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Making sense of Milton-Freewater's amazing maze of
trackage Far
more than in Walla Walla, where Northern Pacific and Union Pacific owned most
of the local traffic, the WWV did the majority of its business in the small Oregon
city of Milton-Freewater. Originally two towns, Freewater (MP 12.72) on
the north and Milton (MP 14.0) on the south, became one in 1950. Like
Walla Walla, Milton-Freewater’s commerce revolves around agriculture.
Canned vegetables, fresh fruits, and frozen foods were the dominant
sources for traffic not only on the WWV, but on the Union Pacific as well,
whose sizeable frame stucco depot on its Walla Walla-Pendleton branch
survives as the town’s senior citizens center.
For a small town
(population 1950, 3,851; 1980, 5,415) Milton-Freewater was inordinately
blessed with a wild assortment of crossings at grade, wye tracks,
run-around spurs, street trackage, and shared industry tracks. While
operations in Walla Walla were done under a reciprocal switching
agreement, this wasn’t the case in Milton-Freewater, where Union Pacific
and WWV often served the same shippers using paired, shared, or separate
spurs. A good deal of interchange traffic was exchanged between the two
railroads.
WWV business was
concentrated in two areas: along the east-west Union Pacific line
“downtown”, where numerous cold storage and fruit shippers were located;
and “uptown,” at the very south end of the WWV, site of canneries and
grain elevators.
Walla Walla Valley entered
Milton-Freewater along the east shoulder of North Main street. At NE 10th
Street, WWV curved southeast off the North Main Street alignment to cut
through the corner of a school yard. Appropriately, the wye track there
was called the "School House Wye," its east and south legs sending. WWV either
south down Robbins Street (two blocks east of Main Street)
or east for a block on NE 9th Street, curving southward onto North
Russell Street for two blocks to serve a grain elevator/feed mill complex.
Originally known as the Peacock Mill, by 1948 it was named Preston-Shaffer
Milling, and later, Western Milling. The mill no longer stands. Just to
the west are concrete grain silos, by the mid-1960s operated by the
Pendleton Grain Growers (PGG) co-operative. WWV and Union Pacific once
interchanged on this trackage, but in later years, interchange was done
west of the WWV depot near the fruit houses. The south end of this
trackage joined the Union Pacific between NE 5th and 4th
street, curving between coal sheds which still stand.
The wye was used daily by
the WWV crew to turn their power before switching in town. For whatever
reason—visibility for the engineer, safety at grade crossings, etc—WWV
crews insisted on running as much as possible with the locomotive pointing
long-hood forward. The wye was also a convenient place to leave the rest
of the train while the crew ran into town to spot the packing sheds and
other industries downtown. Evidence suggests loading pipes to the
southeast leg of the wye from a nearby Shell Oil bulk dealer.
WWV ran down the center of
residential Robbins Street for three blocks to reach the Freewater
depot (MP 12.72), now a private residence. Originally two structures,
a small freight house (16’ X 18’) and a larger depot/agents
quarters/electric substation (32.5’ X 46.5’), they were later joined into
one L-shaped building. Just outside the depot, imbedded in Robbins street,
was the switch leading west to the jumble of warehouses and cold-storage
facilities squeezed between Fourth Avenue and Union Pacific’s alignment.
Just to the east of the depot was a short spur to a loading dock on the
west side of the wooden Valley Feed mill (also known as Milton
Elevator No. 2, and way back when the Walla Walla Fruit Growers
Association Warehouse). UP served the mill with a spur of its own, on the
structure’s south side. The mill has been dismantled. The spur was removed
between 1972 and 1976.
West of the depot, the WWV
lead to the packing district—for a while its branch to Umapine--
curved across NW 4th Ave. in a lazy arc. This area was—and
still is—a jumble of a number of cold storage and packing facilities. The
WWV served the district with three parallel tracks, one of which was
jointly operated by Union Pacific. From the depot, the WWV passed—but did
not serve—the two-story North West Dehydrator Company (also identified on
Sanborn maps as “Vinegar and Fruit Drying”). Parallel to 4th
Avenue, the three tracks served loading docks at Milton Ice and Cold
Storage, Smith Frozen Foods of Oregon (also referred to as the
“Shields Fruit Warehouse”) and Mojonnier & Sons Fruit Warehouse. In
the 1960s, Mojonnier opened a new cold storage facility on the west edge
of town near N 6th Ave.and Lamb Street, jointly served by UP
and WWV. The old Mojonnier packing house is now operated by E. Brown and
Sons. Across the street from Milton Ice, on the north side of NW 4th
Ave., was a WWV team track, originally with a timber loading dock. In
1961, this track was realigned and a new 128’ X 29’ concrete loading
ramp was constructed.
Immediately south of the
depot, WWV crossed Union Pacific at an unprotected grade crossing. In the
southwest quadrant of the crossing, a short northward-facing spur once
served the F.G. Lamb Co. cold storage and fruit warehouse, also
served by a UP spur on the building’s south side. On the southeast
quadrant of the crossing a spur served a bulk oil depot owned by
Standard Oil, still in service in 2002. Just to the east of Standard
Oil was the Stadelman’s Fruit warehouse, served by two east-west
oriented UP spurs on its north side and by a single WWV spur on its west.
To the east of Stadelman’s was Utah Pea Canning, served exclusively by
Union Pacific.
A few blocks south of the
WWV crossing with the UP Athena/Pendleton branch, WWV again crossed the
Union Pacific at grade, on a UP spur to reach the Blue Mountain Fruit
Growers Cooperative. This large concrete structure, today operated by
Tree Top, was constructed immediately after World War II and originally
loaded prunes, apples and cherries on four parallel tracks, jointly served
by WWV and UP. WWV accessed the spurs with a tight curve from the north.
The Milton Box Company was also part of the Blue Mountain complex,
used for “box and shook storage” according to Sanborn maps, and of wood
frame construction with a “zig zag” roof allowing lots of light to enter
the building. It was served by a WWV spur on its west side. Slightly
northwest of here, along NE 1st Avenue, was the small Milton
Elevator, wedged between a WWV spur on its south side and the UP lead to
the Blue Mountain CoOp on its north.
South of Milton Box, WWV
began more than a mile of street trackage to the south end of Milton. The
street trackage was a remnant from the interurban days, when WWV
tracks served a depot near Southeast 11th Avenue. Eventually, a
two grain elevators and a couple of canneries built at the end of this
line, and city fathers were stuck with tracks in the street after the
passenger service ended in 1931. Not only were trains and vehicles sharing
the right of way a hazard (especially when cars were left unattended in
the middle of the street for long periods of time while crews switched),
but during the electric age, the overhead wires marred Milton City’s
attempts at “main street beautification.”
The trains passed city
hall, parks, and McLoughlin Union High School and took up one lane of
traffic as they made their way more than a mile to the Rogers Milton-Freewater
cannery, the railroad’s largest shipper. Constructed in the mid 1930s, Rogers was a
big, classic wooden cannery structure which hummed ‘round the clock during
pea season starting each June. Two long tracks reached in the narrow
confines between the warehouse and production line. Complicating switching
were the 38 degree curve into the plant across SE 11th Avenue
(so tight that 50’ cars with long cushion underframe draft gears made the
curve with their inside wheels actually off the rail) , a block and a half
of narrow, twisting “alley track” off the mainline to reach the plant, and
insufficient space to leave cars while switching. From shipping upwards of
500 cars a year during the late 1940s and 50s (and receiving half that
many more of empty tin cans) to but 25 cars in 1983, it was this cannery
whose fortunes ultimately determined the future of the WWV. Today the
cannery is operated by Chiquta Foods, and ships everything by truck.
Six blocks south of Rogers
was the Umatilla canning spur, 2300’ long and completed in 1946 to serve
the new Umatilla Cannery and warehouse (later Lynden-Umatilla Foods
and Watermill Foods) near SE 16th Ave. The new track provided
much-needed car storage for both canneries, alleviating the need to leave
cars unattended on main street while Rogers was switched. The cannery
building, an interesting structure built into a hillside, has been
torn down, but the warehouse buildings survive.
Between the Rogers and
Umatilla canneries, a spur curved eastward off Main street, slipping
between the Harris Grain Elevator and a Continental Can Co.
warehouse building (storage for cans bound for Rogers and Umatilla) and
running a few blocks along Thorne Avenue. At the end of this spur was
another Harris elevator, and Key Equipment Company, a small
manufacturer of pea cleaning equipment.
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 Click on map for full-sized view in
separate window.
SW-1 104 makes its presence known
southbound on Robbins Street just
outside the WWV Milton-Freewater depot on August 22, 1974. Ted Pope photo.
Pendleton Grain Growers elevator, Russell Street, 2001 photo by Marc Entze.
Old coal sheds alongside UP spur up Russell Street. Auto in background is
near point where WWV and UP crossed.
Milton-Freewater depot is in great shape in 2002 as a private residence.
West side view on Robbins Street.
Looking back at WWV depot from north side of Milton Ice & Cold storage.
Three WWV tracks were located between the building and 4th Ave. on the
left.
UP depot with Smith's Frozen Foods warehouse on left. View looks east,
2002.
UP had a single spur between a Smith's Frozen Foods warehouse on left and
Milton Ice & Cold storage on the right. Buildings curved along alignment
of since-removed track.
Peas and carrots await freezing at Smith's, 2002. That's Milton Ice & Cold
storage building in background.
Now E. Brown & Sons, this is the original Mojonnier & Sons packing shed
once served by the WWV. View SW, 2002.
A 1972 Hiroshi Okada photo shows WWV 77 spotting insulated boxcar at
Standard Oil spur. Car likely was just storage for later use at Rogers
canning. Behind the 77 is the old Valley Feed building.
A 2002 view of west side of Stadelman Fruit with two UP spurs (paved over)
serving building. WWV tracks came up west side of building, which
apparently has been altered since days of WWV rail service.
South side view of Blue Mountain Prune Growers Cooperative plant, now Tree
Top. Photo 2001 by Marc Entze.
Trackside view 2002 at Blue Mountain. Three loading doors (one out of view
on the right). Once four parallel spur tracks served the building here.
Detail view of loading door at Blue Mountain. Smaller cutouts allowed
roller conveyors to pass through building into freight cars. Multiple
cutouts allowed combinations of various car lengths.
View in 2002 east toward Blue Mountain on joint UP/WWV spur. UP once had
its own spur on north side of Milton Box Co., building on far right.
UP reached Blue Mountain on this sharply curved, narrow clearance spur.
View looks west, Blue Mountain behind photographer, old Union Oil bulk
dealer was silver building on left.
Dockside view of Milton Box Company, with unusual "Zig Zag" roof.
View northbound on WWV train on Main Street near S 7th Street, Milton-Freewater.
Hiroshi Okada, 1972.
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