Steam & Excursion > Even In The Capital's Shadow Steam Railroading Works On!

In July 1955 (60 years ago this month!) when Al Farrow took this great photo, steam was still in daily use at the log dump trestle in Washington State's capital of Olympia.  Located next to Capital Lake this branch of the Northern Pacific had 0-6-0 #1098 in daily use even at this late date.

While the Capital building and neighboring lake are unchanged today,  the railroading aspect of the current scene is no longer as charming.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/15 06:01 by LoggerHogger.

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I worked in Olympia a few years ago. I don't know if it's changed since,but Iliked how the tracks meandered through town. My name unlimited capital idea was to start at the old (reactivated in thia dream)brewery, run up the hill and down through the tunnel, out over the lake and then north along that old spur that follows the bay shore a ways(to my new shopping/tourist development).

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LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> In July 1955 (60 years ago this month!) when Al Farrow took this great photo ....

In June 1971 (44 years ago last month) on a gloomy, gray skies day the 1907 L-9 had unfortunately disappeared but the Capitol was still there looking over the Olympia Depot when these three quarter-century-old GMC models 3751 and/or 4151 "Silversides" highway coaches were waiting to take passengers from the train to visit the Washington State Capitol located just under a half-mile SSW of the depot.  Wouldn't it have been neat if the NP 1098 had been still switching the Olympia yard just 16 more years after Al Farrow took his photo so that these passengers would have had a real treat?

David Cooley's map shows Olympia's positional relationship to the NP Seattle-Portland mainline and other Central Western Washington Class I railroads in the era of Al Farrow's photo.
 

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Jim,

Great 1971 photo.  In all the years I lived in Olympia, I do not think I ever saw the depot.  Is it still there?

Martin

LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> Is it still there?

Yes, Martin, it is as shown in this 2015 photo taken on another gloomy, gray skies day.

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Jim, that must have been a special excursion of some type? There certainly wouldn't have been any passenger service to Olympia at that date that looked like that, if any at all. Also in the first picture, I'm 99% sure that isn't actually the log dump but is simply a short trestle over an arm of the lake. There was a mill a mile or so north that they appear to be shoving up to. The BN still serviced it into the late 80's at least. This spur is all still there but has been out of service for a number of years now. About 40 cars behind the engine is the Capitol Lake wye which we still use and the tail track is still usable for about 20 car lengths toward where the engine is in the picture. The log dump was south of the wye where another spur took off and diamonded across the mainline to another arm of the lake.

Tom, about your excursion idea: the Chehalis group actually approached the BNSF a number of years ago about bringing #15 to Olympia for a weekend of excursions coinciding with a local event. Obviously the answer was no, but the 15 pulling the hill out of town, up through the tunnels would have been spectacular.

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Scott,

Al Farrow, the NP engineer that took the photo I posted, made a special notation on the negative sleeve that this was in deed NP's "log dump trestle" in Olympia.

Martin

flash34 Wrote:
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> Jim, that must have been a special excursion of
> some type? There certainly wouldn't have been any
> passenger service to Olympia at that date that
> looked like that, if any at all.

Yes, Scott, it was an excursion as described 11½ years ago at http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,682418,683355#msg-683355 and 7½ years ago at the bottom of sphogger's thread at http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1613394,1614984#msg-1614984.