Chapter Notes: Aberdeen (Destination Unknown) · 10:49am Mar 17th, 2022
The end of the line . . . there’s not much further west Sweetsong can go before she runs out of tracks.
Fortunately, that’s the goal.
Special thanks to AlwaysDressesInStyle, penguincascadia, and TomRedlion for pre-reading and providing facts!
[There’s a bit of hyperbole here, but only a little.]
Back in the day, when railroads were first being chartered, having a name that implied you were going to head westward was a sure way to get funding, and once the idea of the Transcontinental Railroad was fully established, well . . . if you’re looking for those sweet, sweet public funding, the best way to get it is have “& Pacific” in your name, which is why there was a whole flood of railroads with “Pacific” in their name.*
Only two are left; Canadian Pacific (soon to be CPKC) and Union Pacific. The last part of the route Sweetsong was on were lines formerly owned by the Northern Pacific, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific [The Milwaukee Road] (despite the close proximity of the first three cities in their name, they did make it to the Pacific) and currently owned by the Union Pacific.
The Central Pacific, of Transcontinental Railroad fame (the other railroad was the Union Pacific) was government-funded, leased to the Southern Pacific railroad in 1885, and merged with the Southern Pacific in 1959. Union Pacific** acquired the Southern Pacific in 1996. I think, but do not know for certain, that the Union Pacific never actually made it to the Pacific until they bought the Western Pacific in 1982 . . . I think the UP previously went no further west than Portland, OR.
Union Pacific also bought the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific; the Rock Island never got further west than Colorado.
Here’s some other railroads with Pacific in their name which didn’t make it quite all the way . . . in most cases you can assume the first part(s) of their name is where they started and then I’ll put how far west they actually got in parentheses: Texas and Pacific (Texas), the Missouri Pacific (Texas), the Chicago, Central and Pacific (Iowa and Nebraska).
Finally, I need to mention the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. Despite the name, it never got close to either the Atlantic or the Pacific. Interestingly, it was two separate sections of line; one ran from Missouri to Oklahoma; the other from New Mexico to California.
There’s no better car to cruse in than a Cord 810.
Sweetsong’s journey on the Puget Sound and Pacific largely follows the path of the Chehalis River, since that’s usually an easy place to lay down tracks. In fact, after the first iteration of railroads, many of which followed rivers, several promotors talked up the advantages of “Air Lines,” that is, railroads that followed a generally straight course, rather than a river. Likely the most well-known of those was the Seaboard Air Line (which had a heart in its logo).
The Chehalis flows into Grays Harbor, and then the Pacific. TomRedlion mentioned that “neither the Chehalis, nor any of its tributaries descend from Mt. Rainier or any of its immediately surrounding foothills.”
On a single-track line, passing sidings work in both directions. That is to say, while the most obvious use is so that two trains approaching each other can pass and continue on the single-tracked portion of the railroad, they can also be used to allow a faster or higher-priority train to overtake a slower or lower-priority one.
Here’s a BNSF video explaining how they’re sited where they’re sited (railroads don’t build them at random). If you watch through, there’s also a clip of them installing panel track (the pre-constructed kind).
Double-tracked line generally has directional running (i.e., one track is for traffic going one direction, the other track is for traffic going the other direction); however, there are typically crossovers every now and then so that trains can run or wait on the wrong side if they need to.
Aberdeen is currently the largest city in Grays Harbor, although both Hoquiam and Cosmopolis used to be bigger. All three towns vied to be the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad; NP considered their offers and then decided to go to Ocosta instead—that’s on the other side of Grays Harbor, near Bottle Beach.
Rather than lament this turn of events, the citizens of Hoquiam and Aberdeen built their own railroad spur with blackjack and hookers.
Source
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EDIT: turns out that shouldn’t have been struck through; upon further research, it turns out Aberdeen was “home to many saloons, brothels, and gambling establishments.”
Aberdeen, WA named after the Aberdeen in Scotland, and these days is probably most famous for Kurt Cobain. It is also the largest coastal shipping port north of California. Not only are grains shipped out, but also lumber and automobiles. In a surprising unintentional reference to one of my other works, they grow cranberries in the Greys Harbor area.
As many traditional songs go, this one has many titles. “In the Pines” dates back to the 1870s and at some point was merged with “The Longest Train.” These days, it’s sometimes called “In the Pines,” or “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” or “My Girl” or “Black Girl.” The oldest known recording dates to 1925, and includes a reference to “the longest train I ever saw.”
Two of the most famous renditions of it were performed by Bill Monroe and Lead Belly. Kurt Cobain was influenced by the Lead Belly version.
The Cobain version doesn’t have the lyric about the train; the Bill Monroe version does.
*To give one example of an aspirational railroad, consider the Saint Paul and Pacific. Founded in 1857, it went bankrupt in 1860, the state bought the assets, and in 1862 after reorganization, it opened 10 miles of track. Somehow, the Dutch bought enough bonds to build more track, and by 1865 they had 210 miles of track and were promoting towns every 8 miles on the mainline. Northern Pacific bought them in 1870, then NP went bankrupt in 1873 it was bought back by the brother of the guy who bought it after the first bankruptcy, then new bonds were issued that were worth $10,000 per mile of track completed but only if the railroad was finished. Somehow, they actually made money, and the investors formed a new company in 1879; that company was in turn purchased in 1889 by the Great Northern Railroad (which is now a part of the BNSF), and the Great Northern did go to the Pacific.
So I guess the moral is through a series of bankruptcies, bonds, mergers, and acquisitions, you can get to the Pacific.
**I only scratched at the surface of it in the company above . . . the Union Pacific is a corporate conglomeration. The Union Pacific Corporation owns the Union Pacific Railroad (and a bunch of other railroads who operate as the Union Pacific Railroad). The UP had some financial troubles and in 1880 the Union Pacific Rail Road was taken over by the Union Pacific Railway. In 1893, the Union Pacific Railway went bankrupt, and was merged into the shiny new Union Pacific Railroad. I would assume that those bankruptcies and acquisitions got rid of a lot of pesky debt. For reasons unknown, in 1998 the Union Pacific Railroad was replaced with the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, who conveniently wanted to call their railroad the Union Pacific.
I’ll quote a bit of Wikipedia which might not clear things up at all:
Anyway, it’s probably all done as a way to bankrupt-proof the railroad itself, and to help with taxes . . . according to the same Wikipedia article, the Union Pacific Company lost 5.3 billion dollars in 2020
Double posted.
5644340
Fixed, thank you!
"Aberdeen is currently the largest city in Grays Harbor, although both Hoquiam and Cosmopolis used to be bigger. All three towns vied to be the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad; NP considered their offers and then decided to go to Ocosta instead—that’s on the other side of Grays Harbor, near Bottle Beach.
Rather than lament this turn of events, the citizens of Hoquiam and Aberdeen built their own railroad spur with blackjack and hookers."
The Pacific Northwest has a long history of this- Seattle and Port Angeles, among other places, also built their own spur lines to hook themselves up to railroads that decided to have different terminuses.
Something I wanted to share that I experienced recently. At my job within the past few weeks, I was asked to determine the ownership of a section of railroad West of town. When everything was said and done... well, the railroad is supposed to belong to Union Pacific. Thing is, the last Deed of record was dated in 1992 to Southern Pacific T.C., years before they merged with U.P. There's nothing at the county courthouse providing proof of that merger, so from a legal standpoint the property is still in Southern Pacific's name. ()^_^
UP didn't acquire Rock Island. RI suffered a slow decline beginning with their high water mark in the mid 1950s (the tail end of North American rail's "Golden Age") went bankrupt in the 1970s and suffered an epic crash with a Clerk's strike in 1979. They finally folded and all assets worth anything were sold off starting in 1980. UP and SP got pieces, but the Rock was basically scattered to the 4 winds. Route Rock on Wikipidia
I don't think GN actually built/owned any lines west of the Seattle/Portland mainline. NP built the Grays Harbor line as well as a line leading from just south of Chehalis to South Bend on the Willipa Harbor Bay. (Not exactly the pacific, but still tidewater) MILW breifly had a line that tried, but failed, to parallel this. It was truncated to just a spur that eventually led to a pole and sorting yard at Curtis, west of Chehalis.
GN and NP split ownership of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway. (Which never went to Seattle) SP&S built a line down the south bank of the Columbia from Portland, all the way to Astoria with trackage reaching points within storm spray distance of the ocean.
The UP built a branch west from Centralia, crossing the Chehalis at Galvin and following a rather curvy path to Cosmopolis. The drive mechanism on their swing bridge between Cosmopolis and Aberdeen was done in by a flood about 1990. They abandoned the coast immediately afterward and tore up all but a tiny stretch of track west of Centralia. The MILW had a branch diverging from their Tacoma/Chehalis line at Maytown that linked up with this line and allowed MILW to share the Hoquiam roundhouse with UP and NP.
They lost $5.3 billion? Did they check under the sofa cushions? Stuff is always falling through the cracks and getting lost.
The last time I worked at my National Guard unit's Montesano maintenance shop, (circa 2005 to '08 timeframe) the officer commented something along the lines of 'the Hookers are dirty and the drugs are fake'. I added that their drawbridges were broken. much humor was enjoyed by all.
"that the Union Pacific actually made it to the Pacific until they bought the"
"that the Union Pacific never actually made it to the Pacific until they bought the"?
Of course, sidings only work if the trains fit in them. [cough]PSR[cough]
(Seriously, as far as I can tell, it basically boosts short-term company stock prices, at the expense of pretty much everything else about running railroad.)
Hm, I don't see any tracks to Ocosta; were they torn up later?
Thanks for writing, chapter and blog post both!
5644372
I suspect that there are all kinds of little bits and bobs of land like that all over the country which, due to some form or other not being filled out or filed correctly, records being misplaced or lost when the corporate HQ (or the county clerk's office) is moved, etc., are still technically owned by persons or corporations which no longer exist...
The Tucker initially used a Cord 810's transaxle, but the Franklin helicopter engine would break it. So they just made their own, beefier version of the same transmission.
5644945
You'd be right. There's another, smaller railway that was established in the county during the late 19th century, but it went under before 1900 rolled around. Its successor lasted longer, but ultimately folded as well, and the tracks they use have been left abandoned to let grass grow over them. In a decent chunk of the local records, what happened to those tracks isn't properly reflected.
5644363
I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened other places, too. I know that in some of the midwest it was a really big deal to have the railroad go through your town (and in fact, there are places where the towns that still exist are the ones the railroad went to, and the ghost towns are the ones where it didn’t). There certainly could have been places that built their own rail spurs to get rail service to their town although I don’t know enough local railroad history to give any examples (if there are any examples).
5644372
Objection! The current Union Pacific is the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, who changed their name to Union Pacific. Probably for tax or debt reasons.
Anyway, point is that there might not be any proof of the merger in the local records, because I think that legally the UP gave all its stuff to the SP and not the other way around. At least that’s what I gather from reading the Wikipedia article.
5644495
UP didn't acquire Rock Island.
That was my mistake. I was jumping across Wikipedia links and didn’t read carefully enough.
I don't think GN actually built/owned any lines west of the Seattle/Portland mainline.
Hmm, this is complicated. The 1918 system map on Wikipedia shows them going to Astoria, OR (mouth of the Columbia River, on the Pacific), but the Astoria Railroad Preservation Association says that it was actually the Spokane, Portland, and Seattle who owned that track. As I recall, the SP&S, the CB&Q, NP, and the GN were essentially run as one railroad, even though they were legally distinct. [the same webpage says that the SP&S bought a NP line, although wikipedia says that the SP&S was jointly owned by the GN and NP.]
So maybe it would have been more accurate to say that the GN had a route to the Pacific, even if they didn’t technically own all of it.
Also apparently Burlington Northern used to own Mt. St. Helens, if I’m reading their wikipedia page correctly.
Yeah, that’s what I just figured out . . . shoulda re-read your comment before I started puzzlilng over maps
Huh, I didn’t know the UP went that far north back in the day; I’d just assumed that the UP lines near Centralia was something they’d gotten in a more recent merger, not a place where they’d operated on and off for years.
I also didn’t know that any railroads had shared roundhouses.
5644496
That would be a good place to look for it. Which reminds me, I need to check my couch cushions, maybe I’ve got a couple billion that fell out of my pocket
5644498
I’d assume that a broken drawbridge is one that’s stuck open; if it’s stuck closed, it’s just a bridge.
Or a hazard to navigation if you’re in a boat.
5646066
I read that same article. Honestly, I had trouble making sense of it.
5644862
Heh, oops. Correction made, thank you!
I honestly don’t know much about it. There’s a lot I haven’t been keeping up with on the railroads, it turns out. Already learned a bunch of stuff from comments on this chapter that I hadn’t known.
I think so. TomRedlion knows a lot about railroads in Washington, he’d probably know for sure.
My Google Maps shows the “Westport South Aberdeen Trail” that goes to the Ocean Spray plant outside Ocosta and runs along the edge of the harbor towards Aberdeen, and I bet that’s a rail trail.
You’re welcome!
5644945
I seem to remember hearing that in Louisiana sometimes you’ve got to basically check the title for the land all the way back to the French--I don’t know if that’s generally true or not, that could be an edge case.
I can tell you a similar story in a different field--a theatre group I’m in performed Princess Bride once and we could do it without paying royalties because apparently nobody’s sure who actually has rights to the script.
5644953
Apparently the Cord transaxle wasn’t strong enough for Cords, either, and that was a problem Cord never managed to fix. Wikipedia says 8 to 10 of the Tuckers were shipped with rebuilt Cord transaxles in them and several of them have survived.
The machine shop that did the transmissions isn’t that far from me. Well, if it’s still standing, anyway. (if it’s not, the vacant lot/gentrified location is still near me)
5644992
In Michigan, the state took ownership of a lot of abandoned/unwanted railroads which actually made things work out pretty well when the public started wanting rail trails. They also own plenty of actual railroad track, too, and lease it out to operators.
5646088
Probably if you’re a corporate lawyer, it all makes perfect sense. But yeah, all I got was that they keep reorganizing as a new company who just happens to decide to want to operate as the Union Pacific Railroad with no changes in paint schemes, names, etc.
5644862
Any previous tracks leading to Ocosta likely had some connection to the UP. (built or acquired or just connected) That was their side of the Chehalis. And scrapping of that line would likely have happened before the UP branchline abandonment.
5646085
The UP signed on to a trackage rights agreement with the NP and GN to use theSeattle/Portland mainline waaayy back. Like 1900 or earlier. They've had a yard in South Seattle and their own tracks Between Tacoma and Seattle ever since.
As for that Ocean Spray facility near Ocosta, it might or might not have been all about cranberries from the start. It might be a descendant of a fisheries processing plant or lumber mill. But I don't know.
And yeah. Siding lengths are a Serious limiting factor in operating trains where Anything has to do Any passing of anything else.
UP might or might not have kept a few helper units at the long-since demolished NP-owned Centralia roundhouse. Not sure. I do know there was a short helper district between Chehalis and Napavine. Diesels never seemed to have issues with that hill.
5646090
No problem, and you're welcome. :)
Well, I wouldn't count myself as an expert, but my understanding from what I've heard is that it's not a good practice.
And glad this story's been mutually educational. :)
Thanks.
Oh, let's see if that matches the right-of-way-looking-thing I spotted on Google Earth, though from your description it sounds like it does.
[checks]
Looks like it pretty much does! Thanks.
:)
5646140
Ah, thanks.
5646140
I always thought of trackage rights being a more modern idea (like around deregulation times) but it makes a lot of sense that railroads would have thought of it sooner. After all, they were already (sometimes) pooling resources on stations and switching railroads.
A quick google search tells me that cranberries have been grown in that area of Washington since 1883, so there’s a long enough history it could have always been a cranberry plant. Or they could have been doing something else with the cranberries until they got a good deal on that building—I suppose either are possible.
As I recall, that was one of the big advantages of diesels, they generally didn’t need helper operations like back in the steam days—a lot of the challenging inclines for steam weren’t as much of a problem for diesels.
*cough*TheMelvins*cough*