Rolling Stock: 40-foot box car (BN 57950)

My latest acquisition arrived today, a 40-foot box car from USA Trains. Thank you Kris!

I quickly switched out the couplers on the new car and then it was time to take it out for a test run. My BN consist is now one car longer!

Here's a short video of the train crossing over the culvert.

The mole(s) are still around but the activity has dropped a bit the past few days, perhaps due to the dry weather. I'm still not ready to put any new track on the ground until the mole is gone, but I did do some other work such as clearing the remaining irises from east end of the area where the trestle will be built. I've also been moving dirt and gradually building up the mountain around the tunnel.

I also built a miniature French drain and put in a two-inch PVC pipe near the tunnel south portal to carry runoff under the tracks so it doesn't pond on the uphill side

This photo shows the French drain leading up to the PVC pipe.

Finally, one more short video of the BN consist. This perspective is the view from the bridge.

History Snapshot: Palouse

Unlike the ghost towns of Elberton and Ainsworth which faded into history, Palouse is very much alive today. With around a thousand inhabitants, a vibrant downtown business district, and even active train service, Palouse continues to serve as a center for the surrounding agricultural community as it has for over 130 years.

Downtown Palouse.

The town of Palouse was established in 1875. While sawmills and the lumber industry were important early on, the start of rail service in 1888 helped it quickly grow to be the farming and trade center for the area. In time, three railroads crowded into this relatively small town: the Northern Pacific Railway, the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, and the Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway.

Northern Pacific Railway (NP)

The first railroad to reach Palouse was built by the Spokane & Palouse (S&P), a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific that was incorporated to build a line south from the NP mainline to access the Palouse region in eastern Washington Territory. The goal was to capture the agricultural bounty of the region and prevent it from being shipped to market via the competing Oregon Railway & Navigation Company (OR&N) lines.

In 1886 the S&P had built to a spot just few miles west of the existing town of Farmington and established a new town site called Belmont. Survey work recommenced in early 1887 to continue the line south of Belmont that would pass through the existing towns of Garfield, Palouse, Pullman, Colton and Uniontown, and terminate at the town of Genesee just across the border in Idaho Territory.

As I mentioned in the post about Elberton, there was heated competition between the OR&N and the S&P at this time. Toward the end of May an injunction against the S&P temporarily halted construction. Restless construction workers, never a good thing, caused a riot in Palouse at one point that resulted in one death. Tracklaying fortunately resumed by mid-summer and the rails reached Palouse before the end of 1887, although regular train service was delayed until July 1888 after the line was completed all the way to Genesee.

Sidings built by the NP are still in use today. This view is looking toward the Northwest, showing the main track in the background crossing the Palouse River and heading north toward the Laird junction with WI&M and SI&E.

Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway (WI&M)

The Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway was created in 1905 by the Potlatch Lumber Company, which itself had been created only two years earlier with the purpose of logging over 100,000 acres of timber in northern Idaho. Construction began in 1905 at an interchange point with the NP called Laird (or Lairds) on the northwest side of Palouse. This 45-mile railway into the mountains transported cut logs to an enormous new mill opened in 1906 along the north fork of the Palouse river just east of the Washington-Idaho border, and then transported the finished lumber products from the Potlatch mill to the city of Palouse for hand off to the NP.

WI&M tracks today going right down the middle of Whitman street.

Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad (S&IE)

The Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad began to plan a line south from Spokane in early 1905, and by mid-year had decided on a two branch approach, with the eastern branch passing through Palouse. Construction on the branch began in early 1906 and one of the key barriers to construction was access into Palouse, in no small part due to the limited space available with two other railroads already present. The S&IE decided on a 500-foot tunnel to gain entry to the town, but once it was determined the rock was not strong enough to support a tunnel, a 740-foot long cut, up to 50 feet below the existing surface, was created instead. A 774-foot long retaining wall alongside the WI&M tracks also had to be built to protect the tracks while also creating sufficient space above for the SI&E to build a station. Service to Palouse began in June 1907; service beyond Palouse to a terminus at Moscow, Idaho would start in September 1908.

This photo shows the S&IE road cut, the retaining wall that was built along the WI&M tracks, and a surviving trestle support in the lower left of the picture that supported the SI&E tracks as they continued south over the WI&M tracks and across the Palouse river. The bridge over the road cut is Church Street, also known as State Route 272.

A view of the WI&M tracks along the retaining wall.

Today, the Northern Pacific and WI&M tracks through Palouse are still active, including some sidings, but are now owned by the State of Washington. Service along the rails is provided by a private company, the Washington & Idaho Railway. The SI&E tracks are gone except for a few hundred yards still in use on the south side of town.

There are multiple grain elevators alongside the tracks that are still in use today.

W&IR 316 sitting idle near a Palouse Grain Growers elevator.

Some online resources for further reading in case you’re interested in learning more:

• For help in visualizing how these three railroads all came together in this small town, check out this 1910 plat map from the WSU Libraries Digital Collections which does a great job of illustrating all of the tracks and railroad related buildings. All three railroads are labeled on this map using their abbreviations. Interestingly, the map does not show the connection between the WI&M and the NP. Today, the junction is just north of the NP bridge over the Palouse, between Whitman and Illinois street. I'm not sure if that is where the junction was in 1910, or if it perhaps was further north. The area known as Laird is in the upper left-hand corner of the map, where the WI&M railroad buildings are.
• The Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway History Preservation Group
• The Potlatch Historical Society also has some interesting background on the WI&M
• The Washington & Idaho Railway website includes some great photos of contemporary trains.

What a beautiful covered hopper! Nothing can enhance a rail photo quite like a piece of Burlington Northern rolling stock.

Musings on Scapanus townsendii

All construction on PE&A has been at a standstill for almost two weeks due to extensive mole activity. Until the mole is gone, I see no point in putting effort into creating what may be destroyed the next night.

I should be building a trestle here. Instead, the landscape is beginning to look like Craters of the Moon.

Scapanus townsendii, or Townsend’s mole, is often described as “impressive” and “well adapated” to its environment. Rarely is it mentioned these spawn of Satan are pure, incarnate evil.

Moles are solitary creatures and are very territorial, so it is rare for a typical city lot to have more than one or two moles. Sometimes a mole takes up residence in the yard that is so mild mannered and well behaved that only the most subtle signs of mole activity can be found. With a mole like this I’ve learned to live and let live, knowing that as long as it is resident, it will fight off intruders.

Other times a mole moves in that is much more aggressive, creating multiple new tunnels and hills , excavating perhaps 20-50 pounds of soil in a single night. These moles must go, and much of the time, I’m able to extricate the varmint within 72 hours of detection.

And then, on occasion, a mole seems to be sent as a punishment by Zeus. A mole so intent on evil destruction, and so smart as to evade any attempt I make to capture it, that I question what I have done to deserve this curse. In the 17 years I’ve lived here, I can only recall one other mole that was so destructive and unrelentingly evil as the one I have now.

I sometimes hear the adjective Sisyphean misused to describe a large task that will require a great effort to overcome. A more accurate word for a tough, surmountable effort is Herculean. A Sisyphean task, by comparison, can never be completed regardless of the effort. As a punishment for his hubris, Zeus sentenced Sisyphus to an eternity of useless effort and unending frustration. There is no end, unless Zeus on a whim changes his mind. Which of these two adjectives applies to my current bane? I do not yet know.

So in the meantime the railroad construction crew sits idle—hopefully no rioting will occur among the workers like it did in Palouse—and I spend my time in between setting traps enjoying the flowers. Zeus may have cursed me, but I’m clearly blessed by Chloris. Enjoy some pictures…

A sure sign of summer, the Asiatic lilies are in full bloom.

Honeybees enjoy a tasty globe thistle, currently one of their favorite flowers in the yard along with the Oregano.

Crocosmia is a favorite of Anna's hummingbirds right now

This variety of hydrangea starts off blue, changes to purple and will be red by late summer.

I have 28 varieties of dahlias this year and about half of them are now in bloom. This one is Vernon Rose, one of my favorites and usually the first variety to bloom each year.

External links:

• An extensive description of Scapanus townsendii
• Mole behavior and control information from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

History Snapshot: Elberton

Earlier this week I stopped by the ghost town of Elberton, situated along the north fork of the Palouse River about halfway between the towns of Colfax and Palouse. Although a sawmill had been built at this location in the 1870s, the town of Elberton was not platted until 1886 when the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company built through here as part of a 27-mile extension between the existing towns of Colfax and Farmington in Washington Territory.

OR&N bridge over the Palouse River.

The OR&N built this line during a time of intense competition with the Spokane & Palouse Railway, a Northern Pacific subsidiary incorporated the previous year. The competition between these companies resulted in rapid railroad building across the Palouse in the late 1890's, often resulting in both railroads building into the same towns within a year or two of each other. The Farmington extension followed the north fork of the Palouse River upstream from Colfax. At the northernmost point along the north fork, the railroad left the Palouse and followed Silver Creek to the northeast; it was at the junction of the Silver Creek and the Palouse River that Elberton was established. The OR&N extension opened to traffic in September, 1886.

Detail of trestle work approach on northeast side of bridge.

Within two years of being established the town had the basic businesses that a small, growing agricultural town would need to thrive such as a flour mill, grain warehouses, general stores, blacksmith, livery and a post office. Area farmers planted thousands of fruit trees which led to the building of a large fruit dryer, which Elberton boasted as the "largest prune dryer in the world." But Elberton's years were numbered.  By the turn of the century the lumber in the region had been harvested, forcing the sawmill to move to Idaho in search of trees. The loss of the sawmill, followed by a fire in 1908 and a flood in 1910, led to serious decline for Elberton. The dwindling town was finally disincorporated in 1966.

Cross beams on bridge deck are still in good enough condition to walk across, although an appropriate warning sign is in place to discourage you from doing so.

The old road bed is still mostly clear of large trees. This picture is taken from the southeast on top of the road bed.

Nearly all of the homes and businesses that made up Elberton are gone except for foundations. Today there are only two significant structures remaining -- the United Brethren Church, built in 1913, and the railroad bridge across the Palouse along with some surviving trestle work. Other clues of the missing town are more subtle such as building foundations overgrown with grasses or non-native trees that have managed to adapt to the climate.

United Brethren Church

Over a century after it was cut down, a new forest of primarily Ponderosa Pines is gradually invading. While these young trees don't reflect the old growth forest that would have been here in 1870, they do hint at the beauty that this place once had.

At Elberton the Palouse River is about 300 feet below the surrounding land. Gentler slopes are covered with pine trees while steeper sections show exposed basalt.

The site of Elberton today

If you're interested in more history on Elberton there are some online resources I'd recommend:

• "Ghost Town of Elberton" published by the Spokane Historical project at EWU, which includes some great photos.
• "Haunting a Ghost Town" article published 10/2/13 in Inlander which includes an interview with one of the town's last inhabitants.
• The Whitman County Heritage Project, hosted by the Washington State Library, includes some historic photos of Elberton
• A 1910 town plat map is available at Historic Map Works. This shows the town around the time of its peak, and clearly shows the OR&N route through town.

Culvert

Despite back issues and a very inconsiderate mole, work on the PE&A continued this week. The roadbed on the loop around the Western Redcedar is essentially complete and ready for track. I would have put the track down by now but my very annoying mole is giving me pause; until I can extricate it I think I'll wait to finish the track work.


Here's another picture showing the view from train level. Just ahead where the roadbed curves by the lawn will be the highest point on the railroad (for now).


As I continue to move dirt around I realized I needed to put a culvert in to help with drainage, something I probably should have thought of earlier. At first I thought I would just sink a two-inch PVC pipe in a block on concrete. But then an article on the morning news reminded me the State of Washington was in the process of removing old pipe culverts like that and replacing them with larger salmon-friendly box culverts. So just in case any 1:29 scale salmon happen to make it into my watershed, the PE&A won't be an obstacle to their progress.

A box culvert would typically be precast concrete, but as that won't work well at this scale I opted instead to use some half-inch cedar I found in the garage and cut out eight pieces.


I angled the corners, glued the sidewalls together and held them in place with staples.


And while I had my miter saw out to cut the culvert pieces, I thought I would put together a lumber load for my centerbeam flat car!

I had thought about using a textured spray paint to try and give the culvert it the look of concrete. But then it occurred to me the most realistic material would be concrete itself. Using mortar I created a slurry and dipped all of the pieces in. I knew it probably wouldn't stick well to the wood so I first used a primer on the wood to help it adhere. I used a gray shade of primer so that if pieces of mortar chipped off, the undercoat would make any damage less noticeable.

The culvert is going on the curve where I had used bricks to support the roadbed. I knocked two of them out of the way.


After curing for a day I put the pieces in place and filled all gaps with ballast.


Then came a hose down to settle the ballast. This also served as a drainage test to ensure that the culvert was indeed doing the job it was designed for. I will in time continue the dry creek bed down the hill from the culvert.


Here's a picture of the culvert in context showing the roadbed and the dry pond/catchment basin.


Next up may be some trestle work. I was planning to use a causeway here, but as I was attempting to build it up to the level of where the rails, I realized it wasn't realistic as I didn't have enough horizontal space on either side to support the height I needed. So I either needed to put in cribbing to hold up the roadbed, or build retaining walls, or put in a trestle. Of the three options I think a trestle would be the most attractive solution at this location, even if it will be only a few inches above the ground. In the photo below I've position stringers to see what it would look like. I'll give this some more thought before deciding on a solution.