New Board Member

We welcome Joseph Farnik to the CRF board of directors.  Joseph lives in the Cle Elum area and has a background in carpentry and as a general contractor.

 

Depot Displays

We’ve been working with Washington State Parks to develop some new displays for the museum area of the depot in South Cle Elum.  This project has been going on for awhile, with various twists, turns, ups, and downs.  While earlier iterations of the panels broadly covered the full history of the Milwaukee Road as a transcontinental railroad, they are being revised to focus more on South Cle Elum and the depot.  If all goes according to plan, the new displays should be installed by July.

Some of the displays currently in the depot will be relocated to a new exhibit space that will be established in the former freight room of the depot.

 

Archive

Our first archive work party in Burien was very productive.  Thank you to Fred High, Gary Pember, Mark Borleske, and Rick Beaber for diving into the inventory work.  We are meeting the third Thursday of each month.  The next work party will be April 21.  Contact Paul Krueger at kruegerp@nwlink if you’d like to help out.

The remodeling of the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive building is continuing.  Most of the preliminary building modifications should be complete by the end of May.

 

2011 Events

July 3 & 4 –  Mountains to Sound Greenway Anniversary March

CRF will be hosting the Mountains to Sound Greenway 20th anniversary march participants on their way from Ellensburg to Seattle. Participants will camp in the South Cle Elum rail yard the night of July 3^rd.  We plan to have the depot open so they can enjoy the exhibits during their stay.  If you’d like to be part of the march, contact Mountains to Sound Greenway to register.

July 9 – Rails to Ales Brewfest

As mentioned in previous updates, the annual Rails to Ales Brewfest will be held at the South Cle Elum rail yard on July 9.  The bands and some of the brewers have been announced. Tickets are $20 in advance. Check out the Brewfest web site for more information.  We need both guests and volunteers for the event.

September 13 – Annual Potluck Picnic & Milwaukee Road Employees Dinner

Our annual potluck picnic for CRF volunteers and friends is scheduled for the afternoon of September 13. After the picnic, we are planning our first Milwaukee Road employees dinner to honor the men and women who made the history of the railroad happen.  We are hoping that attendees will let us record their memories of working on the railroad.  Stay tuned for more details.

September 24 & 25 – Milwaukee Modeler’s Meet

Our annual fall meet features a display of Milwaukee Road models on Saturday morning as well as presentations on model, prototype and historic Milwaukee Road topics. The location has not been finalized yet, but it will be in western Washington again.

In addition to these planned events, we are in the early stages of talking to the Town of South Cle Elum about participating in a centennial celebration of South Cle Elum.  If this event takes place, it would likely happen in August.  Stay tuned for more information about that.

 

Planned projects

At the March board meeting, the board identified the following projects we will work on implementing this year:

Rib side caboose restoration – The first phase of this project will include fabricating new windows and doors and repainting the exterior.

Line side signals – These signals are currently installed next to the trail.  This year, we plan to run wires from the signals located on the trail to the depot so they can be lighted.

Foster Park – The area just west of the depot was once landscaped and informally named Foster Park.  Historic photos suggest this landscaping may have been removed when the substation was built, but it was a lawn area afterwards.  We plan to clean up this area and restore it to look the way it did after the substation was completed.  We are also discussing with State Parks the possibility of making the fenced area around the substation smaller.

View of Foster Park in 1913

View towards the former location of Foster Park in 2011

Gateway at Milwaukee Avenue and 6^th Street – The intersection of Milwaukee Avenue and 6^th Street is the main entry for people driving to the South Cle Elum Rail Yard.  This project would clean up the corner and install a sign welcoming people to the historic district and to Iron Horse State Park.

Bungalow No. 1 (Douglas Munro home) – We are developing a plan to acquire Bungalow No.1.  The bungalow would be rehabilitated to provide as additional exhibit space.  It would likely also become home to the CRF reference library and also be used for artifact storage.  Bungalow No. 1, in addition to having significance as a historic railroad structure, is also historically significant as the boyhood home of Douglas Munro.

Douglas Munro, son of substation operator James Munro, joined the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II.  He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Matanikau River, Guadalcanal on September 27, 1942.  Munro took charge of the dozen craft which helped evacuate the surrounded elements of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.  Shortly after the last marine got on board, Munro was shot and killed by enemy fire.  He is the only Coast Guardsman to have been awarded the Medal of Honor.

If we are successful in acquiring the bungalow, the primary Douglas Munro exhibit at the rail yard would be moved there from the depot and improved.  We would also develop an exhibit at the bungalow about Milwaukee Road employees and their families.

We will need volunteers to help us complete these projects.  If you have skills or information you’d like to contribute, please contact us.

Cascade Rail Foundation (CRF) is pleased to announce that it has joined the railroad history organizations leasing archive space from the recently formed Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive (PNRA) in Burien, WA.  This will improve storage conditions and public access for our collections of documents and photographs.  The rest of our collections will continue to be stored in South Cle Elum.

CRF works to further the public understanding of and appreciation for railroad history in Washington, particularly the history of the Milwaukee Road.  Our collections support this purpose, and includes material pertaining to the Pacific Coast Extension as well as system-wide materials that provide insight on activities of the railroad in Washington. These materials are key to the development of books, magazine articles, and exhibits that tell the story of the railroad, which are necessary to perpetuate the memory of the Milwaukee Road and the efforts of the individuals that made it work.

Help Needed
We hope the Milwaukee Road community will support us in this endeavor.  While financial support and donations of Milwaukee Road materials are needed and greatly appreciated, to make our collections truly accessible we are establishing a group of local, dedicated volunteers to organize, digitize, and catalog material.  We’d like to organize regular work parties at the archive in Burien at least once a month starting in 2011.  If you’re interested in participating, please contact me directly at kruegerp@nwlink.com.

About PNRA
PNRA’s mission is to provide affordable, secure archival space and services for the participating railroad historical organizations that will enable them to make their materials available to the general public.  By combining efforts of the organizations through joint use of shared facilities, equipment and training, each organization can forgo the significant expense of operating their own archive.  The emphasis at PNRA is on preserving collections both physically and digitally, while making the collections much more accessible.  The internet will be the primary venue for providing access to the collections, though researchers will also be able to access materials in the physical collections by appointment.  Other organizations currently leasing space at PNRA include the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association and Great Northern Historical Society.  More information is available about PNRA is available at http://pnrarchive.org/.

Paul Krueger
Secretary
Cascade Rail Foundation
www.milwelectric.org

Work Party Report
Spring Cleanup at the South Cle Elum Railyard

On Friday, April 23, volunteers and State Parks personal worked together at a spring cleanup of the site of the rail yard, the interior of the substation and the historic depot. Volunteers from the John Wayne Pioneer Wagons & Riders, the horse group with is active in riding and maintaining the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, Cascade Rail Foundation volunteers, and personal from Lake Easton State Park all joined forces for a spring cleanup and doing something green to commemorate Earth Day as well.

We had an excellent turnout with Doug Schmitt, Sharon Schmitt, Nicole Schmitt, Zachary Schmitt, Terry Wade, Judy Westall, Ray Ewing and John Lidral from the John Wayne Pioneer Wagons & Riders. Representing State Parks was Ranger Tim Schmitt and Josh White, equipment operator from Lake Easton State Park. Cascade Rail Foundation volunteers included Mark Borleske and Bruce Reason.

The electric substation needed cleanup and Tim Schmidt and volunteers worked on organizing, consolidating and sorting material in the substation. This is in preparation of anticipated rehabilitation and renovation of the substation building by contractors.

Meanwhile, outside in the rail yard, John Lidral was busy operating his track hoe, cleaning out brush and debris from the rail yard and loading it into a dump truck provided by State Parks and driven by Josh White. By the end of the day, the dump truck carried seven loads of organic clean and green material for composting, a total of 11,940 pounds of material, nearly six tons! A load of debris weighing 1440 pounds was also taken to the transfer station.

Ray Ewing performed his chainsaw magic to trim back trees encroaching on the trail and manicuring other trees in the rail yard. Judy Westall, Terry Wade and John Lidral joined him in transplanting some eight trees to serve as a windbreak and a natural border between public and private property.

Meanwhile, members of the Schmitt family for their work on the Easton shack, with the substation cleanup and the overall cleanup out in the rail yard. The Easton Telephone shack, located on the right of way at the far west end of the yard, received some light maintenance and a damaged window frame was repaired and painted.

Bruce reason, president of Cascade Rail Foundation, was busy during the day, cleaning, painting and preparing the exterior of the depot for painting.

This was a most successful work party and a good way to celebrate Earth Day, perform a Spring Cleaning and continue to improve the grounds in anticipation of the John Wayne Pioneer Wagons & Riders annual ride. This year the John Wayne group will overnight at the west end of the railyard on Saturday, May 22 and ride out on Sunday, May 23. The Cle Elum stop is always a special and memorable event on the annual two-week cross state ride with the John Wayners.

Submitted by Mark Borleske, May 22, 2008

On Saturday, May 17th, Cascade Rail Foundation had a “spring cleanup” work party. It seemed that spring had arrived and the sun was out as it was time to clean up the yard. Volunteers from the 4-H Club cut and cleared out brush, weeds and junk at the rail yard and interpretive
view more images from this album trail. Things sure look better because of their efforts.

Former Milwaukee Road signal maintainer; R.C. Smith, “Smitty” and his wife Sharon were on hand to help out as well. Smitty helped haul out the big brush in his pickup truck while the 4-H volunteers cut and loaded the brush. It was a very productive effort and Cascade Rail Foundation wishes to thank everybody who helped out.

The volunteers from the 4-H Club are from the “Easton Power Pigs.” The club originated in Easton but club members come from all over Kittitas County. Every year members have to complete a community service project and this year the kids chose working at the depot at South Cle Elum. Thanks to Kaylan Van Vleck, Brandon Van Vleck, Mitchell Millsap, Chris Lael and Jeremy Gamble and to adult volunteers Stacy Van Vleck, Lynne Thomas and Amy Svendsen for making a big difference at the rail yard.

Mark Borleske