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Single chime horn
blatting for the crossing with Stateline Road, WWV770 and its five car train
turn south from the Washington-Oregon state line at Twilight, MP 8.36 on a
cloudy March 25, 1967. There's little doubt this is a Northern Pacific
controlled property, from the paint scheme on the 770 to the striped posts on
the crossbucks. John Henderson photo.
John Henderson's late 1960s WWV
photographs
Ignored by most railroad photographers, it's
fortunate that John Henderson thought the WWV intriguing enough to spend time
recording its operations--and did it so thoroughly. Greyhound bus schedules can
be partly to thank for that.
"My visits to the WWV were in part
planned and in part accidental. I was a student at the University of Idaho in
Moscow but had lived in Kennewick for many years. Quite often I would take the
Greyhound bus from Moscow to Kennewick. If I caught the first bus of the
morning out of Moscow about 0700 I would get to Walla Walla about 1000. That
gave me time to walk over to the engine house and shoot whatever was happening
and still catch a 1500 bus to Kennewick. This was the usual pattern, especially
on Spring Break which has to be when these were taken. Once in a while I would
overnight in Walla Walla and railfan with John Cummings which is how I got the
1967 photos.
All of the March 1968 and later photos I took of
the WWV were done with a Yashicamat twin lens reflex using either Verichrome Pan
or Plus X film. The March 1967 photos were done using an old Kodak Tourist 620
roll film camera with a much less dependable shutter."
John's photographs not only reveal a lot about
operations of the Walla Walla Valley, but about the cities, the local economy, and
the culture of the people along its route.
Useful to follow along are these maps of the WWV:
open them up in a separate browser window. Walla
Walla, the rural countryside between
Walla Walla and Milton-Freewater, and Milton-Freewater
north and
south.
March 24, 1967
March 25, 1967
June
7, 1967 March 29, 1968
March 30, 1968
all photos copyright
John Henderson and used with his permission
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March
24, 1967 |
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WWV 770 and its three car train of Northern Pacific insulated boxcars has
just returned from Milton-Freewater on the afternoon of April 24, 1967. The
train waits outside the car barn/office at North 13th and Cherry St. while
the crew gets final instructions on switching moves before departing
"uptown." |
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Now on the move past the car barn, the brakeman rides the front steps of 770, preparing to
drop off and flag the train across the busy Pine Street intersection.
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The going-away view. Pine Street is also Washington Highway 410, the
main east-west road at the time through town. Note the white-stucco building
Mobil gas station on the far left--this building sits on its own little
traffic island. The US 12 overpass, constructed in the early 1970s, is in
this location today. |
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The 770 eases onto a Northern Pacific 40' boxcar left on the main
track, preparing to shove it clear of the line. We're looking east along two
of the spurs serving Continental Can. |
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After a bit of switching, the 770 was turned on the wye, then ran
around its three-car train. It is now shoving the cars on the west leg of
the wye toward the NP interchange. |
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A few minutes later, 770 returns light engine crossing North 13th
Street. This photo looks northeast from the parking lot of what was
Consolidated Freightways. Across the street is Walla Walla Grange Supply; in
the background is the Standard-Oil bulk dealer. |
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The last move of the day, the brakeman prepares to climb onto the end
of GTW 50' boxcar, 515185, to protect the movement on the long shove down
Pine and N 6th St. The car is likely a load of New England paper for
Snyder-Crecelius Paper. |
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March
25, 1967 |
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The next morning, John photographs the 770 and a
five car train rolling by the Horace J. Phinney Hatchery on Electric Avenue
between Walla Walla and College Place, at Orchard siding. today's train
consists of empties: a 57' mechanical car bound for Blue Mountain Prune
Grower's Cooperative, three NP boxcars consigned to grain loading at the
Harris Elevator in Milton-Freewater, and an NP GS gondola. The going-away
view records the automobile of chase partner, John Cummings of Walla Walla. |
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On the north side of College Place, the train stops to cross Union Pacific's
Wallula-Walla Walla Branch at Milepost 3.28. On Union Pacific, the location
is Garrett; WWV calls is Blalock, site of a former vinegar press and spur to
a fruit-packing house removed in 1981. The crossing was protected by a
simple wooden gate. |
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South from College Place, the WWV turns southwest to meet the Walla
Walla River. Nearing the river bottoms, the southbound WWV train is along
Garrison Creek at Twin Groves, descending on grades in places between 1.4
and 2.2 per cent. |
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A few minutes later, 770 and train approach the
station of Mojoinnier, location of a short spur serving Mojoinnier & Sons
Greenhouse. Outbound vegetables as well as occasional inbound loads of coal
for the greenhouse's boilers came off the spur. The crossing of the Walla
Walla River--lowest point on the railroad--is less than a half-mile ahead. |
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Walla Walla railfan John Cummings photographs the 770 and train as it makes
the 90 degree turn at Stateline Station, MP 7.99, turning onto an east-west
alignment paralleling the state line. |
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On the north side of Milton-Freewater, the train has stopped and 770 has cut
off so it can be wyed on the "School House Wye." Turning the locomotive was
the first order of business upon arriving at Milton-Freewater, positioning
the locomotive for proper "long hood first" orientation for the return to
Walla Walla that afternoon. Here 770 is on the north leg of the wye. . .
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. . . and turning to the right, 770 squeals to a stop to allow the brakeman
to throw the switch lining it to the east leg of the wye. Note the two white
elevated pipes on the right side of the photo. I'm not sure what these were
used for, but maps and anecdotal evidence suggest that Shell Oil once
unloaded tank cars spotted on either a spur track or the tail of the wye at
one time. |
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Now, turned back left again, 770 backs down the west leg of the wye to its
train. |
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Within a few minutes, 770 and train is back on the move, southbound into
Milton-Freewater on Robbins Street. |
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In a view to the northwest, 770 and the mechanical reefer cross NW 4th
Avenue just west of the Milton-Freewater depot, en route to the small yard
adjacent to a cluster of cold storage houses, where interchange was also
made with Union Pacific. The reefer was likely destined for Smith Frozen
Foods. This day the WWV picked up a single UP insulated boxcar for loading
at Rogers Canning. |
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At the south end of the railroad, 770 eases down Main Street in Milton-Freewater.
The last two miles of the WWV ran down the middle of the town's busiest
street, a state highway to boot. The train passes the intersection with
South 12th Street; in another block, the tracks turn southeast off Main to
access a grain elevator and cannery. Note the old Signal gas station on the
right. |
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The 770 has pulled into the Harris Elevator spur, spotting the three boxcars
at the spout; the locomotive and the first car, a Union Pacific insulated
boxcar picked up off interchange "uptown", will cut off, run around on the
other track, and shove to the Rogers Cannery for spotting. Where is the GS
gondola? Good question. I have no idea where it was going--perhaps to
Umatilla Cannery for a load of damaged can stock? |
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Now 770 and the UP boxcar shove west down the run-around at Harris elevator.
Check out the tiny culverts over Milton Ditch. |
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Now we're a block east of Main Street at South 12th, where the
street-running photo was taken, watching 770 shove the UP boxcars up the
block long "alley" en route to Rogers Canning. |
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The 770 nudges the UP boxcar to spot at Rogers. The building visible is the
storage warehouse for finished product. The actual processing building is
out of view on the left. Much of Rogers' production in the late 1960s was
destined to California, and an increasing amount of that was shipped out of
Milton-Freewater via Union Pacific, a continuing source of irritation for NP
traffic managers. |
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Later that afternoon, 770 and two cars--a 40' insulated NP boxcar and a
Santa Fe ice bunker refrigerator car--slip north past farmland. This being
off season for fresh produce shipping, I'm assuming both cars were filled
with canned goods. Ice bunker cars were often used in "insulated" boxcar
service during the colder months to protect shipments before large numbers
of dedicated RBL insulated boxcars were produced. A Santa Fe reefer in
refrigerated perishable service in the Pacific Northwest would otherwise be
quite rare. |
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June 7, 1967 |
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Conductor and brakeman are out on the front deck of 775 northbound at N 13th
Street and Pine returning from Milton-Freewater. The rear of the train has
just passed the carbarn. The first two cars are empty flats picked up from
the Stone Machinery spur, followed by a mechanical refrigerator, a 40' NP
boxcar, and on the rear, a 50' NP insulated boxcar of canned goods. |
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The friendly crew of the WWV acknowledges the photographer as the train
crosses Pine Street. Their locomotive, 775, is a year away from retirement;
in the late 1960s, it spent most of its time in storage, crews preferring
the 770. The 775 languished another four years in a Tacoma, Washington scrap
yard before succumbing to the inevitable. Note that it sports a flashing
warning beacon atop the roof by this date; the 770 received its beacon
between March of 1967 and March of 1968. |
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March 29,1968 |
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The sequencing of these photographs is purely speculation on the part of the
webmaster, but the views this cloudy early spring afternoon show the 770
switching at the north end of the railroad in Walla Walla. Here the Alco is
backing around the tight curve to access the joint UP-WWV trackage into
Continental Canning Co. . . .
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And a few minutes later, 770 retraces its steps, shoving a gondola of scrap
tin northward onto the main track along N 13th St. Note that the 770 now
wears a flashing warning beacon atop its roof, which it didn't have in the
1967 photographs. |
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Having left the gondola on the main track, 770 now moves westward onto the
spur reaching into Northwestern Ice and Cold Storage to retrieve a
mechanical refrigerator load. . . |
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. . and having retrieved the NPM reefer, backs south a short distance to
couple onto the Great Northern boxcar left south of the Continental Can
diamonds. |
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A few moments later, the 770 has shoved up to the Valley Yard Wye, pushed
the scrap tin gondola into the interchange yard, turned on the wye (the WWV
crews fanatical about the long-hood facing forward on the trips between
Walla Walla and Milton-Freewater) and is now coming back against the reefer
and GN boxcar. . . |
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. . .and having pulled east around the wye, now shoves the last two cars
into Valley Yard. |
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And at the end of the day, 770 rumbles slowly southward along N 13th St.,
headed to the carbarn to tie up. |
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March 30, 1968 |
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The 770 departs the carbarn on the morning of March 30, 1968. New ties cover
the ground in the maintenance of way storage area across the tracks from
WWV's carbarn at North 13th and Cherry street. |
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While WWV's crew looks over their work orders and finishes the day's first
cups of coffee, 770 waits patiently outside the carbarn office. This is the
tightest mainline grade on the WWV, prohibiting cars longer than 60' from
operation on the railroad. |
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With but a single mechanical refrigerator in tow, the WWV is southbound
crossing Mill Creek, just south of the WWV carbarn (visible on the far
right). The short train is typical of slack period train movements on the
WWV. Come June, four steady months of traffic will kick in, followed by a
three month sugar beet campaign. The first few months of the year were
always WWV's slowest. |
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