I am planning a trip from Yakima, Washington too Auburn and Tacoma up Interstate 90, and would like some suggestions as to places to visit to see the tracks and history of the Northern Pacific in this area. I model a fictional HO gauge railroad, Pacific Cascade Ry. from Yakima to Chehalis, WA in the 1960’s era along the Cowlitz river, that was actually surveyed for right away by the NP in 1878. I have been doing a historical search of the NP and want to see the final route over Stampede pass. Any suggestions on places to visit will be greatly appreciated.
Capt. Brigg Franklin
US Merchant Marine Officer
Toppenish (yard & jcn w/ White Swan Branch/ Toppenish Simcoe & Western), NP Museum may still be there.
Cle Elum
Ellensburg (Yard & Depot)
Prosser (Depot)
Thorp (MILW over NP/BNSF) about halfway between Ellensburg and Thorp on HWY 10, west of hwy
To Mud’s list I would add:
Pasco which is where the westward headed “Cascade Branch” diverged from the route to Villard Jct (Wallula).
Columbia River bridge between Kennewick and Pasco. Completion of this bridge actually completed the line as a through route and hapened after the tunnel was opened.
Cle Elum and Roslyn. Cle Elum had a good sized yard to disperse empty and gather up loaded coal cars. The Roslyn branch served the company mines. The coal at Roslyn was so important that tracklayers working west from Pasco laid the branch to Roslyn first, then dropped back to Cle Elum to continue the main line to the west.
If you have time the Roslyn Cemetary is very interesting. Is bsically a series of very ethnic cemetaries.
Ellensburg was original crew change point and at one time had a failry large roundhouse. All of the old stuff is long gone now.
Easton, which is the east end of the mountain district between Easton and Lester. Steam era roundhouse was at Lester, so helpers turned at Easton. The old wye bridged the highway but it has been removed and I understand BNSF built a new wye that lays across the former MILW right of way.
Mac McCulloch
I would second a trip to Roslyn. It is an interesting mining town (or at least it was 15 years ago when I visited it.) At the time it was also the stand-in for the fictional Alaska town where the TV series Northern Exposure was filmed.
I can confirm, that at Easton, the wye was installed on the south side of the tracks. It was used to turn SP 4449 on its trip over Stevens Pass during the NRHS Tacoma Convention last summer.
Auburn has a yard where the line meets the Seattle-Tacoma mainline.
From the train you could see the ghost town of Lester at the west foot of the Pass which was a helper terminal in steam days. However the former town was in a reservoir watershed, and access may be restricted by the Water Dept.