Our annual fundraiser, the Rails to Ales Brewfest, is coming up on July 14. Tickets are now available. Go the the Rails to Ales Brewfest web site  for more information.

There are some important developments at PNRA on the horizon that will aid our work.  PNRA is implementing a project to install compact, moveable shelving in the archive.  This project is funded by the North American Railway Foundation.  The new shelving will greatly improve access to our materials, which are currently stored in boxes stacked in pallets.  Another important development at PNRA is the arrival of scanning equipment.  Earlier this year, PNRA received a donation of three used multifunction copier/scanner machines.  These machines will scan documents up to 11”x17”.  To scan larger documents (up to 3-feet wide), PNRA will be acquiring a used large-format drum scanner later this spring.  Once these machines are installed and operational, our volunteers will be able to start digitizing documents in our collections.

With the ability to digitize documents coming soon, we are starting to think more about how we will make these digital files available to people.  We are currently planning to develop a web site based on SharePoint, similar to the Joint GN-NP Archive web site.  We’ll have the flexibility to customize the site to meet our own needs.  Currently, we are thinking about different ways we could organize our materials.  If you have some thoughts about this, please let us know.

Another archive development we are excited about is our new guidance document for processing collections.  Tracy Rebstock, a graduate student intern from Eastern Washington University, is developing this for us.  This document will guide our work with our collections to ensure we are doing as much as we can to preserve them and make them usable for researchers.  It will address things like how we handle documents, how we store them, how we organize them, and how we digitize them.  We’re looking forward to implementing the procedures that Tracy is developing for us.

To give you an idea of some of the material we have in our collections, here is an example of a type of document in the Nighswonger collection.  It’s a statement of “carload shipments forwarded from” Elbe, WA (click the image below for a larger version).  The Nighswonger collection includes many packets of these forms, typically in one month packets for an individual station.  You can see that in addition to information about carloads shipped on December 31,  1930 from Elbe (no carloads today!), it also has information from other nearby stations like National, WA and Ashford, WA.  There are many, many monthly packets of these forms in the Nighswonger collection, along with similar forms for carload shipments received.  They span a time frame from the 1920s to early 1940s, though the large majority of them are from the 1930s. Most are from stations on the lines south of Tacoma, though a few are from places like Auburn and Sumner.  There are also a couple from locations in Eastern Washington, like Hyak and Kittitas.  And yes, even one from Cle Elum!  A researcher using these documents could learn a lot about the freight traffic patterns for these stations.   We look forward to making these and other documents available to people.

Carload shipments forwarded from Elbe, WA, on December 31, 1930

Contact Paul Krueger if you are interested in volunteering to help us with our archival collections or would like to donate material.  Or click on the link below if you’d like to make a donation to support our work.

We also removed vegetation, including small trees, along Milwaukee Road. We had planned to remove more trees, but once the community saw all the trees tagged for removal we received quite a few calls.  After hearing some of these concerns, we reduced the number of trees we planned to remove.  Two concerned citizens, Rick Henderson and his friend Jason, volunteered to take on the thinning, pruning and long term care of the apple trees along Milwaukee Road.  Thank you Rick and Jason!

Many thanks to our volunteers! Tom Short, Ray Ewing, John Lidrau, Terry & Marlene Wade, Andy Neault & Byron Scott did the work. Here are some pictures of our hard working volunteers in action.  Click the picture to see a larger version.

Our volunteers used an excavator to remove trees.

Leveling the ground with the tractor.

Tom Short takes a break from using the chain saw.

While Cascade Rail Foundation is focused on preserving the memory of the Milwaukee Road in Washington, the Milwaukee Road Historical Association (MRHA) is an organization devoted to preserving the history of the whole Milwaukee Road railroad.

MRHA holds an annual convention for its members and this year they’ll be just across the border from Washington in Moscow, ID.  Representatives of Cascade Rail Foundation will be at the convention and we plan to have a display/sales table there.  We hope to see some of you there!

Aftermath of the Columbian wreck in Cle Elum on May 6, 1912. Unknown photographer, Cascade Rail Foundation, Krueger collection. (click the photo for a larger image)

Passenger train No. 17, the westbound Columbian, entered the Cle Elum yard at 9:12 a.m. It ran into an open switch and collided with a freight locomotive on the siding.

Close-up view looking east at the Columbian wreck in Cle Elum, May 6, 1912. Russell H. Connell photograph, Ellensburg Public Library Collection

Fireman A. W. “Gus” Jordan, on the Columbian, was killed instantly when the locomotive overturned. Engineer James Tierney jumped from the locomotive and was injured.  On the freight engine, engineer C.A. Johnson as well as fireman Albert Heap were also injured. No passengers were injured.

View looking southeast at the Columbian wreck in Cle Elum, May 6, 1912. The locomotive on the right may be the Mallet that the Columbian collided with. Russell H. Connell photograph, Ellensburg Public Library

A wrecking crew cleared the tracks within an hour and the Columbian proceeded. The passenger train was about two hours late and was running at a moderate speed when the accident occurred.

The passenger engine was F4 Pacific No. 3016. The number of the Mallet is unknown. The cause of the accident was the use of an obsolete type of switch which became defective.

View looking northeast at the Columbian wreck in Cle Elum May 6, 1912. The tender of the 3016 can be seen in the middle of the photo. Russell H. Connell photograph, Ellensburg Public Library

Thanks to Allen Miller for some of the information used in this post.  Additional information came from an article published in the Seattle Daily Times.

We are having a two-day work party at the rail yard the first weekend in May (May 5 & 6).  The primary task will be vegetation removal.

Come join us!

After the 2011 meet, we did a survey asking people how we could improve our annual meet.  (Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey!)

Milwaukee Road models of maintenance equipment on display at the 2010 meet (click to enlarge)

The top two things we heard from people were to provide more advance notice and to avoid conflicts with other events.  We hope people will think we’ve improved on both of these points this year.

The 2012 meet will be held on October 13 at the Cedar River Watershed Education Center near North Bend, WA (aka Cedar Falls).

We’re planning a full day of presentations and model displays.  Mark your calendars and watch is space for more details later this year.

The link has been added to our Partners Page, and we invite you to visit www.cascadeshistory.com – you may be pleasantly surprised to find out how much the region has to offer to history, art, genealogy, artifact and industry buffs.

You can read the latest news about our fundraising efforts here.