C.M.St.P.&P. -- The Everett Line (WA)

[Ragnar]

In another thread on the Milwaukee in western Washington, I was asked:
"Just out of curiosity, you wouldn't happen to have train order No. 208, dated April 5, 1935 addressed to Extra 7201 West and copied at Duvall, Wash. in your little cigar box would you?"

Since it's a new topic, thought I would start a new thread. Sadly, I don't have the above order. But, I went through my cigar box of mostly Everett Line orders and came up with some that are close. These are from March and April, 1935.

You fans of logging railroads will find a neat surprise. (It was a surprise to me, because I had never noticed it before.)


__________
March 28, 1935
C&E Eng 7126
At Cedar Falls

Eng 7205 run extra Everett to Cedar Falls meet Extra 7126 West at Duval.
Eng 7126 run extra Cedar Falls to Everett

Larson Opr.
__________

(Note: Duvall was mis-spelled as "Duval" on the order.)


__________
April 3, 1935
C&E Eng 7126
At Cedar Falls

After extra 7205 East arrives at Cedar Falls
Eng 7126 run extra Cedar Falls to Everett meet extra SFL5 east at North Bend
Eng SFL5 run extra Snoqualmie Falls to Cedar Falls

Johnson Opr.
__________


(Note:
The initials "SFL5" must refer to Snoqualmie Falls Lumber #5, a Baldwin 2-8-2.
Here is a photo of the #5, and a cab view from an unidentified SFL loco.)
View attachment 111290 View attachment 111291


__________
April 19, 1935
C&E Eastward Trains
C&E Eng 7201 Operator
At Cedar Falls

Eng 7201 works extra 1225 am until 430 am between Cedar Falls and Garcia
has right over all trains between Cedar Falls and Garcia

Compl 1227 am
Johnson Opr.
__________


__________
April 19, 1935
C&E Eng 7201
At Cedar Falls

Eng 7201 run extra Cedar Falls to Everett

Compl 431 am
Johnson Opr
__________


__________
April 27, 1935
C&E Eng 7214
At Cedar Falls

After extra 7205 East arrives at Cedar Falls Eng 7214 run extra Cedar Falls to Everett

Miles Opr.
__________


__________
April 27, 1935
C&E Eng 7201
At Enumclaw

Eng 7201 run extra Enumclaw to Bagley Jct

Thompson Opr.
__________


__________
April 28, 1935
C&E Eng 7201
At Cedar Falls

Eng 7201 run Extra Cedar Falls to Everett

Miles Opr.
__________


__________
April 29, 1935
C&E Eng 7201
At Everett Wn

Eng 7201 run extra Everett to Cedar Falls wait at Everett until 815pm
Snoqualmie Falls until 1201am
North Bend until 105 am

J??? Opr.
__________


I have to say, the Snoqualmie Falls #5 is a thing of beauty. I notice the crew are all smiles, too, which kind of hints at pride of ownership to me. They sure kept that locomotive clean.

A question:
In these orders, was the Snoqualmie Falls #5 heading to the logging railroad's spur that left the Milwaukee's mainline near Garcia?

Thanks.

 

[Allen Miller]

Those are some interesting train orders Ragnar. The last one you posted, from Everett, that you couldn't read the operators signature, J???, that was Robert B. Jose. He started out as a relay operator at Malden in 1909 and retired as agent at Bellingham in the late 1940's.
I have one of those SFL train orders too, worded almost exactly the same. That must have been a common move on the line at that time. Yes, this train is headed up to Garcia. Weyerhaeuser put in a logging operation up there in 1930 and a connection was established on the Milwaukee 1.3 miles east of Garcia, the location named "Minot" after Minot Davis, a Weyerhaeuser official. The operation was known as the Snoqualmie Valley Logging Co. and the logs went to the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Co. mill. Weyerhaeuser was given permission to operate their own trains between the points. A small depot was located at Minot and a train order operator assigned to copy orders for the SFL trains to return to Cedar Falls. The operation stopped and the connection removed in June, 1936.
Duvall was mis-spelled in train orders for many years. It was even mis-spelled in the employee timetables from the beginning of operations in November, 1911 until somebody finally corrected it in June, 1925, although the sign on the depot showed it with two "L's" from day one.
The order you posted with the train running to Garcia and return. In these days the Everett Local was combined with the Enumclaw Local, and the Enumclaw Local was bulletined to make periodic trips to Garcia. There was a logging operation going on there, separate from the Weyerhaeuser operation at Minot and the Enumclaw Local would switch them and bring the loaded log cars down to Cedar Falls yard for forwarding.
Have posted a few interesting orders from my pile. In one we have a meet set up at Tanner. Since there was no passing track at Tanner this seems rather strange. In actuality though, the train being met is a light helper engine from Cedar Falls to assist the Local up the hill to Cedar Falls.
Next we have two westbound trains on the Everett Line. One is the Everett Local and the other is the Logger. This order is to inform the second train that another train is ahead of him and was reported having passed Carnation but to be aware of them from there to Monroe Jct.
This last one concerns a work extra on Tanner Hill and we can see that Mallet 90 is making one trip down the hill to help the Everett Local and then is making a second trip west, perhaps as the Everett Logger.
Too bad you couldn't find the order from Duvall, but our orders did originate from the same place as, in checking through my pile, I have the clearance cards for all of the orders you posted. We need to hook up privately and make some comparisons.

 

[Ragnar]

Yes, this train is headed up to Garcia. Weyerhaeuser put in a logging operation up there in 1930 and a connection was established on the Milwaukee 1.3 miles east of Garcia, the location named "Minot" after Minot Davis, a Weyerhaeuser official. The operation was known as the Snoqualmie Valley Logging Co. and the logs went to the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Co. mill. Weyerhaeuser was given permission to operate their own trains between the points. A small depot was located at Minot and a train order operator assigned to copy orders for the SFL trains to return to Cedar Falls. The operation stopped and the connection removed in June, 1936.

I had no idea there was a little depot at Minot, so that's interesting news to me.

From the McClellan Butte hiking trail, I did notice the old Weyerhaeuser railroad grade. And one day I left the trail and followed it up to the connection point with the mainline (at Minot). There was a wide spot along the mainline there, and it was obvious where the old switch used to be. Although, hiking along the mainline before that time, I had never noticed the location before then.

I suppose the switch must have been interlocked with the signals to drop them to red when it was lined for the logging spur. Maybe there is info in the timetables about that?

Sounds like our two piles of train orders became separated at some point in the past. I think my pile came from a seller at a Seattle swap meet in the 80's. Yes we should compare what we've got. Believe I have your email address from the MILW list, so will drop you a note.

 

[Allen Miller]

Attached is a message regarding the signal department involvement when the switch was put in. I think the general rule was to watch both directions for any train approaching and then open the switch, which would drop the block signals to red in each direction. Then wait five minutes before fouling the main line in case any train had just passed the block signal when the switch was opened. After the operator was placed at the depot he could clear it with the dispatcher and get their orders to come out on the main line.
As you can see, the switch was put in about mid-September, The location first appeared in the timetable as a commercial spur in November and then as a timetable station in December. The train order office was opened in May, 1931 under the office call "ON" and was closed in October, 1932. Either the Milwaukee handled the logs prior to this or the SFL train was given a round trip order out of Cedar Falls and the conductor come on a block phone to get permission to come out.
The office at Minot was reopened in November, 1934 under the new call sign of "SQ" and lasted until June, 1936 when the office was closed and the connection taken up. I recall finding a long row of pilings bents from their bridge approach under some power lines off of a Forest Service road once. Garcia depot was closed about June, 1925 and I think I heard once that when they opened the office at Minot the former agent at Garcia had prior rights to the job. Unfortunately I don't know who the last agent at Garcia was, so I don't know who worked at Minot.
Thought you might get a kick out of the Ragnar "meet" order. The engine number is interesting too. The 2713 was the former Idaho & Washington Northern No. 11.

 

[mrmoose]

Interesting and facsinating little pieces of time that most of us never knew existed! Thanks for posting all this everyone. Very neat find!

 

[Ragnar]

Did a quick web search and found a recent photo made by a hiker of the logging grade with some trestle pilings near Minot.
View attachment 111312

 

[mrmoose]

I've hiked up there before, and never knew any of this! Walked right by!

 

[Allen Miller]

Here are some more Everett Line train orders in an effort to get back "on track" (forgive the pun), the first is a nice bit of work on the dispatchers part. He has rolled up a meet and running orders for two trains all into one order. Both of these trains are extras and have equal status, their "superiority" being determined by direction. You will note at the bottom of employee timetable schedules it usually reads that eastbound trains have right over westbound trains. In this case we see the eastbound (superior) train being told to take the siding at Carnation, the reason for this is length. Note that the dispatcher has included the train lengths of these two trains as a part of the order. In 1948 the Carnation passing track could hold 35 cars. Extra 1203 West has 57 cars, he won't fit, Extra 1204 East has 33 cars, he will fit with about 110 feet to spare, thus he goes in the hole for the meet.
Next is an interesting little order in which train No. 216, the Everett Line passenger local, is being run in two sections. Eng 2007 is heading up the regular passenger train. This engine is the former Tacoma Eastern No. 11 by the way and this evening will be displaying green signals on her front, to alert any employees to the fact that there will be another section of this train following. In 1929 train 216 would depart Everett at 5 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive at Cedar Falls at 7:10 p.m.
Somewhere, along the way, they met Extra 2185 West, the subject of this order, who was given rights over Second 216 to Everett, only to then become Second 216, leaving Everett at 8:25 p.m. and arriving Cedar Falls about 10:35 p.m. I've looked through local papers to see if something was going on that might warrant a second passenger train on that day, but cannot find anything out of the ordinary.
Third is what is known as a "slow order" these were additional orders along with the running and meet orders that called the crews attention to hazardous conditions along the route, sidings that had cars blocking them, areas where speed needed to be reduced, etc. In this case we have a low telephone wire across a spur that could be a hazard to a brakeman atop the car passing signals. The Grange Spur was a spur serving the Grange Store in Carnation and was a throw back to the days when the Great Northern also had a branch line down the valley. They put the spur into the store originally and after they abandoned their line the Milwaukee built a connection to it from their line across town.

 

[Ragnar]

You have some fascinating old paperwork. I am sure enjoying it.

From the following order, it sounds like they had a typical, heavy PNW rain storm sometime before 1/23/1935:

_____________________
Jan 23, 1935
At: Everett Wn.
To: C&E Eastward trains

Log jam against Lowell drawbridge just east of Belt Yard switch
Be sure bridge ok before going over
Look out for mud slide at mill pond 18 1 mile west of Fall City

Jose Opr.
_____________________
View attachment 111318

 

[Allen Miller]

Nice order, those draw rests out in the river channel were a natural hangup for logs and trees swept downstream in high water. Here are a couple orders declaring the hours that the bridge at Lowell and the bridge at Ebey Slough would be open for boats. Apparently tug boat traffic had fallen off to a point that they had to pre-arrange the times that they would need to pass through the draw spans.
Oh, by the way, on your order, it should read...Mile Post 18 not Mill Pond 18.

 

[Ragnar]

Attached is a message regarding the signal department involvement when the switch was put in.

Thought you might get a kick out of the Ragnar "meet" order. The engine number is interesting too. The 2713 was the former Idaho & Washington Northern No. 11.

Those two messages regarding the Weyerhaeuser spur are great.

I'm really interested in the second one that reads:

Accout tomorrow 30 being inventory day Mostead be sure make 284 report covering all cars in train
also check blind sidings and pits turning check in Agent Cedar Falls for handling
Erland will cover all blind sidings in his report
Do not overlook the new Weyerhauser siding near Garcia​

I wonder who Conductor Mostead was? I found a scrap of paper in the Cedar Falls depot in the early 80's that has written on it, "Call Mostead and crew."

I am guessing "inventory day" had to do with counting cars or other materials?

I like how someone has added up columns of numbers on the paper, too. I wonder if that was the agent at Cedar Falls adding up numbers for his reports?

468 522
244 438
104 ___
___ 960
816

 

[Allen Miller]

I'm not positive what inventory day was, but assume the head offices conducted this system-wide periodically, or once a year, to get a figure on costs, materials, total cars on the system, etc. for the bean counters to use. I've never seen a 284 report, would be marked "Form 284",so not sure what all information it called for. They probably had to count everything, down to the last track spike in the bin.
Mostead was C. J. Mostead, he had a 12-4-09 brakeman's date and a 10-18-10 conductor's date and, at this point in time he was a conductor pilot on the helper out of Cedar Falls, but he also worked the Everett Local and other trains. The message file "CD 2-311" is a chief dispatcher's file code and "S C W" is Sam C. Whittemore, the chief train dispatcher at Tacoma.

 

[Ragnar]

Thanks for all of that info. It's interesting.

 

[Allen Miller]

In my comments about the train order concerning two sections of the Everett Line passenger train, I neglected to comment on the other engine in the order, the 2185. This was also an interesting locomotive. Built in 1889 as No. 796 it was initially a Ten-wheeler, 4-6-0, but, because of an oversize firebox it was fitted with a two wheel trailing truck, 4-6-(2), to help carry the extra weight, technically making it a Pacific class, except that there was no such class at that time. When the Milwaukee adopted a classification system, the one of a kind locomotive was made the only F-1 class on the system.
By 1912 it was numbered 6000 and had come west and ended up in passenger service on the Everett Line. I've seen several pictures of it when it was on the run. In January, 1926 it was rebuilt as a Ten-wheeler once again, designated class G-4 and numbered 2185 where it again was used in passenger service on the Everett Line. I believe it was the last locomotive used when the passenger train was pulled off, August 31, 1930. The 2185 was scrapped the following December.
Attached is another order concerning the 2185, making a night-time run to Everett and return and getting a clearance on the train order signal at the depot on MacDougal Street.
The other order is a meet between the east and westbound local freights at Stillwater, between Duvall and Carnation. A few years earlier this meet would not have been possible as the Stillwater Siding was normally full of log cars brought down by the Cherry Valley Logging Company for shipment to their log dump at Riverview, below Snohomish.

 

[Ragnar]

Wow, I'm pretty astonished that such an unusual, old steam locomotive was running on the west end of the Milwaukee system. Built in 1889!

I always imagined only the NP had locomotives that old in the Puget Sound area.

I looked up a few images on the internet of the #2185. Here are some views of it carrying some of its older numbers:

As #796 (its original number):
View attachment 111350

As #6000:
View attachment 111351

Some other images here:
http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr508.htm

 

[Allen Miller]

There were a great number of old Ten-wheeler locomotives out on the Coast. In the beginning they were used extensively on construction trains and then were put on passenger runs on most of the branches. Several from the initial batch of thirty, class G-4 and G-5, 4-6-0's built in 1881 made their way west, including the first one built, No. 2200. I have a photo of the 2200 on a gravel train during construction of the Willapa Harbor line and later, it was involved in a rollover on the Olympic Division out near Twin Rivers and had to be shipped to Tacoma Shops for rebuilding. The Olympic line seemed to have the most of these old relics, the 2200, 2205, 2213, 2217 and 2503 all known to have been used there. The 2213, as number 36, was the first Milwaukee locomotive to enter the state of Idaho, in June 1908 on a track laying work train.
Rare, were the Eight-wheelers or Americans, 4-4-0 which the Milwaukee had a lot of, but they mostly stayed back on lines east, the "old" St. Paul. I know of only five that came out to the Coast. H-3 class 1375 built in 1880, reno. 126 was used in commuter service on the Everett Line, making several trips daily between Everett and Monroe. It was replaced with a G.E. gas-electric motor car in 1913. Another H-3, the 1380/130 was used in work train service on the Olympic Line. Another old 4-4-0, the 1356, built in May, 1880, was used in construction service on Snoqualmie Pass in 1910.
H-5 class 308 was the oldest locomotive on the Coast Division, built in September, 1879 and was still in service out here as late as 1927-28. Another H-5, 386 built in 1882, was in passenger service out of Raymond.
A really rare sight out here were the A-class Atlantics 4-4-2. Attached is a picture of one, the 3512, on a passenger train in front of the depot at Cedar Falls. The absence of white flags indicates that this is a regular train, which would most-likely make it train no. 46, the Kittitas Local, but could also be on the Everett passenger run too. Interestingly, there appears to be someone's photo pasted to the cab window, perhaps a fellow engineer who was killed or passed away recently? By the way, the flared stack gives this engine away as being off of the Idaho & Washington Northern, she was originally I&WN 31 and probably the pride of the line on the Pend Orielle Flyer.
The picture of the 6000 on Don's sight with the flagman holding the Stop sign, that is taken at Argo and is when the 6000 was in Everett Line passenger service, the train running Everett to Seattle and return daily. Attached is a photo of the 6000 on a passenger train drifted in snow at North Bend, about 1920. Not sure how this came to be as, at this time, the Everett passenger train did not normally tie up at North Bend. Perhaps it was side-tracked because of problems elsewhere on the line and then the fierce winds buried the train overnight. Understand the train was buried about three days before it could be dug out.

 

[Allen Miller]

Nice photos of once familiar sights, makes me homesick. Yes, the Duvall depot was originally orange in color. Am attaching a photo of it in 1912, when it was a new building. The center part of the building was orange, the area below the windows and the sawtooth siding above the windows was maroon, the trim was white, or possibly a cream color and the window frames and doors were black. Am also attaching a photo of the depot as it looked when I hung around the rail yards.
The bridge north of Duvall is FF-920, over Cherry Creek, originally this was a 171 span pile trestle, 2,692 feet in length. It was shortened 762 feet in 1921 due to a line change made when the parallel Great Northern line was abandoned. Over the years it was shortened and portions filled until it was divided into two bridges with a culvert in between. The portion in your photo is bridge FF-920C.
The bridge over the Tolt River was a two span covered bridge in the old days, the covered portion being 250 feet long. That 65 lb. rail in front of the Cadman Pit is the original stuff. The line was laid in 1911 using 6507 Illinois Steel and, when the line was pulled up in 1975-76, approx. 85% of the original rail was still in place. One interesting thing, the spur track at High Rock, that I posted a picture of, was originally a connection over to the G.N. yard that the Milw. bought and used for interchange of logs with the High Rock Logging railroad. When the G.N. yard was pulled up the connection was left in as a spur serving a small sawmill located there. When they were pulling up the line I was checking out the rail at High Rock and the last few length of rail on the spur were old G. N. rail and had a date in the 1890's on them.

 

[Kevin M]

Now I am confused. The GN had a line that came south out of Monroe? Where did it go to? I always thought the MILW was the only road through the Valley there.
KEvin

 

[Allen Miller]

Yup, it is a little-known fact, even among G. N. fans, that the Big G had a branch line that ran from Monroe 18 miles south to Tolt, nowadays the city of Carnation. They had a depot, small yard, water tank, turntable and one stall engine house. They came in on the opposite side of town from the Milwaukee and were actually about six months ahead of the Milwaukee in getting their line in operation.
Today, when you are driving along Highway 203 through the valley, you are actually driving on the old right of way of the Great Northern's "Cherry Valley Branch" for much of the distance. Mainly from about where Tualco Road comes out to just before you enter the town of Duvall. Then you pick up the grade again about a quarter mile north of the roundabout at Novelty to the curve just before the foot of Fay Road. Instead of curving, the G.N. went straight and crossed the Milwaukee and Cherry Valley Logging road at grade and continued out into the cornfields on the Stillwater hunting grounds.
A mile or two north of Carnation you can see their grade marked by a line of cottonwood trees off in the fields to the right (west).
The line was abandoned by order of the United States Railroad Administration in August, 1918 during World War I and G. N. was given running rights over the Milwaukee between Monroe and Carnation for a couple of years. Then they entered into an agreement to interchange their business to the Milwaukee at Monroe and let them spot their business. The Grange Store in Carnation was the last bit of business G.N. had when they reliquished their switching agreement in 1948.

 

[weekendrailroader]

A couple more notes about the area: The Great Northern line into Carnation wasn't originally Great Northern. It was built as an electric railway, but was bought by the Great Northern upon completion of the line.

Also note: Several of you know about Al Borlin Park, the covered bridge that used to be there, the later truss bridge that was removed in 2005, and the Milwaukee tracks that survive there to this day. But did you know that the Al Borlin track is not the original Milwaukee grade? Up until the 1930's, the Milwaukee had a different bridge across the Skykomish river just North of where the old truss bridge was. The tracks continued north, crossed the Great Northern (now BNSF Steven's Pass line) on a trestle, and then curved West on a large trestle. The tracks then went through what is now downtown Monroe, passed the Milwaukee Road depot (the depot survives as a hair salon, now relocated to the South side of the BNSF tracks), and then continued West on its own right-of-way into Snohomish and Everett. I believe it was in 1935 that the Milwaukee built the current alignment and used trackage rights on the Great Northern to get to Everett.

A great place to research this stuff is the museum on the campus of the Everegreen Fairgrounds. They've got lots of cool stuff there, including lots of old maps. Very helpful staff, too.

I do plan on making a Youtube video documenting these grades in the Monroe/ Duvall/ Carnation area eventually.