge marked FF5 over Tillman Creek.

Around the upcoming curve was a sign marking FF7, the creek itself barely visible behind shrubs and small trees.  There was also a small cut in this area as well.  Next was a large bridge over the Yakima River, FF2 just beyond the MP 2088 marker.

And a view of the Yakima River.  It certainly did look inviting on this nice warm day that got well into the 80′s.

The east end of the bridge had through deck girder plates with the through truss portion west of it.

I found the through truss section to look different than other Milwaukee bridges I had photographed.  This one was angled downwards at the top. 

Continuing towards Bullfrog I could see the Burgess Logging yard off to my tight.  This was originally built by the Monad company (a subsidiary of the NP) in 1968 as a chipping plant.  Also across from the logging yard were the foundations of a pair of Milwaukee signals.

I kept riding until I finally reached Bullfrog Road and then started back to South Cle Elum.  It was much easier as the breeze was now behind me and I was riding downhill.  Back at the truck I then got some lunch and drove west to Easton to wait on the eastbound, which I heard roll up their track warrant at MP 52 east of Lester to let MOW out behind them.  Lead unit was the BNSF 4707, a Warbonnet.

More on the eastbound chase to come….

This is a continuation of this Yakima Valley Sub report:

http://yakimavalleysubblog.qstation.org/?p=165

The train had already departed Ellensburg at 08:35 by the time I parked and scrambled up to the former Milwaukee Road bridge across the ex-NP.  The shot was backlit but out in the open anyway.  I was looking for some elevation and this wasn’t too bad.

As the train passed under the bridge I tried to work some of it in a back shot. 

The ex-Milwaukee here is now part of the John Wayne Pioneer trail and I have yet to ride my bike along this particular section.  Some day.  I then scrambled back down to my truck as the next planned location was west of Thorp at the beautiful down on view of Milepost 12.  I made it there in plenty of time and watched the train work around the bluff in the shadows until it entered an opening down below.

The train was moving slow so timing the ex-NP sleeper in the opening was pretty easy.

The train continued around the curves moving pretty much south at this point before turning west again.

As the train continued slowly through the curves I headed towards Bristol for my next photo location.  On the way I heard the BNSF 1036 East call the dispatcher saying they were ready to leave Ellensburg.  Seems that crew on the westbound passenger train had an eastbound to flip back to Pasco on!  Wish I hadn’t committed to the passenger train as that would have been a great eastbound chase.

But I went on to Bristol where the BNSF 7503 West is shown passing the baretables that have been stored in the siding for quite sometime. 

I then had an easy drive to Easton where I had planned on my last photo of the chase on the east side.

Here the train crosses Cabin Creek Road and the back shot shows the ex-NP sleeping car and the Easton sign.  Kind of fitting for a former NP car now named Stampede Pass to he headed that way. 

The final shot of the passenger train has it heading into the Cascades towards the Stampede Pass tunnel.

My plan had been to head over Snoqualmie Pass to Auburn and catch the train there as it was originally supposed to be in Auburn after 1:00 PM.  I could tell it was going to be there real early so my planned shots would have a bad sun angle.  Now what?  Too early to go home.  Then I heard the dispatcher about to let MOW back out on the mainline near Cle Elum but he told them he would have an eastbound there about 1:00 PM, Easton at 12:30.  There was my reason for staying!  But it was just 09:45.  What was I going to do the rest of the morning? 

Well, for starters I pulled out the NP OS books from Easton I had brought along.  I checked August 11th to see what daylight trains there were in the late NP, early BN era.  I thought this date in 1971 was pretty interesting. 

BN 5204 made a few trips through Easton leading.  The 5204 is a former CB&Q U23C in the experimental green and white.  That would have been neat to see, until I looked at the times anyway.  New BN power in the form of SD45 6532 and F45 6638 also led trains 8-11-71.  There had been two sections of westbound #31 this day, an Amtrak operation at this time.  Then I noticed the time Second 31 was by, 09:26AM.  Hmmm, the passenger train I just photographed here westbound was around that time today, so I checked the date stamp in my camera of the BNSF 7503.  It was 09:26.

Then I got a thought.  I’d been wanting to ride my bike the last stretch of the ex-Milwaukee Road John Wayne Pioneer trail from Bullfrog Road to Cle Elum.  My bike was in the back.  Why not do it now while I’m waiting for the BNSF eastbound freight?

So I was on my way to Cle Elum.  I’d learned a lesson on my last ride.  It’s uphill heading west, downhill heading east.  Start at Cle Elum so I would have an easier time of it heading back.  Besides, I’d been wanting to check out South Cle Elum for a long time to see the Milwaukee depot and substation there.

But I’ll make that a separate Blog installment.

On Wednesday morning 7-14-10 I was driving east on I-90 to the NP convention in Spokane and heard the westbound M-PASVBT arriving at Ellensburg with a new crew ready to get on board as I was leaving Cle Elum.  It was just after 11:00 AM and kind of early for a good sun angle on a westbound but I stopped at the MP 13 curve between Thorp and Bristol as this is the best it gets before noon.  At 11:34 I could hear the train approaching and caught the BNSF 5294 West with the front still in the shadows.

The lashup consisted of 5294/1109/4762 and a turn around shot got the BNSF H1 splicing the two H2′s.

I had read that the former NP depot at Thorp was still standing alongside Thorp Road in town but had never noticed it. Heading back out to I-90 I spotted the building as the bay windows and large doors gave it away.

A bit of searching found this old photo of it on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17456491@N00/4490256871/

Sure enough it was the same building! From the Washington State Railroad Depots book the Thorp depot was built in 1897 and retired around 1952.  It’s dimensions were 26′x60′.  I could not tell if it was a private residence now or something else. Don’t know about that bright red paint on it though. Still it was nice to find something new I had not photographed before.

I had originally planned to head to Spokane this morning (6-19-10) for the IERHS open house with NP 6703A on display but a poor weather forecast for the “Inland Empire” with showers convinced me to stay home.   Yes, that was a mistake, the clouds went as far east as Ritzville and stopped there.  Spokane was actually sunny all day.  Grrrr. 

It was cloudy at home and I was getting cabin fever.  So I contemplated heading over to Easton and finally left the house just before 3 PM.  I figured I could have dinner over there at least and maybe see the M-PASVBT if it is running late.  It was raining on the western slopes of Snoqualmie Pass as I crossed the summit where the rain stopped, though it was still overcast all the way down to Easton.  Driving into town I decided I ought to take a few photos to show what I did today.  Here is looking into the town of Easton facing east.

The skies were pretty dark and ominous to the east.  I then continued down Railroad Street to the old NP hotel.  I took a few photos of it from different angles across the street.

It does not look like it has been used for years!  I then headed up to the tracks and took a few shots, one looking east:

And another facing west:

The Cascades sure did look moody this afternoon!  I then sat in the truck looking over my Easton OS books too see what ran on June 19 over the late NP/Early BN years.  The page from 6-19-71 caught my eye with a year old BN SD45, the 6474 leading an eastbound (probably #90) early in the morning heading east.

I have a few photos of the BN 6474 and will add it to my BN Tribute page and include a link here once it is uploaded. 

About 5:30 PM I headed over to the Parkside Cafe on Sparks Road and ordered the Spaghetti and a chocolate shake.  (the shakes here are great)  As I sat in the cafe waiting on my order to go the skies opened up and the rain started to fall!  I took my order over by the tracks and ate there before heading for home.  Didn’t see the M-PASVBT today as I later found out it had left Ellensburg around 1:00PM so was probably by Easton even before I’d left home.  It rained all the way up to the summit and ended there.  Just overcast the rest of the way home.  No rail action today but still nice to get out of the house.

Driving east to Pasco on Saturday morning June 12, 2010 I made my customary stop at Easton to check things out.  It was always a stretch to find much “NP related” that survives at Easton but there are a few items worth checking out.

I first took a look at the former NP hotel that had been moved from its original location to the north side of Railroad Street.  It is in poor condition but it is still standing at least.  The sun angle this early in the morning was on the rear of the building so I photographed it from the back.

Later in the morning to early afternoon appear to be the best times to photograph it from the front.

And then there is the “mini Stonehenge” off of Alley street and Cabin Creek Road. 

These were the supports for a building that covered the NP turntable built back in the steam years from what I understand.  After the turntable was removed I believe the state DOT later used the area under the building for storing sand for use on Snoqualmie Pass.  This photo I took of the Easton CTC maching shows the building in the background in 1971. 

I am thinking it was sometime in the 70′s that the structure was removed and the concrete blocks were moved to the opposite side of the tracks where they remain today.  Here is one last shot showing a few of the supports with the quiet town of Easton in the background.

After taking these photos I then continued on towards Ellensburg and Pasco.  No trains spotted on the Stampede Sub this trip but there was still a westbound coming this way from the Yakima Valley Sub.

My OS Easton of 3-20-69 was a prelude to my heading over to Eastern Washington on Saturday March 20, 2010 to get some photos on the Yakima Valley Sub.  On the drive from Easton to Ellensburg there was pretty much no chatter on the scanner at all so I did not stop as I continued on towards Yakima.

Heading home that afternoon I did stop at Ellensburg where I photographed a BNSF grain empty tied up awaiting a crew to take it east.  Power was BNSF 5419/4836/5396.

As can be seen the sun was quite filtered by this time of the day.  I followed the ex-NP west and stopped at Br 13.6 east of Bristol for a few photos of the bridge over Swauk Creek. 

This really is a very pretty section between Bristol and Thorp.

It was still pretty early in the day and I had my bike in the back so I stopped at West Nelson Siding Rd and rode my bike along the former Milwaukee Road ROW (Now the John Wayne Pioneer Trail) to Bullfrog as I’d already ridden from Easton to West Nelson last summer.  Where ever there was access over to the Stampede Sub I would ride over to it, such as at Bridge 30.7 over the Yakima River.  This shows the former NP bridge at the east end. 

After getting to Bullfrog Road I turned back for my truck.  Somehow the ride seemed a lot harder heading west than the ride east!  It was a very nice ride though and it was fun catching glimpses of the NP tracks through the brush and trees as I rode my bike.  Too bad there were no trains though.

Here is a look at Easton, WA on this date in 1969 by looking back in time with the NP’s OS book.   

Note the early morning eastbound NP 2507 at 4:29 AM.  This would have been hotshot train #600.  Just for fun here is a look at the unit history of the 2507. 

It was built by GE in May of 1964 as the Northern Pacific 2507 and assigned to Livingston for use between Auburn and Northtown.  After the BN merger the 2507 was renumbered BN 5607.  In the early 70′s it was assigned to Mississippi St on the Twin Cities region along with most of the other ex-NP U25C’s.  It made it out to the Northwest a couple of times in 1979, one of them 12-10-79 when I photographed it at Interbay, WA.  Note that the paint job is a variation with the black higher on the carbody than usual.  Makes it look rather different. 

A few years later it was retired in March of 1981.  It appears to have been sent to Tacoma, WA for scrapping that same year.

Spent yesterday afternoon, Valentines Day 2010 between Easton and Cabin Creek with the idea of checking out ex-NP’s Bridge 40 at Cabin Creek as some questions about it had been raised on the NP Yahoo list group.

As it had been raining most of the Sunday morning I decided to wait until 11:00 AM to start east from home.  Snoqualmie Pass was dry and not much snow until almost at the Summit.  Plenty of snow on the ski runs.  Then on down towards Easton where I took Exit 71 and drove across the tracks.  Not much was going on as far as BNSF was concerned.  The line still sees trains but they seem to run after dark now.  I continued up Cabin Creek Road a few miles as a light rain started falling and turned onto Monahan Rd and parked before the private grade crossing.  Most any other year this would not have been possible as this area is usually under FEET of snow in February!  I got out the bike and crossed the tracks turning left onto the old Milwaukee Road ROW which is now the John Wayne Pioneer Trail.  It was a short ride to the Milwaukee’s Bridge FF-20 over Cabin Creek where there is a nice look down view of the BNSF ex-NP bridge over the same creek.  It was wet (and rather muddy) but I did get some decent photos. These are all from the north side of the NP from the Milwaukee bridge.

A wide angle view to get the whole bridge in.

The east end is on the left and this looks like an original NP span. There was a plaque on it with a date of 1921.

The newer concrete span on the right is the west end span. With a date on it of 1996 this would make it a replacement BNSF span installed during the rebuilding of the line in the mid-1990′s.

And here is a photo of the center pier which appears to be the original.  Looks like BNSF built up their new span on it with concrete slabs.

I also got a good look at the Milwaukee bridge I took these photos from down on the creek bed and just loved the old concrete arched bridge. I’m amazed the Milwaukee built this work of art out in the middle of nowhere!  When the Milwaukee was still around before 1980 this was Bridge FF-20.

I then went back to the truck and drove to Cle Elum to get some food.  Heading home I made a quick stop at Easton to check things out.  Still no trains.  But the sun was poking out so I saw the chance to get some actual sunlit photos!  Been kind of hard to do this time of year.

Looking east from the grade crossing.

Here is looking west towards the Cascades.

It appears that the jointed rail on the Yakima Valley Sub is slowly starting to get replaced by ribbon rail.  Luckily there is plenty of jointed rail on the Stampede Sub like this section on the main line near the grade crossing.

I then headed back over to I-90 and started west for home.  No trains but still a productive day.

Trains are crossing Stampede again!  Problems on the coast line between Seattle and Everett was causing a huge backup so the decision has been made to start sending trains over Stampede.  A great thread on the reopening can be found here on Railroad Forums.

http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31433

Saturday 1-23-10 I crossed Snoqualmie Pass headed for Warden near Moses Lake to get a tour of the former Milwaukee Road depot that is now the towns museum and is rarely open to the public as there is no one to man the building on a regular basis.

It was snowing right at the summit of Snoqualmie but just overcast at Easton with a few inches of snow on the ground.  On the scanner I could hear MOW over at Lester working between switches.  A highrailer was heading west from Cle Elum towards Easton calling out mileposts along the way.  Not much else was happening at Easton but before leaving I photographed this snow dozer that had been brought over from Auburn.  It is also mentioned in the Railroad Forums thread.

It was cloudy all the way past Ellensburg so I stayed on I-90 and did not know that the first eastbound grain empty that crossed the pass last night was still at Ellensburg tied up on the main. 

Heading home later that afternoon the sun was out but low in the sky as I stayed on I-90 by Ellensburg.  But then I saw the brown grain cars stretched out and at first thought an empty grain train had arrived while I was gone.  I quickly got off I-90 and drove up to the head end.  The three units, BNSF 5501/4775/4479 were all dead but I still took a few photos.

Then I got back on I-90 and continued for home.  It was later that I learned the train I photographed was the one from last night.  From that thread on RR Forums it sound like BNSF will soon be running the westbound M-PASINB2 in the afternoon out of Pasco again towards Ellensburg.  That will make it kind of late on the Stampede Sub for good photos though.  But great for the Yakima Valley Sub!

I might not have been at Easton 11-21-69 for the previous update but I just discovered I was at Easton the following year on 11-21-70, eight months after the BN merger took place.  Except for the notes I took and what I read from bookets I have from the Easton depot I don’t remember that much about the day.  As I was 15 at the time I am guessing my dad drove us over.

It was a clear and sunny Saturday 11-21-70.  We first stopped at North Bend where I noted BN lettered GP9 1871 and NP caboose 10305.  Then it was on to Easton.  The weather book showed Easton had snow falling up to 06:00 when it stopped and cleared up after noon.  It was 20 degrees at 4:00 PM with 2″ of snow on the ground.  Makes me wonder how Snoqualmie Pass was when we drove over from Renton.  We must have arrived after 2:00 PM as #25 was by at 1:58 PM before we showed up, quite a few hours late!    

We did see a following westbound BN freight with NP 6008D/1632/1631/734/1630/1923/NP 226  (F7A/2 GP7/F7A/GP7/2 GP9) which stopped at 3:22 PM.  All were still in NP colors but the 1630 which was in BN green.  The train left at 3:42Pm and bringing up the rear was NP caboose 10900.

#26 was by at 4:58 PM with F-units 9822/9771/9763 leading.  F9A 9822 was noted wearing BN paint.

Here is the page from the OS booklet showing all the trains BN ran on 11-21-70. 

We must have left after train #26 was by as I did not see the BN 5650 East a few hours later at 7:05 PM. 

I am guessing the sun might have been out at 3:22 PM when the NP 6008D came west, or it may have already been behind the mountains by that time.  Still would have been a nice lashup to have photographed!  Fun to picture in my mind at least.