This is part 2 in the overview of the Milwaukee Road from Plummer to Spokane. See the post from yesterday for an Introduction, and the pros and cons.
An overview of the towns – the “geography”
An overview of the towns – the “geography”
To understand the layout potential, here are the major layout design elements the layout would include:
Plummer: A wye was located here on the MILW. UP’s line from Kellogg joined in at the East leg of the wye so trains could run over the MILW line toward Manito to then get on UP to Spokane. There was one traditional industry in Plummer: a stud lumber or planer mill at Plummer that was switched by UP and was located off of the abandoned UP line to Tekoa (1955). The mill was owned by the Plummer Indian Reservation and was supplied with mostly 50ft boxcars and 53-6 flatcars. UP and MILW interchanged cars to and from each other at Plummer: Leachman said there was “milling in transit” veneer and plywood occasionally interchanged there to St Maries Plywood and then re-shipment to Eastern points (but most UP-MILW interchange was done at East Spokane). Plummer had continuous train order office coverage. Here is an internet photo of Plummer turn arriving from Spokane taken by “cz17” – with mainline across front of image and rear of wye in background. Also, the lead GP9 is sitting on the switch to the UP Wallace Branch:
Worley: Located on the MILW between Plummer and Manito, this is site to several grain elevators and a double-ended industry track. This is where grain hoppers and boxcars were spotted and pulled – by the MILW Plummer turn. Google earth shot from 2011:
Mozart: Located 1 mile West of Worley on the MILW between Plummer and Manito, this is site to one grain elevator and a double-ended industry track. This is where grain hoppers and boxcars were spotted and pulled – by the MILW Plummer turn.
Manito: Here is where the MILW tracks meet the UP line from Tekoa. Here is a Leachman shot of the UP Kellogg Local returning to Spokane. The train is presently on MILW ROW and will enter UP at the junction switch in the foreground. The line at right is the UP branch toward Tekoa.
Mica: Siding located here. Also, a UP served brick plant is located here. Shot of a MILW road train cresting the grade here (likely a detour - this was not a regular occurrence during my planned era although was in 1976-77) (source: Ebay):
Part of the route between Mica to Spokane includes a 6 mile canyon with a steep grade of 1.7%. Leachman photo of EB train 387 (Kellogg Turn) from 1975:
Dishman: Where the wye is located between the UP line between Manito and Spokane, and the MILW leg toward Coeur D’Alene and Metaline Falls. Rob Leachman photo from 1975:
Spokane: MILW had a “modern” 1950s built 9 track yard in Spokane, with 2 support tracks and 2 engine facility tracks. All double ended. MILW’s main score in Spokane was building the auto destination unloading facility at the yard. At the time auto business was highly lucrative and MILW served it well by being a direct carrier right from Chicago as well as interchange cars from SP that originated at assembly plants in California with SP-MILW interchange at Portland. UP had rights to switch the unloading facility as well and likely served it daily, since both these carriers mostly marginalized BN in the PNW for auto traffic. Rob Leachman has estimated the split of cars as 66% MILW and 33% UP. Dan Holbrook photo from loco facility – April 1974:
North of Spokane yard
North and East of the MILW yard is a spur that has several shippers on it, including a large grain elevator and a pea producer. There was a former NP now BN industry spur that crossed the MILW spur at grade near Northwest Pea and Bean. Possible BN ops added on. Need to understand what these industry names were - looking for help here as well.
Metaline Falls Branch:
MILW branch to Metaline Falls began at Dishman. Rail mileage was 120 miles to Metaline Falls. Rob Leachman said that he recalls the train being 25-30 cars when he saw it at night.
- Dishman to Newport – no online business. Cusick had a Diamond Match sawmill that closed in the 1950s.
- Newport: had a mill?
- Usk: Woodchips loaded here to go to Tacoma. Lumber loaded here to go East. Lumber on flats and in boxcars.
- Ione: had a mill?
- Metaline Falls: Lehigh Portland Cement had a large cement plant (closed prior to 2000 but they used the silos for cement storage brought in by old 3 bay hoppers – owned by Lafarge). Cement loads were generated in MILW and BN coverd hoppers and were either interchanged at Spokane or went West at Plummer. Report of DRGW hoppers supplying coal, and Rob Leachman said inbound MILW coal came from “somewhere east of Deer Lodge”.
The next installment will talk about the train symbols and locomotives in more detail. Thank you for reading. This information was assembled with the assistance of Rob Leachman, Matthew Sugerman, and Dan Holbrook. Thanks guys!
Wow... what an awesome layout this would be. I've often dreamed of modeling the same route... I have fond childhood memories of MILW freights blasting by my house, starting to tackle the Dishman grade.
ReplyDeleteI haven't looked at too many of your other posts, so don't know if you already have this info...
For the Metaline Falls branch, there was a sizeable lumber mill operation in Spirit Lake - north of town - which carried on operations into the late 70's. Also - there were indeed lumber mills in Newport and Ione. The Ione mill was on the south side of town, on the river side. In Newport, there was a sizeable mill across the river, but only served by BN. I do remember though - just south of the US2 grade crossing over the MILW - there was a siding that always seemed to have tank cars on it. I'm pretty sure they were propane (i.e. white tankers), but that was obviously a long time ago, and my memory is hazy.
For the CdA branch, there was a lumber yard just east of the Dishman wye that had a siding holding old lumber cars. Those cars sat there all the way until the clean-up train ran the line at abandonment. The CdA local always returned to town around 4pm - after school had let out - so I often got to see it trundle through with its always short train.
Finally - the BN (ex-GN) trackage rights trains from the old SC&P connector in Fairfield were no longer running down UP track by the end of 1972 (their traffic being combined into the ex NP Highball job), but you can still throw in the BN Dishman turn that ran on as-needed basis to serve two customers on the last remnants of the SC&P Opportunity branch. The few times I saw it, it was a GP9 (or something similarly boxy, as I was a bit hazy on locomotive types at that age) with just 1 to 3 cars. The switch to the remnant was just west of the UP bridge over Sprague Road in Dishman.
Would love to see where you're going with this - any updates? GREAT photos by the way. Fantastic.
Greg, thank you for writing and for sharing your memories of the branch operations. Very cool. I was indeed planning to have a BN job come over and switch the Opportunity branch - I have Appleway Fuel on the layout as a destination for fuel oil tank cars. Do you recall how the BN job got to the SC&P industries? Did it run on the UP from Napa Street? Do you have any photos you can share of anything in the vicinity?
DeleteI will admit I forgot that I had even posted this a DECADE AGO!
ReplyDeleteI'm making sure I'm notified of replies this time!
So yeah - all of the old SC&P traffic was gathered by BN into the Erie Street Yard (and so went through the interlocking at Napa St), the main inflow being from the Cd'A branch.
I unfortunately don't have any photos from that time - I didn't start taking pictures until the mid-80's.
I'm assuming you'll add the feed mill (I think that's what it was) at Park and Sprague at the Opportunity Branch end-of-track? That loading dock being under the UP bridge always fascinated me as a kid! I never actually saw it switched out, but it seemed like they had a new car spotted every week.