Milwaukee Road Sd40-2 156 leads a westbound train into Maple Valley on July 2,1979. Photo by John Carr. Click on the photo to go to his web site for more Milwaukee Road photos.

The March Milwaukee Road Meet (formerly the “Milwaukee Kent Meet”) is a gathering for slides, movies and discussion and socializing. All are welcome, as in the past this is a free event. Bring your photos, artifacts, models, memorabilia and other items for display.

This is your chance to get together and see some photos and presentations by some of the renowned Milwaukee Road photographers and historians in the Pacific Northwest.

Sorry, King County Library prevents sales or an exchange of money at their venue (No sales or swap meet items, please).

Saturday, March 31, 2012

10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Maple Valley Library

(King County Library System)

21844 SE 248th Street

Maple Valley, WA  98038

The March Milwaukee Road Meet has a long history as an independent, grass-roots event and is not sponsored by Cascade Rail Foundation.

For more information, contact:

Mark Borleske (206) 938-8339 or Mike Faletti

To put one of these cover photos on your Facebook page, just click on the one you want to get the full size image and then save it to your computer.  Then go into your Facebook page and move your mouse over the lower right corner of your cover photo to get the ‘change cover photo’ button to appear.  Then upload the image from your computer.   Enjoy!

U25B number 5057 leading a train out of Tacoma, WA in January 1980. Photo by Brian Ambrose.

Bipolar in the Cascades near Snoqualmie Pass (probably based on this Asahel Curtis photo)

SD40-2 number 25 rolling a train through South Cle Elum, WA (undated Gary Parson photo)

The 5057 climbing out of Tacoma in January 1980. Photo courtesy of Brian Ambrose.

Cascade Rail Foundation is working to acquire the MILW 5057 and bring it to the South Cle Elum Rail Yard Interpretive Center in South Cle Elum, WA.  Below is the latest news on the 5057 Project.

Cascade Rail Foundation thanks those who have offered support for this project to date.

Also, we can’t say enough good things about the people at FRRS.   They have also been bending over backwards to help us put together the plan to make this project happen.

We really appreciate all the support we’ve received and we’ll need more to be successful.  Together we can bring the 5057 back to Washington where it can help people learn about the fascinating history of the Milwaukee Road.

Posted by Paul Krueger on December 27, 2011

[click for a larger version]

We’re going for it!

This month the Cascade Rail Foundation Board of Directors voted to pursue the acquisition of Milwaukee Road U25B 5057 for the South Cle Elum Rail Yard Interpretive Center.

We will kick-off a formal fundraising campaign once we have a better idea of how much money we need to raise.  We are currently negotiating the purchase price and terms with Feather River Rail Society and waiting for a cost estimate for the transportation and cosmetic restoration of the locomotive.

In the meantime we are looking for photos of the 5057 (especially photos taken in Washington) we can use in the fundraising campaign.

We could also use the skills of a graphic designer to help with some of the campaign materials.

Please contact me at kruegerp@nwlink.com if you’d like to contribute to this project.

Chefs Brian Lee and Frank Schuchman cooked up a hearty meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, and peach cobbler for our honored guests.

Claudia Rohlinger, Vera Lawson, Dee Porter

After lunch, a two-person crew from Inland Networks videotaped some of the former employees as they shared their memories of working on the Milwaukee Road.  Video from the event will be edited into a news story that will be shown during the weekly local news show on Channel 40 in the Cle Elum area.  It will be on at 7:00 p.m. Thursday and replayed everyday at 7:00 a.m and 7:00 p.m. until the next show airs.  It may also be on Channel 2 on the Ellensburg cable system.

Gary Pember and his wife Lori.  Gary was a mechanic in the Tacoma Shops.

The volunteers of Cascade Rail Foundation enjoyed the opportunity to honor the people that worked to make the Milwaukee Road a great railroad.  We hope to do it again next year.

CRF board member Mark Borleske poses with Drew Miller.

Milwaukee Road U25B #5057

The Feather River Rail Society is currently looking for a new home for Milwaukee Road #5057, a General Electric U-25B diesel locomotive.

We are aware that Cascade Rail Foundation and the South Cle Elum Rail Yard have been mentioned as a potential destination for the locomotive in some of the public discussions related to the 5057.

Over the past six years, the Cascade Rail Foundation Board of Directors has had several discussions related to acquiring this locomotive.  We recognize that the 5057 has strong ties to the State of Washington, spending many years working on Milwaukee Road lines in the state and finally being part of one of the last ‘clean-up’ trains moving equipment east before the railroad ended operations here.

Having a Milwaukee Road locomotive at South Cle Elum is important.  People have a special affinity for locomotives.  Having one at South Cle Elum would increase the interpretive potential of the rail yard and draw more visitors.  Currently, no Milwaukee Road locomotives are on display in Washington.

While we feel the 5057 would be a good fit for the interpretive center at South Cle Elum, we have been reluctant to pursue it in the past.  As a small volunteer organization we have understood the need to focus our limited resources on a few goals in order to be successful.  Consistent with our strategic plan for the rail yard, our current long term goals for South Cle Elum include:

Restoration of rib side caboose 01988 (next to the depot) Acquiring Bungalow #1 (aka the Douglas Munro home) and developing museum exhibits in it Working with Washington State Parks to rehabilitate the substation and develop museum exhibits in it Building a large railroad equipment exhibit hall at the site and bringing the 10200 (one of the last surviving electric locomotives) home from Minnesota.

Click the cover to go to the Strategic Plan

These goals are in addition to our existing commitments to sustain our past successes at South Cle Elum (the depot and the rail yard), as well to house and care for our archival collections stored at the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive in Burien. We also have a number of small projects planned to improve the depot and rail yard.

While acquiring the 5057 is not explicitly one of our top priorities, we think it is a useful starting point for our long term goal of having the 10200 in an exhibit hall at South Cle Elum.  An exhibit hall is needed to acquire the 10200. Fundraising for the exhibit hall will be easier if a locomotive was available to move into it when it opened.  In the meantime, we could have the 5057 on display at the rail yard to help us tell visitors another piece of the Milwaukee Road story.  By eventually bringing the 10200 and 5057 together at South Cle Elum, we would have locomotives that represent the beginning of the Milwaukee Road electrification and the end of Milwaukee Road operations in Washington.

Preliminary exhibit hall concept - cross section (click for larger view)

Now that the Feather River Rail Society is making a concerted effort to sell the 5057, this may realistically be our last chance to acquire it.   With the interest that has been expressed by individuals in relocating the locomotive back to Milwaukee Road territory, there may be sufficient support for this acquisition. We are taking another look at the possibility of acquiring it.

We are doing the research necessary to come up with a cost for acquiring the locomotive and moving it to Washington.  The process to get the 5057 to South Cle Elum would include multiple steps.

1. Purchase the locomotive
2. Restore it to ‘display ready’ condition (a Washington State Parks requirement)
3. Prepare a place at the South Cle Elum Rail Yard to display it
4. Move it to South Cle Elum

Of course, before any of this could take place we would need to raise money to make it happen.  Our preliminary research indicates it could cost roughly $50,000-60,000 to get the 5057 to South Cle Elum.  This includes approximately $15,000 to purchase it and $20-25,000 to complete a cosmetic restoration.  We are continuing to look for ways to reduce the overall cost. Fundraising for the purchase of the locomotive will need to happen in the near future or the Feather River Rail Society will turn to the other offers they have in hand.

We need to hear from you if you think this is a project you’d like to invest in financially.  It is important for us to gauge the support this project has before we commit to it. Also, please contact us if you have information, skills, suggestions, or contacts that may be of assistance as we work out a plan to acquire the 5057.  Otherwise, stay tuned for more news in the near future.

We plan to decide whether we will pursue acquisition of the 5057 at our next Board of Directors meeting on October 27.

Click here to contact us about the 5057

Mike Faletti discusses his models with fellow meet attendees

Sunday started with Allen Miller giving us a visual history of Milwaukee Road depot paint schemes. Allen followed that by sharing his presentation about the ‘high line’ over Snoqualmie Pass. After lunch, Noel Holley gave us a comprehensive review of Milwaukee Road electric locomotives. Greg Lussier then shared some images and stories from the book he’s written about the line between Beverly and Kittitas. [The book is delayed because it needs to be redone in a different software program.  If his presentation is any indication, it will be worth the wait.] Allen Miller closed the meet with an informative slideshow about the Everett branch.

Doug Nighswonger's HO models of Tacoma Junction tower and the Kent depot.

We’ve received very positive feedback about the quality of the program from those who attended the meet. However, attendance was lower than we’d like it to be. We had about 20 people each day.

We’d like to see more people attend next year. Rather than guess what we should do differently, we’ve created a very brief (6 question) survey to collect feedback from those of you who did not attend.

Click here to take a survey if you did not attend the meet.

Please take a few moments to let us know what we can do to make this event be something you’d make time to attend next year.

For those of you who attended the meet but have not filled out a survey form yet, we’ve put that survey online also.

Click here to take a survey if you did attend the meet.

CRF gives a big thank you to all of our presenters and attendees! We hope to see you again in 2012.

[Note: Our photographer had technical difficulties with his camera, so we don't have photos of all the models.  If  someone else has photos we can share, we'll update this.]

Cascade Rail Foundation cordially invites those who have served the Milwaukee Road to attend a special luncheon.  Our intent is to honor former employees of the railroad, recognizing their service on the railroad. We hope to bring fellow co-workers back together and spark candid stories reminiscing the days in the past when they were employed by the railroad.

For those former employees who are willing to participate, there will be a camera crew set up to record their memories for future generations.

Master of Ceremonies will be Gene Lawson.

The luncheon will be held on October 8th, 2011 in the depot at the South Cle Elum Rail Yard.   The depot is at 801 Milwaukee Rd., South Cle Elum, WA.

Seating for the luncheon will be at 12:00 p.m.  Lunch will be served at 12:20 p.m. The menu includes meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables and desert.

Come and join us for an enjoyable lunch and time with friends. Please RSVP if you plan to attend (let us know if you have any special dietary needs).  Each former employee may bring one guest.

RSVP to Joe Bohannon at:  Jbohannon@atcolease.com.