Hi, CWRail here (Scott Barrett).

Here is an image of Weyerhaeuser’s 35 Speeder parked on the house track at Vail located twenty-one miles southeast of Olympia, Washington sometime in the late 1930’s or early 1940’s. Speeders were used in many capacities like hauling supplies to outlying logging camps and hauling crews to work locations. The Kinsey photo from 1928 shows the house track at Vail on the left-hand side of the image and the warehouse where supplies were loaded for transport to timber operations. The Kinsey photo also shows a steam locomotive on the main line headed to the lower end of the Vail yard to connect to the loaded log train parked on track number one with a pair of oil tanks behind the caboose which will be filled at South Bay while the log train is unloaded. A steam locomotive on track number two attached to a string of empty log flats is ready to head up into the woods where the empty log flats will be distributed to an active logging location also known as a side for loading. Fast forward one hundred years to the last image and the warehouse/office, although altered many times, is still in use by Weyerhaeuser and the house track and all the railroad tracks at Vail are now history.

This is CWRail over and out!

Photo 1: 35 Speeder parked on house track at Vail: Scott Barrett collection
Photo 2: Clark Kinsey photo Vail Kell Family Collection
Photo 3: 2024 Vail photo: Scott Barrett collection

#logging #logginglife #loggingtrain #logginghistory #history #washingtonstate #washingtonstatehistory #thurstoncounty
@thurston_county

Hi CWRail here (Scott Barrett). Today we are at the top of the hill at the former South Bay log dump now called the Woodard Bay Conservation Area under the Woodard Bay Road overpass near the Chehalis Western Trailhead in Olympia, Washington illustrating a unique type of railroad operation from March 24, 1981. Conductor Scott Barrett left a string of steel empty log flats on the main line that were recently unloaded at the South Bay log dump. The caboose was stored in the upper leg of the lower wye track during the unloading of the log flats and was added to the rear of the train while headed up the hill. The train will pick up the empty log flats from the siding and double over to the flats parked on the main track. Conductor Barrett rode the log flats about a mile to the siding called one and a half and stopped the train at the south end of the siding. Usually, the swing brakeman would make this kind of maneuver, but both brakemen were needed up the line on the way back to the Vail sort yard because this was a very long train. Conductor Barrett left the former Milwaukee Road log flats on the main and picked up the string of empty log flats from the siding positioning the log flats in order for loading for the trip to the export dock at Tacoma and the return trip to South Bay which included former Burlington Northern log flats stranded at Lake Kaposwin by a bridge collapse purchased by Weyerhaeuser.

This is CWRail over and out.

Bill Nixon photos
Scott Barrett collection

#logging #logginglife #loggingtrain
#logginghistory #history #washingtonstate #washingtonstatehistory #thurstoncounty
@thurston_county

Hi CWRail here (Scott Barrett). Here we are on the 30K railroad spur off the 30-line looking east toward Mt. Rainier on Weyerhaeuser’s Vail operation (southeast of Olympia in Thurston County, Washington). Records indicate that 95 ties were laid down in 1938, 40 ties in 1939 and 1,374 ties in 1942. Jim Barrett worked as a brakeman at the Vail-McDonald operation during this time and he recalled the 30K spur could be used to park a caboose while the train crew went up the line to pull loads of logs and spot empties at a steam yarder. Records also indicate that two steam skidder spurs at stations 11+25 and 10+00 were pulled in 1944. This is CWRail over and out.

This is CWRail, over and out.

Dennis Kell with Weyerhaeuser’s Caboose Number 710
Kell Family photo

The Number 710 caboose was typically used in railroad logging operations at Vail.

#logging #logginglife #loggingtrain #logginghistory #history #washingtonstate #washingtonstatehistory #thurstoncounty
@thurston_county

Hi CWRail here (Scott Barrett), we are at the 51 Line and 51A switchback west of Camp 2 on the Fifty line located on Weyerhaeuser’s Vail railroad logging operation in service about ninety years ago. This switchback is an example of how railroad grades were used in the woods making use of the terrain in the most cost-effective manner possible. Train crews coming down the hill had the option of dropping the empty log flats by the steam locomotive at the switchback to re-position the flats for spotting at a landing where a steam yarder pulled logs toward the track for loading or the train crew could pull over the switch and shove the empty log flats into position at the steam yarder. Logs at the landing were loaded onto the log flats for the trip to South Bay where the logs were dumped into the water and towed to the Weyerhaeuser mill in Everett, Washington. Usually, a geared locomotive or a logging mallet like the 110 now working at the Black Hills Railroad near Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota would spot the empty log flats and deliver the loaded log cars to a siding. Log flats at Vail around this time in the 1930’s did not have steps and the hand brake was not easily accessible. Steps to the log flats were added when the log cars were used over the Milwaukee Road and Northern Pacific Railway when Camp McDonald was placed into operation in the late 1930’s.

This is CWRail, over and out.

#logging #logginglife #loggingtrain #logginghistory #history #washingtonstate #washingtonstatehistory #thurstoncounty
@thurston_county

Hi CWRail here (Scott Barrett) here, I am at the site of an old side track about three quarters of a mile west of Camp 3 and 4. This set of combined camps was also known as Spike Camp. On the LD Line, the siding is about seven and a half miles east of the Skookumchuck main line. In the early 1930’s, Jim Barrett rode the train from Vail with his dad, Lawrence Barrett, and stayed the night at Spike Camp. At this time, train crews would switch the loaded train cars so that loads of cedar logs would be on the head of the train when it arrived at South Bay as requested by the boom men who sorted the logs for rafting to Everett. This is CWRail, over and out.

#logginglife #logging #logginghistory #history #washingtonstate #washingtonstatehistory #washingtonstatehistorymuseum

Hi CWRail here (Scott Barrett) here, and a special hello to my friends in Europe. I am on the 43 line which was one of the steepest grades in the Vail woods railroad operation during the era of steam locomotives and steam skidders. According to records from that time, the 43 line had 938 ties laid in 1934 and 6,656 ties laid down in 1936 and 50 ties laid down in 1942. The main 43 line is approximately two miles long including three spurs and one short spur. Keep in mind, logging railroad operations were always pulling up steel and laying new tracks with the steel gang as soon as logging in an area was completed. Leaving Vail, there was an option to travel by rail to the Newaukum river operations at Camp 3-4 and Camp 4-4 by using the 12 line or travel to Siding 8 and take the 40 line to Camp 2-4 located near the junction of the 43 line and 40 line which continued down the hill to Camp 3-4.

This is CWRail, over and out.

Archival Photo: Bob Gehrman – Vail Washington, Aug 28th, 1947

@thurston_county @washingtonhistory
#logging #logginglife🌲🌲🌲 #washingtonstate #washingtonstatehistory #trains_of_the_pnw