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.

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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.

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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

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Hi CWRail here (Scott Barrett): In June, 1947, staff writers for the Weyerhaeuser Company newsletter called the Bee and Cee visited the headquarters camp at Vail and observed the operation taking photographs and interviewing employees. The article was titled Weyerhaeuser Logging Camps at Vail, Washington and the reload located below Camp 5 was mentioned. In the above photo showing four skidders at the end of their service at Vail, this siding is located near the 11-line bridge a few miles north of the Camp 5 reload on the way toward Vail and the high railroad bridge over the Skookumchuck River. Skidders like these were dual purpose machines which yarded logs toward the machine and then loaded the logs onto rail cars using a set of tongs. The Vail operation after World War 2 was transitioning from steam power to diesel yarding machines. The article provides a good time line and reference documenting the end of the Vail woods railroad in 1948. A short portion of the woods line remained to haul large rocks out of the Skookumchuck quarry by rail along with the line running to the Vail reload where an entire load of logs was transferred from a log truck onto a railroad car for the trip to South Bay. This is CWRail over and out!

Bob Gerhrman photo: Feb. 27 1948

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Hi, CWRail (Scott Barrett) here. Today we are on the 40 line on the Vail Woods line searching for the location where the steam locomotive 100 tipped over and crashed in the late 1930s. The wreck occurred somewhere in this area, and we are determined to find the wreck location.

This is CWRail over and out!

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