April 2000

(Volume 5, No. 3)

President's Soapbox

We should all be pleased with the progress being made on the "new" club layout, three new pieces of bench work have been placed in the last month thanks to the efforts of the membership. The wiring is complete around the mom perimeter, and the D Street underpass project is nearing completion. The north yard bench work is under construction and it won't be long before the IF yard tracks will be laid. Let's maintain the momentum.

A recent personnel change in the modeling editor position for the Great Northern Railway Historical Society (GNRHS) has inspired me to introduce a subject which may be new to our modeling group. While most modelers, including myself, have focused on things such as car building, motive power, and stand alone buildings, the new editor suggested that for the year 2000 GNRHS Convention in Seattle, modelers consider bring dioramas to the contest as well as basic models. I noted at the Ogden show this year that they had eight entry categories, one of which was the diorama category. One member of the Pocatello club, Ron Ferrell, a GNRHS member, has committed to take a representative Great Northern diorama to the Seattle Convention. One of his observations is that the diorama is designed so that it can be included into a future layout. Perhaps he will have it on display at the Pocatello club before the convention and we will have the opportunity to see his project. We will have many scenes on our planned layout that can be similarly utilized. The only controlling elements will be that it represents the theme and fits into the track alignment. The modules currently owned by club members and in the existing loop, are also a diorama to the extent that they have been completed.

Similarly, some of us have been accumulating "Railroadiana", i.e., things like posters, timetables, pictures, railroad documents, and other artifacts. In order to keep track of this material as my accumulation grows, I have been working on the organization of my collection into a scrapbook format. This has, needless to say, taken my time away from the workbench and some of my other projects have taken a temporary backseat. I can say from experience though, that this activity has become a very enjoyable activity that teaches a great deal about railroad history and increases ones knowledge about railroading in general.

Railroad photography is also an area of interest in which I participate. I have accumulated a couple hundred photographs which have now out grown my beginning storage system. This collection has migrated into a newer filing system. One of the truisms of photography is that maybe half of the shots taken are worth keeping; yet with conventional techniques, we develop every frame before we really know what we have. A camera shop in Cashmere, Washington which I have visited uses a different method. The film is developed and the negatives are then viewed using a light box, and then only the selected frames are actually made into prints. Of course the use of a quality digital camera would accomplish the same purpose and save a lot of time between the actual "shoot" and being able to produce the desired print.

The weave of this discussion is that there are many ways to enjoy our hobby other than operating a string of boxcars around the layout. This not to say that we shouldn't continue to run trains just for sheer pleasure. We may not produce the quality of output on the first project we attempt, but that should only serve to encourage us to keep trying and improve our technique. As a famous football player, who has been frequently quoted, once said "Practice, Practice, and Practice".

Happy Railroading any way you choose to do it.

                                                        Leo Harker

Timetable

• April 6               Business Meeting

• April 13             Work Session

• April 20             Work Session

• April 21             Run Trains

• May 4                Business Meeting

• May 11              Work Session

• June 21 – 25      Northwest 2000, Boise Centre on the Grove, Boise, Idaho

Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway

The following pictures are from a CD-ROM I obtained from the Washington, Idaho, and Montana railroad Historical Society (which consists of one person). They were gathered by the Potlatch Lumber Company and published on the CD-ROM under the title Images of the Past. The CD-ROM cost me all of $5.00, so it was a great deal. The images are 150 X 150 dpi, so they do not have the best resolution, but they are perfectly good for this newsletter.

                                                      Doug Herrmann

THE ISLAND PARK AREA (Continued)

by Thontton Waite

ISLAND PARK (M.P 80.6)

The railroad entered the Island Park region, a flat area covered with sagebrush and surrounded by lodgepole pines, south of the Island Park siding. The name was taken from a stage stop on the route from the south to Yellowstone National Park. The stage stop name, in turn, was derived from the islands of lodgepole pines in the sagebrush areas. In particular, the location of the Island Park siding was almost like an island, due to the Buffalo River, Split Creek, Little Warm River, Tom Creek, and Chick Creek, on all sides. The Island Park siding was used to ship cattle from the nearby Railroad Ranch, which was owned by the Harriman Family, as well as cattle from other ranches in the area and wood products from the adjacent forest lands. Located at milepost 80.6 on the Yellowstone Branch and at an elevation of 6,288 feet above sea level, it consisted of a 1,200 foot through siding on the west side of the branch line. For a period of time there was an additional siding which also existed at this location, extending 200 feet to the north of the through siding, used to load lumber products. At some point after the stub siding was removed, the through siding was shortened to the 715 foot length that still existed when the line was removed.

A plot of land measuring 100 feet by 425 feet was leased from the Forest Service for the cattle pens used to ship the cattle out every fall. The pens are still standing today, complete with the Union Pacific "Private Property" signs. The pens are still used occasionally by ranchers and campers in the area. The cattle were once driven from Railroad Ranch to the pens, where they were loaded for shipment to market. No stockyard facilities were listed by the railroad in 1930, but in 1946 the Island Park siding had five stockpens with scales, and a single double deck loading chute. The loading deck had a capacity of 22 horses, cattle, sheep, or hogs.

The 1916 Valuation showed that there was a 14' x 38' passenger depot, built in 1909, with a gravel platform. A carbody, set off from the tracks in 1907, served as the freight depot.

The cattle operations at the Railroad Ranch varied over the years, and the owners of the Railroad Ranch always enjoyed personally taking part in the fall cattle drive. The cattle drives took place in the spring and winter. In the spring the livestock were shipped in to Island Park siding, and then driven to the ranch. The process was reversed in the fall. Other drives, particularly in the 1960s, were longer, when the cattle were driven to winter feed lots in Roberts. In the spring of 1951 the Railroad Ranch had four rail cars of cows and calves shipped into the Railroad Ranch using the Island Park stockpens. In that time period the ranch bought livestock from companies in Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, and elsewhere. In the winter the livestock were shipped out and wintered at places including Caldwell and a California feed lot. In 1954, for example, 1,074 cattle were shipped to California for the winter, and another 680 were kept in a Caldwell lot. The next winter 1,411 wintered in California, and in 1956 a similar number were kept in Caldwell. Some of the cattle may also have wintered in Lime, where the Harrimans also owned a ranch.

It wasn't unusual for members of the Harriman family to help drive the cattle to the siding. Roland Harriman enjoyed the drives, and wrote "Nothing could rival our enjoyment of that traditional American experience, the cattle drive." His wife, Gladys Harriman, wrote "I hated to say goodbye to those dogies...But I treasure a lovely picture in my mind of a sapphire sky, snow-capped mountains, pastures of good feed bordered with colorful willow bushes, flaming aspen, and-eight hundred fat, saucy steers quietly resting."

The ranch owners typically only helped on the short drives to the railroad sidings, leaving the longer drives to the hired help. The crew would get up before dawn and slowly drive the cattle to the siding, where a train of stockcars would be waiting. Once the train was loaded, there would be a feast, and all of the neighbors would be invited. The drive took place about the second week of September. The last cattle drive was held in 1971, when trucks took over the work formerly performed by the railroad. When the Harrimans took part in the cattle drive, they arrived in their private railroad car, which was spotted at the Island Park siding.

In addition to shipping cattle from Railroad Ranch, the Island Park Siding was also used to ship ties for the railroad. From 1919 through the 1930's various tie companies operated from Island Park siding, cutting trees and shaping the wood into ties and timbers for shipment to the Union Pacific's Pocatello tie plant, where they were treated with preservative. There was a small derrick on the siding to load the timbers, and another small building to store materials and supplies for the Harriman Ranch.

The tie company used the Island Park name as a post office, even when they moved to Trude Siding, but when they quit business, the post office name was moved to Pond's Lodge, and the name has now been associated with the whole area. The Island Park post office was opened in 1911, shortly after the arrival of the railroad, but it was closed for the first time in 1916, and then reopened in 1923. Prior to that date the mail had been delivered to Rea, 9 miles northwest of Island Park. By 1914 the population of Warm River was 50. The population declined, but by 1926 it had increased up to 200. A tri-weekly stage was available to Ashton, at a cost of $1.50.

In 1929 the Targhee Tie Company was working out of the Island Park siding. By 1936 there was only one person left making ties at Island Park. However, the population was still listed at 200, with a daily Union Pacific Stage to Yellowstone in the summer, from June through September, in addition to the scheduled passenger trains. The South Lumber Company still worked out of Island Park at this time.

At one time, in addition to the cattle pens and the small depot building, there were several log cabins that were lived in year- round, some wells for water, and even a school- house which was also used for dances, parties, and the local LDS church services. There was also a company store, a large meat storage house, and a storage building at the siding. Additional structures included a large shed for hay and grain storage and a large bunkhouse and three small bunk houses for the single tie- workers. One of the last structures to be torn down was the concrete shower house for the railroad workers. The men would fill a barrel with water in the morning, place it on the top of the building, and let the sunshine warm it up. They would then use the warmed water for showers in the evening. The structure remained standing, although unused, until the line was abandoned.

Today, there are no signs remaining of these buildings, and no indication that there was once a large settlement in the area. They disappeared when ties were no longer shipped from the siding, and the remaining facilities were removed by the time the line was removed. Only the stockyard and the roadbed remain.

Next month - The end of the line

Material Needed

Please send any material you would like to have placed in the Eagle Tracks newsletter to the editor.