Elizabeth and I arose, then following our Internet duties, checked out of the Hotel Pendleton and went to Shari's for a great breakfast. She drove us to the Northern Pacific Railway Museum in Toppenish and we parked, went inside the depot and Elizabeth paid for our visit.
The Northern Pacific symbol.
Northern Pacific speeder 112304 built by Fairmont year unknown.
Northern Pacific 4-6-2 2126 built by Baldwin in 1902. In 1932, it was assigned as a head-end helper on the Yellowstone Division before being retired in 1958. It was then donated to the City of Auburn, Washington and placed on display in a city park. During the next five decades its condition progressively deteriorated, and Auburn sought to dispose of it. The engine was bought by the museum in 2006.
Northern Pacific coach 581 "Inland Empire", nee Northern Pacific 487, built by Pullman-Standard in 1956.
Northern Pacific two-bay hopper 207412, builder and year unknown.
Northern Pacific gondola 50409 built by Pressed Steel in 1940.
Shell Oil one-dome tank car SCXX 715 built by Standard Tank in 1923 and donated by the Washington State Railroads Historical Society in 1996.
Northern Pacific dome car 309 "Rainier Park", ex. Anschutz Investment Coorparation 1986, exx. Dave Schumacher 1984. exxx. Amtrak 9212, exxxx. Burlington Northern 1141, nee Northern Pacific 309, built by the Budd Company in 1954.
Toppenish, Simcoe and Western dining car 453, nee Northern Pacific lunch-diner 453 built by Pullman-Standard in 1947 for service on the new Streamlined North Coast Limited. In 1958, it was assigned to the Mainstreeter. In 1962 a lounge section was added, then called "Economy Buffet", and in 1967 it was assigned to the 407-408 Portland to Seattle Pool Trains. 453 is one of two cars that followed all of this exact path of use.
Amtrak baggage car 1135, ex. Amtrak 1116, exx. Amtrak 1206, exxx. Northern Pacific 409, nee Northern Pacific 218, built by Pullman-Standard in 1957.
Amtrak diner 8509, nee Northern Pacific 453, built by Pullman-Standard in 1947 and later rebuilt into a full dining car.
Northern Pacific 4-1 lounge observation 393 "Spokane Club", built by Pullman-Standard in 1948 and painted as Bangor & Aroostook 107.
Northern Pacific VO-1000 cab 120 buit by Baldwin in 1945.
Cab of 774, details unknown.
Toppenish, Simcoe and Western caboose 12001, nee Burlington Northern 12001 built by Pacific Car and Foundry in 1975.
Northern Pacific coach 588 built by Pullman-Standard in 1948. It was one of the first two cars to be painted in the Raymond Loewy two-tone green paint scheme for the North Coast Limited. It served until 1971 when Amtrak took over operations and became a Burlington Northern maintenance-of-way car and was acquired by the museum in 1995.
Northern Paciific 40 flat car 297305 built by Northern Pacific in 1920.
Semaphore signal.
Santa Fe box car 151852 built by American Car and Foundry in 1973.
Union Pacific 40 foot box car 919390 builder unknown but constructed in 1939.
United States Army flat car 35546 built by Pressed Steel in 1923.
Northern Pacific outside-braced wooden box car 20484 built by the railway in 1932 and purchased from the Lewis and Clark Railroad in 1999.
Burlington Northern refrigerator car 9169, builder and year unknown.
Northern Pacific automobile car 3473 built by Pacific Car and Foundry in 1929.
A trackmobile.
Northern Pacific extended vision caboose 12220 built by Pacific Car and Foundry in 1978.
Toppenish, Simcoe and Western box car 9850, nee Burlington Morthern insulated box car 9169, builder and year unknown. It currently serves as the museum's carpentry shop. We asked the volunteer, Harry, if we could see Northern Pacific 1364 and he said "Yes!"
Northern Pacific 4-6-0 1364 built by Baldwin in 1902. It was donated to the City of Tacoma in 1964 then leased to Steam Incorporated in 1975 moved to Elbe in 1986.
The engine drivers of 1364.
Along the walkway at one side of the shop is a series of photographs showing 1364's career.
Harry led us outside and we entered Northern Pacific lounge-observation car "Spokane Club"
The coach seats.
The kitchen area.
The rounded end of this observation car.
A picture of the car in revenue service.
Interior views.
Museum scene.
Looking into Amtrak diner 8509.
A vintage car in Northern Pacific automobile car 3473.
Northern Pacific caboose steel 1013 built by the railroad in 1951.
Northern Pacific caboose steel 1016 built by the railroad in 1951.
Northern Pacific box car 17340 built by the railroad in 1940.
St. Louis-San Fransico one-dome tank car 191119 built by the railroad in 1949.
A speeder the volunteers are working on.
The tender of Northern Pacific 1364 built by Baldwin in 1902.
United States Army truck 1020.
Track equipment.
Track speeder in a box car.
Toppenish, Simcoe and Western Railroad ballast spreader 972682, ex. Burlington Northern 972602, nee Northern Pacific 642 built by the St. Paul Foundry Company in 1921. It is the sole surviving Mann McCann ballast spreader. Spreaders were used during summer to push ballast back up onto the roadbed and during winter to plow snow from tracks. Snow was pushed from one track of a double track line, then a rotary snowplow would throw the snow off the second track.
642 was used on Stampede Pass until about 1985. After retiring, it sat unused on a spur track just off Meade Avenue in Yakima then in 1996, it was bought by the museum for $1,000, and was shipped to Toppenish at no charge by the Washington Central Railroad.
Museum scene.
Utica and Mohawk Valley Chapter National Railway Historical Society baggage-lounge-two roomette car, nee New York, New Haven and Hartford 214 built by Pullman-Standard in 1948.
Northern Pacific 65 ton switcher 12, nee Puget Sound Naval Shipyard 12, built by General Electric in 1943.
Hanford 40 foot flat car HO-10A-3642 built by Pasco in 1955.
Northern Pacific steel caboose 1020 built by the railroad in 1921.
Museum scene.
Trancontinental Northern Pacific Railway Museum Toppenish, Washington.
Northern Pacific baggage cart.
Fairbanks baggage scale.
Agent's desk and Railway Express Agency symbol.
Locomotive bell.
Northern Pacific Railway monad symbols.
Northern Pacific track signs.
Northen Pacific Railroad map of Washington, Oregon, North Dakota and Minnesota.
The ticket office.
The station bench for passengers.
1.6" scale model of Northern Pacific caboose 1324, started in 2008 and completed in 2010, which won awards at the 2010 Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association convention.
1.6" scale model of Northern Pacififc 2-6-0 1364, a work in progress since 1994.
Northern Pacific memorabelia.
A Northern Pacific train set.
A variety of Northern Pacific models by Buddy L. Train.
Northern Pacific display boards.
A transom window.
Another wooden train.
Northern Pacific dining car china.
Lewis and Clark Traveller's Rest Buffet Lounge Car artifacts.
Northern Pacific Stewardess pictures.
Northern Pacific bedroom cutout.
The famous Northern Pacific baked potato. I thanked the lady in the museum gift shop then had a few more pictures to take.
Northern Pacific Toppenish station built in 1911.
Northern Pacific freight house built in 1929.
The mural and information about it.
We departed Toppenish and drove west to Kittitas for our next station.
Milwaukee Road Kittitas station built in 1909 to serve the local community by shipping agricultural products. A small rail yard served the potato packing houses. In 1919, after the railroad electrified, an electric substation and operators' houses were built adjacent to the depot. In 1974, the substation was razed and the operators' houses were sold to private individuals. After the railroad abandoned the Pacific Extension, the depot was taken over by the State of Washington and now is part of the Iron Horse State Park, a rails-to-trails initiative. The depot was listed in the National Register because of its association with the Milwaukee Road and the development of railroads in Washington.
The section house built the same year.
Kittitas information boards at Iron Horse State Park.
Down the road a short distance is the Milwaukee Road water tower built in 1919.
The sign on the water tower, stating its restoration by John Wayne Pioneer Wagons and Riders Association in 2003. We continued on to Ellensburg.
Opposite the station in Kleinburg Park is Northern Pacific caboose 1714, ex. Burlington Northern 10937, built by the Northern Pacific in 1920.
Lower quadarant wig-wag crossing signal.
Northern Pacific Ellensburg station built in 1909 and the last train was served here in October 6, 1981. The Northern Pacific Railway arrived in Ellensburg in 1886 and had a small wooden station on 4th Street. On July 4, 1889, a devastating fire destroyed more than 200 Victorian-era frame buildings and 10 blocks of the business district. The town began rebuilding largely in brick and even though the original depot had survived the fire, many people began asking the railroad for a new larger depot. Construction of a new depot finally began in 1909 and opened for use in October 1910 at a cost of $52,000 for a 9,800 square foot building.
Following World War II, railroads began lobbying Congress to allow them to drop their money losing passenger service. Congress finally established Amtrak which began service on May 1, 1971. In October 1981, Amtrak abandoned passenger service through Ellensburg and the depot closed. It was sold by the railroad into private ownership and on August 13, 1991, the Depot was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
As we left, we both spotted something unique, the first of which was Department of Transportation Gage Restraint Measurement Vehicle 218 built by ENSCO in 2006.
Federal Railroad Administration Office of Safety Track Geometry Car DOTX 220 built by Colorado Railcar in 2007.
The next station as we drove west on Interstate 90 was in the small community of Thorp.
Northern Pacific Thorp station built in 1887 and relocated to Thorp Road.
It was not far to South Cle Elum, a place that neither of us had visited before, but were familiar with.
It is the vision of the Cascade Rail Foundation, in partnership with Washington State Parks, that the South Cle Elum Rail Yard Historic District, in the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail, will become a significant resource for the region and the nation. Our goal is to preserve the site of the Milwaukee Road rail yard in South Cle Elum and to tell the story of the Milwaukee's electrification and route through Washington and the Cascade mountains. The site is dedicated to the interpretation and preservation of the history of the Milwaukee Road's western extension and electrification. The Milwaukee is considered one of the most significant and cherished railroads ever to exist in the United States.
Washington State Parks is the owner of the 12 acre site. It is situated on the 4,956-acre, 212-mile long Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail, which was once part of the transcontinental route of the Milwaukee Road railroad. The site consists of the rail yard, the depot and the substation that was completed in 1920. Still standing, but in private ownership, are the three operators bungalows.
We have worked with Washington State Parks since 1999 to rehabilitate the Milwaukee Road depot in South Cle Elum and now have a beautifully restored depot, with a developing interpretive center and a fully operational "Beanery" leased to Smokey’s Bar-B-Que.
A 2,200 foot, 18 stop, ADA accessible interpretive trail through the rail yard was completed in 2006 to help tell the story of the site. Our long-term goals are to restore the brick substation into a full railroad museum to continue to tell the story. We also plan to acquire and display significant pieces of rolling stock as they become available.
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific coal and ice shed built in 1909.
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific block signal.
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific station sign.
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific caboose 09188 built by the railroad in 1946 and was given to the Cascade Rail Foundation in 2005 by the greater Othello Chamber of Commerce as a symbol of 71 years of social and economic ties between the two railroad communities of Othello and South Cle Elum, during the life of the Milwaukee Road in Washington state (1909 to 1980).
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific caboose 09188 display board.
The Construction Era history board.
Crew Change Central history board.
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific South Cle Elum station built in 1909. In 1999, a group of volunteers formed "The Friends of the South Cle Elum Depot", whose goal was the rehabilitation and historic preservation of the Milwaukee Road facilities at South Cle Elum, which were showing the effects of time and abandonment. This group evolved into the Cascade Rail Foundation, as it is known today, a Washington State non-profit corporation, and operates under a tax-deductible status.
Rail Yard Trail display board.
The Depot display board.
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Cle Elum Substation 24 built in 1918.
Electrified display board.
The Olympian Hiawatha display board.
Diesels Take Over display board.
End of Era display board.
Revival as a Rail Trail display board. We went inside the station.
The Heart of A Railroad board.
South Cle Elum yard in the height of the steam era.
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific South Cle Elum lunch room.
Doug, one of the station volunteers who demonstrated the Morse Code telegraphy machine.
The People Place.
Electrification display board.
Model of Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific electric engine donated to the Cascade. Rail Foundation by Thomas Kermann in 2013.
America's Resourceful Railroad display board.
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific memorabilia. I spotted a caboose and Elizabeth drove us over to the Iron Horse Bed and Breakfast.
Great Northern caboose X307 built by the railroad in 1953.
Northern Pacific caboose 1743 built by Pacific Car and Foundry in 1921.
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific caboose is really Burlington Northern 12275 built by International Car in 1979.
Elizabeth drove Washington Highway 270 to US Highway 97, passing an accident, to US 2 to Wenatchee, where we had dinner at the Buzz Inn Steak House, a Washington state chain of 13 restaurants. After that, she drove us west over the Cascade Range to Skykomish and the Cascadia Inn, where we checked into Room 3 for the night.
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