Large Scale Central

Saint Maries River Railroad

So a few people took an interest in the Saint Maries River Railraod thread and the stuff they have laying around. I have been following this little railroad since about 1985 when I really started getting into trains. The nice thing aobut these guys is that they have always been rail fan friendly.

Some History. Located in Saint Maries, Idaho at the confluence of the St. Joe river and the Saint Maries River. It was formed in 1980 with the remnants of the Milwaukee. The Milwaukee was a huge service to the St Maries areas mills. It was the only rail connection. In addition to through freight and passenger service, it served a branch line to Bovil, ID. Logs were hauled from Bovil to St Maries to one of two mills in town and garnet sand was also brought down. With the demise of the Milwaukee something was going to need to be done. The Potlatch corporation was the main mill and also owner of most of the timber land served. So it bought the mainline tracks from Avery, ID to Plummer ID and the branch line to Bovil Idaho. At Plummer the UP had a line that connected to the Milwaukee that served to allow Milwaukee to take passengers to Spokane WA and served a mill in Plummer. A deal was struck with the new St Maries River Railroad to have an interchange at Plummer. This sets the stage.

From 1980 until the I forget when operations consisted of runs to Bovil and Clarkia ID for logs. On this same branch there is a huge placer garnet mine operation for sand for sandpaper. Logs were brought down mainly to the huge potlatch mill in town. Another mill did receive a few of the logs. Then the finished lumber and the garnets were taken to the UP interchange in Plummer. Some stuff was brought into town but not much. Over the years there has been a steady decline in services. First to go was the connection to Avery it was deemed easier to just bring the logs all the way to town. This happened very early. Then the tracks washed out between Bovil and Clarkia and it was deemed not worth fixing. Then came the end of the garnets. And finally a few years ago now the end of the log hauling operation. As a result today all that remains is to haul finished lumber products from the two mills in town to Plummer. Potlatch saw the writing on the wall for the STMA and was set to abandon the branch line and eventually sold the entire operation at a loss. A company in the mid west bought it. Thinking outside the box they saw other ways to make the line profitable. First the STMA has a first rate engine and car shop. So they plan to do locomotive rebuilds and car service. With miles of sidings and a fairly large yard they also are doing car storage. A recent development was the stopping of the process to abandon the Clarkia branch and bring in four passenger heavy weights. The idea is a hopeful excursion train. That brings you p to date. Now for the good stuff.

Here is a Google Earth image of the yard.

Google maps link

The yard consists of several buildings and sidings. The main features are the depot

And the shop.

Other note worthy buildings, The fuel tank and pump house

and the scale house

And now for the equipment. The engines the switcher is a SW1200 they used to have two the #501 and #502. They are down to just the #501 I believe. And the three GP9s which had their noses chopped at some point in time and these have 48" fans instead of pairs of 36" fans which I was told was done in the rebuild but I think likely they were a later production version that came that way from the factory. They still use #102 and #103 not sure if they still have #101 or not.

The cabeese. The original was the ex Milwaukee rib side but that didn’t last long and then they got what I believe is an ex BN cupola caboose

and the rest of the cool stuff they have at the yard.

Fire fighting tanker

Jordan Spreader

One of four McCloud Heavyweights

Plow (Craig likes his snow dozer well this ugly POS is just very cool)

Flanger

Side dump

They have other various flat cars and down the tracks are a couple of shorty hoppers that always seem to be arund but I don’t think they are STMA cars. Also they used to have a fleet of box cars but they are all gone now. But the heart of the operation was the log car.

Picture from RR Picture Archive.net

I don’t know how many of these log cars they had but it was a bunch I am sure well over 100. They were all scrapped except two. One sits at the Railroad museum in Davenport WA and another sits at the rail Museum in Potlatch, ID.

Here are some pictures of various things to close out the post.

Tunnel at Benewah Lake.

Wood Trestle over highway at Santa ID.

Kids and I and the wife taking the pictures on board one of the locomotives in 2008 doing some switching at the log yard in Clarkia, ID. They waited for the boss to leave then stopped and let us on board for switching. This I believe was the last year they brought logs down.

The train we helped build. Just a small load of logs. They brought these loads down like this twice a week.

Pedee Trestle on the Plummer run

UP interchange at Plummer, ID

At Plummer there is a wye track. Behind us is the track east to St Maries. To the right is the track to the north to Spokane and the left is the track west to Plummer where there is a staging yard and a mill. Back in the day there was also a track behind us that is just a trail now. But that track and the one heading to the right is the old Oregon Railway and Navigation Co/Union Pacific line that ran to Wallace, Id and the Coeur d’Alene mining District. It also was leased by Milwaukee for local freight and passenger service to Spokane. The other track still in place to the East and the track to the left are the old Milwaukee mainline.

Well I hope this was enjoyable. It is one of my favorite railroads.

What?! No roundhouse?!

Nope David there is no roundhouse or turn table. Just east of the yard is a wye track. The left branch is the main line heading into the yard an on to Plummer and in the day west to Seattle. The east track heads to the second mill and in the day the mainline over Roland Summit and on to St. Paul. The south line is the Bovil/Clarkia branch that served to haul logs and the garnets. The shops are obviously newish. Back in the day the Avery, Id to the east was the home of the extra motive power. They at first ran steam helpers and then electrics to help get the trains over the pass. And there was a water tank an coaling facility there. I am not sure what St Maries had in the day for locomotive storage. They had to have had something for the branch run to Bovil. Something for me to research.

Thank you for all those facts and pics Devon. Info about Class 1’s is easily found but details of minor (often unknown to many) lines harder to come by.

That plow (plough this side of the Atlantic) looks like it was a former MILW car - a former caboose maybe?

Noting that tank car for firefighting shows up my railroads version. I must put a little more detail on mine sometime. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Alan,

I am trying to figure out that plow also. At first glance it screams scratch built from an old rib side caboose. But unless they used different rib patterns at times; the rib pattern is not the same as on the caboose. Its missing the small ribs between the big ones. That could be just a minor thing as a revision to the caboose over the years. Other than that it does look like they chopped up a rib side to make it.

Eventually I want to go down and measure the flanger and the plow. While I am not a diesel era guy I am a STMA guy and eventually someday I would like to model all of the snow equipment, the tank car, a string of log cars, the rib rib side, and all of the motive power. the thing about this equipment is they scratch built it which means I have to scratch build it. And for me to scratch build it I need measurements and pictures. I am already building a catalog of stuff. But It needs to me done soon because I am not sure how long it will be there. I almost lost my chance to get close up and personal with the log cars. One time they were everywhere the next time I went down they were all gone. It was a blessing two were preserved. I don’t want that to happen to the plow and flanger. Everything else can be approximated pretty easy. I am not a rivet counters so close enough is good enough.

If nothing else I want to preserve the history of the STMA for my own sake if nowhere else than in my own records. I need to sit down with them and see if they will let me dive through company records to work up an accurate time line and history. But I have so many other projects and no near enough time. I have to finish one history project before researching another. But I also don’t want to let it slip away.

Well, let’s see; here we have a caboose without intermediate ribs and a boxcar with.

Bay window caboose, http://www.railpictures.net/photo/208303/

Box car, and the E80, http://www.railpictures.net/photo/222057/

Box car without intermediate ribs, http://www.railpictures.net/photo/550424/

And then there’s the combine, http://www.railpictures.net/photo/206465/

OK well thanks Forest. That settles it; it was made from something lol.

It is interesting to see that caboose without the intermediate ribbing. Besides the ribbing pattern, the window arraignment on the bay is different. My guess then is that the plow is an ex caboose. But it could I suppose just as easily be a box car. I had no idea that Milwaukee was so fond of the rib side.

Looking back again that caboose and my caboose are dissimilar in many ways. Obviously there is an evolution of the rib side bay window caboose. To my knowledge Milwaukee was the only one to use them. I know there is a book on the subject. Like I need something else to do lol.

My disadvantage, I guess, is only being able to look at pictures. I would love to have travelled the MILW when it was a going concern, particularly behind a Little Joe.

The MILW built their own rib sided railway cars I believe so they were a distinctive feature on their property.

In the pic supplied by Forrest, of the boxcar without intermediate ribs, there is a timber structure. It look like it might have been a school house. A good model to reproduce if you don’t already have one.

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/550424/

Well,

I just called down to the STMA office. An actual tour maybe a possibility but not until spring. The owner of the STMA, Mid-West Pacific Rail Net also owns the Washington and Idaho (Spangle, Washington) and the Bountiful Grain & Craig Mountain (Lewiston, Idaho). And the shop guy works for all three railroads and he is the only one currently. He has two locomotives down right now with main generator replacements. He is also running locomotives. So he is a bit to busy to take the time to give us a tour. But she they might be able to work something out in the spring. We can always come and watch but I think if we are going to take the time to do it a tour of the shop and getting to visit with the crew would be a bonus.

On another note I asked here what exactly they are doing now. The only service they are currently doing is hauling finished lumber products to Plummer. Since their shop is occupied with their own repairs they are doing no car service or loco repairs. Car storage is also a main consideration. The excursion train is a big maybe and may never happen. They did salvage the track rights for sure for the spur Bovil. But it is not rated for passenger traffic and the equipment apparently would require extensive work to make them passenger compliant. To much money. So that is on indefinite hold.

I asked her about their locomotive roster. I was happy to hear and happy to report they still own all three GP9’s and both SW1200 switchers. But the #101 and the #102 are down for generator repairs. So that why we are not seeing them and she said they rarely use the #502 switcher. They are hoping to have those repairs made and be back to double heading the Geeps soon.

Also interesting, she made the comment though her opinion, that the current management of STMA and the current management of the Potlatch mill believe that killing the log hauling operation was a mistake. Turns out that right after this happened diesel prices increased and the savings Potlatch expected did not come. The cars are gone so not sure they can come back from it. But the Bountiful Grain and Craig Mountain I believe still has a bunch of those cars. . . .Maybe??? I can hope.

From the Washington Idaho and Montana site

Thanks Steve for the link. This is one of STMA log cars that got saved. According to that article the number of log cars was 476. I have a fair bit of modeling to do and me and the wife will need to move to a place wiht a much larger yard.(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)

Yea, its a shame that they just scrapped the cars. Since they have some space, they should have stored some for a just in case scenario. But hindsight is 20/20 ya know.

Its dollars and cents I guess in the long run. The article above says they scrapped them at $3000 a piece. if they had 476 and saved two then that means they scrapped 474. thats $1,442,000. When it is deemed a loosing adventure to use them and you can make one and a half million by selling them well its kind of a no brainer. And after all shortlines are dead and dying right??? Not to mention the cost of mainting a track they re never going to use again right??? And if your going to bank on a possible future then keeping nearly all the cars would have been a must because it wouldn’t have worked without them all. this was a massive operation that was costing them money or so they thought. Well hindsight is always 20/20. Sounds like they took a calculated risk and lost.

Devon, yes. And round here the CSX needed to lift the track to allow the city to fix a sewer line. That caused major issues because the alternate track they could have used is now a bike trail.

Yeah I think that is something I personally is going to bite us in the but. When silver tanked all the rails were removed from the Silver Valley and the bridges raised. Then Silver went to $30 and ounce. The mines all considered going back into production. . .To bad, so sad. . .No way to get it out of town in quantities worth moving. Of course that was not the only consideration but it didn’t help.

Devon, thank you for this interesting bit of history. Another place I want to visit, next year as this years trip is already in the planning stage and it well be a long one i.e. about 5,000 miles! Devon, you want to buy this one and give on the barrery powered stuff?

Paul

Devon Sinsley said:

From the Washington Idaho and Montana site

Thanks Steve for the link. This is one of STMA log cars that got saved. According to that article the number of log cars was 476. I have a fair bit of modeling to do and me and the wife will need to move to a place wiht a much larger yard.(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)

Devon, supposedly, from what little I have been able to glean at the library, the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon had around 400 hopper and gondola cars (no detail on how many of each, and what types) when it shut down (in 1910/1913/1915/19??). There is no way in the world I am going to try and simulate 400 cars of an unknown type(s). I am looking to have a dozen or so when I am done. And I am doing steel cars, although the P&CS most likely had wooden ones. Its my railroad, and I will do what I please. You need to do the same. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)

Actually. Before you worry about building a string of cars. Shouldn’t you like build a railroad to like run them on? (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

I just looked at the link - WI&M http://www.wimryhpg.com/Photos/photos%20-%20milwaukee%20era.html - that was included in a couple of posts and reference to the MILW pictures shows that plow. It refers to it as unique.

E. Paul Austin said:

Devon, you want to buy this one and give on the barrery powered stuff?

Paul

Huh? I am not sure what you mean here or if I am missing a joke (wouldn’t be the first time). As for coming out here for a vacation, well if you do, let me know and I can give you some places to go and things to do. And if interested I can show you the railroad. Its a good way to kill half a day.

David Maynard said:

Devon Sinsley said:

From the Washington Idaho and Montana site

Thanks Steve for the link. This is one of STMA log cars that got saved. According to that article the number of log cars was 476. I have a fair bit of modeling to do and me and the wife will need to move to a place wiht a much larger yard.(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)

Devon, supposedly, from what little I have been able to glean at the library, the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon had around 400 hopper and gondola cars (no detail on how many of each, and what types) when it shut down (in 1910/1913/1915/19??). There is no way in the world I am going to try and simulate 400 cars of an unknown type(s). I am looking to have a dozen or so when I am done. And I am doing steel cars, although the P&CS most likely had wooden ones. Its my railroad, and I will do what I please. You need to do the same. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)

Actually. Before you worry about building a string of cars. Shouldn’t you like build a railroad to like run them on? (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Oh come on whats 400 cars to make, easy peasy. No my goal is to make 10 to 15 of these log cars. Since it is no the theme of my railroad I only really need a nice string of them to pull around behind double headed GP9s. I think two locos, 10 -15 log cars, and that rib side caboose will be a cool train. And you have seen me work there is no danger what so ever of me having a string of log cars anytime soon. I have enough flat cars to make 5 of them. And unless I cast them (which I am thinking of doing) then it will take awhile to scrounge the rest. I am cheap I don’t pay more than $30-$35 dollars for the Aristo flat cars. So no worries there.

Alan Lott said:

I just looked at the link - WI&M http://www.wimryhpg.com/Photos/photos%20-%20milwaukee%20era.html - that was included in a couple of posts and reference to the MILW pictures shows that plow. It refers to it as unique.

Alan,

There is no doubt in my mind that the plow is unique, one of a kind. Since your interested, I have several other pictures of it from all different perspectives. When I get a chance I will post them. It is cobbled together.