Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company
Encyclopedia
The Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company operated a narrow gauge railroad ran for over forty years from the bar of the Columbia River
up the Long Beach Peninsula
to Nahcotta, Washington
, on Willapa Bay
. The line ran entirely in Pacific County, Washington, and had no connection to any outside rail line. The railroad had a number of nicknames, including the "Clamshell Railroad" and the "Irregular, Rambling and Never-Get-There Railroad."
The initial owners of the company were Lewis Alfred Loomis, Jacob Kamm
, I.W. Case, H.S. Gile, and B.A. Seaborg. L.A. Loomis was a pioneer on the Long Beach Peninsula
. He had formed the Ilwaco Wharf Company in July, 1874. In addition to Loomis, incorporators of the Ilwaco Wharf Company included Robert Carruthers, George Johnson, Abraham Wing, and Captain J.H.D. Gray. They sold shares and raised $2,500 to build a pier and freighthouse on Baker's Bay
at Ilwaco, near the mouth of the Columbia River
. Later, on February 23, 1875, L.A. Loomis and some of the same incorporators of the Ilwaco Wharf Company incorporated the Ilwaco Steam Navigation Company, with the goal of buying a steamboat and running passengers and freight across the Columbia from Astoria
to the Ilwaco wharf that they'd built. They sold stock again, raised $25,000 in working capital, and for $22,000, bought the steamboat General Canby.
Other steamboats making the run to Ilwaco in the days before the railroad was built include the U.S. Grant, the R.R. Thompson, and the General Miles. From 1884 to 1888, the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company is reported to have put the Alaskan (sidewheeler)
on the run from Portland
to Ilwaco.
For a number of years the company struggled to make a profit, relying on government mail and troop transport contracts, which did not pay much. Eventually L.A. Loomis and some of his fellow entrepreneurs settled on the idea of building a railroad to replace the stage coach line that they had used to make the connection between Ilwaco and points on the Long Beach Peninsula. Loomis and others incorporated the Ilwaco, Shoalwater Bay & Grays Harbor Railroad on November 23, 1883. Survey work was commissioned, to be done by Major A.F. Searles, of Portland. It was estimated that the railroad could be built for a cost of $5,000 per mile. This meant that it would take about $100,000 to build the railroad. The company's founders raised the money through sale of stock, which took several years to reach a level of capital where construction could begin.
The company could not locate a general contractor who would build the railroad for less than the company's total capitalization of $100,000, so the company decided to act as its own general contractor, and hire the Portland firm of Hawgood & Habersham as engineering consultants. Narrow gauge
(three feet between the rails) was selected to save money on grading and other construction. Also, smaller and less expensive engines and cars could be used. The rails themselves, as well as one of the first engines, came from the Utah and Northern Railway
, which had been made standard gauge in 1887. The rails were light, 35 pounds to the foot (52 kg/m). By 1888, the railroad had picked up some more used rolling stock from the Utah and Northern, and completed laying track to Long Beach
. Construction began in April, 1888, starting at Ilwaco. The corporation was reorganized at about the same time, so that the Ilwaco Steam Navigation Company became the Ilwaco Railroad and Navigation Company (incorporated August 16, 1888). Grading the rest of the line continued through the rest of 1888. The line had reached Long Beach by July 19, 1888. The northern terminus had been originally planned to be at place called New Saratoga, one-half mile south of Oysterville
. It turned out that a better steamboat landing was at Nahcotta
, about 5 miles (8 km) south of Oysterville, and so Nahcotta became the northern end of the line. By January 1889, grading was almost complete all the way to Nahcotta, however, the railroad had run out of money when the track only reached as far as Ocean Park
. More funds were raised, and by May 1889, the railroad had been completed to Nahcotta, costing twice the originally estimated $100,000.
_1901.jpg)
The line made connections with steamboats at both ends. At Ilwaco, steamboats meeting the trains included, at various times, the Ilwaco, Suomi, General Canby, Nahcotta, and the Ocean Wave. From 1894 to 1896, the company also put the naptha launch Iris on the Astoria-Ilwaco run. In 1898, the railroad commissioned the twin-propeller steamer Nahcotta, built in Portland, Oregon in 1898 and after resolving some engine troubles, placed her on the Astoria-Ilwaco run.
After the line was acquired by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company in 1900, the company put the T. J. Potter
on the route from Portland direct to Ilwaco to bring more vacationers to the Long Beach Peninsula
. The new company also made improvements to line's trackage, which presumably resulted in the improvement of service so that it only took an hour to complete the train's journey from Ilwaco to Nahcotta. Presumably things had improved by 1905, when the railroad claimed to be able to make the run in just an hour from south to north.
At Nahcotta the propeller steamers Shamrock and Reliable would met the train at the end of the Nahcotta dock, and pick up passengers bound for South Bend
across Willapa Bay
. In 1896, another steamer employed on the Willapa Bay run was the Edgar.
to be made into rafts for water transport to sawmills. Feagans also reports that very large logs were hauled on disconnect logging trucks, and provides a photo, but gives no date or location.
warehouse at Black Lake, a little north of Ilwaco. Feagans states that this warehouse was built about March 1915, the same time that the second Nahcotta depot was built to replace the one that had been destroyed by fire in January of that year. Black Lake itself was sometimes called Johnson Lake or Whealdon's Pond. B.A. Seaborg, one of the founders of the Ilwaco railroad, had a sawmill
on the lake, where he cut boards to make crates to pack the salmon
he canned at his plant (called "Aberdeen Packing Company") on Main Street in Ilwaco.
until 1905 when a regular depot was built. That depot building still exists, and is now a restaurant.
The railroad's major destination was Long Beach, an early tourist trap, and location of a number of popular hotels, including the Tinker's Hotel and the Hotel Portland.
Station consisted of simply the mansion of Lewis A. Loomis, the founder and president of the line. The station was on the east side of the line. L.A. Loomis died in 1913, his mansion fell into disrepair, and the railroad ceased making stops at Loomis. The ghost station of Loomis Station should not be confused with the actual town of Loomis, Washington in Okanogan County, which as of May 2009 has no article in Wikipedia.
to wherever a vessel might have stranded on the beach along the line. Occasional special runs were made to bring on-lookers to a wreck site, and weekly excursions were made to take vacationers to watch the lifeboat rescue drills at the Klipsan Beach Station.
had been founded by Methodists as an alcohol-free summer community. It was much closer to the beach than it is today, because of sand accretion. The depot at Ocean Part was located on the east side of the tracks immediately to the north of a road crossing. There were several businesses in the area. The railroad transported boxes of canned razor clams from canneries at Ocean Park Park. The railroad also built a siding in Ocean Park for the Ilwaco Mill & Lumber Company.
, water tank, and a gallows turntable at Nahcotta. Businesses in Nahcotta included the Bayview (formerly the Morrison) Hotel, built in 1889, and the Nahcotta Hotel, and Morehead's general store. Most of Nahcotta's business district burned down on January 27, 1915, and was never rebuilt, a total insurance loss of $32,500. The railroad ran a train of volunteers to Nahcotta to fight the fire. Structures lost included the first Nahcotta depot, valued at $1,500 for insurance purposes. The railroad's car sheds survived, as did the cars inside.
was not a stop on the original line. In 1890, citizens of Oysterville attempted to organize an extension of the railroad north from Nahcotta to improve business conditions there, but were not able to raise the funds to do so.
and Janney couplers
, were adopted in 1903. The railroad also got into the business of hauling logs from Nahcotta down to Ilwaco. The company acquired the steam tug Flora Bell to round up log tows on Willapa Bay and bring them to Nahcotta to be loaded onto trains bound for Ilwaco.
For a number of years there had been a plan by various persons and companies to build a standard gauge railroad all along the north bank of the Columbia from the ocean at Ilwaco to Wallula Gap
near the junction of the Snake
and the Columbia rivers. The first leg of this work was to be a railroad built along the north shore of the Columbia river from Ilwaco to Knappton, a small settlement 17 miles (27 km) to the east. The work was contracted out by the Columbia Valley Railroad, but it was supervised by the chief engineer of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. After various legal and survey matters settled the route (which actually ran inland from the Columbia shore), construction began in 1907 and was finally completed, following many legal and financial difficulties, in June, 1908, with a terminus at Megler.
The railroad never quite made it to Knappton, which was about one and a half miles further east. The most notable engineering feature of the extension was a tunnel, the only one on the line, blasted through the rock at Scarborough Head. This was right under an army coast defense facility known as Fort Columbia. A large dock, supposedly the largest on the Columbia was built at Megler. The tunnel was 910 feet (277 m) long and The dock was reported to measure 120 feet (36.6 m) by 900 feet (274.3 m) in area.
Entire trains would run out on the Megler dock to large depot to meet steamboats arriving from Portland or Astoria. Because the water was deep enough all the time at the Megler dock, the railroad was finally able to run independently of the tide. In 1903, T.J. Potter made daily trips, departing from the Ash Street dock in Portland at 8:00 a.m. (1:00 p.m. on Saturdays, no run on Sundays). The heavily retouched photograph at right shows the Megler dock looking southeast.
At this time, the Willapa Transportation Company was running both of their steamboats, the Reliable and the Shamrock, on the run from South Bend to the Long Beach Peninsula, so that it was now possible to travel from South Bend by steamboat to Nahcotta, board the train and ride down to Megler, transfer to the T. J. Potter, and travel on the T. J. Potter upriver to Portland. The fare for this was $4.25 one-way and $7.25 round trip. The only alternative route required transfer to the Nahcotta, going south across the Columbia River to Astoria, and then boarding a train bound for Portland on the Astoria and Columbia Railroad. Since the rail trip from Astoria took as long to get to Portland as it took for the T. J. Potter to steam upriver, the alternative route was not favored.
A traveller from Portland would board the train right on the dock at Megler. The train then proceeded almost due west for about 1/2 mile around Point Ellice, where, after 1921, Captain Elving's ferries would dock.
Next, for about a mile, the railroad ran along flat bench next to the river until it reached McGowan
, where the McGowan family had built a large dock and a cannery. A passing track was built at McGowan. The railroad then entered the tunnel under Fort Columbia. Just on the west end of tunnel was the small depot for the fort's needs. A long pier extended into the river from Fort Columbia, this is shown on the Corps of Engineers maps as the pier "QM", for quartermaster.
The next stop on the line was Chinook
, where the railway ran through the streets of the small town. By 1927, an auto road had been built from Megler to Chinook and then to Ilwaco. This roadway ran parallel to the railway up to Chinook, where the railway then went inland somewhat to cross the Wallicut river. Subsequent stops on the line's extension were Ellis, Wallicut, and a stop called China, after the large number of Chinese cannery workers who lived there.
area was logged out a few years later. The extension had been built to allow ready conversion to standard gauge, by use of larger standard gauge cross-ties. However, by 1910, the Northern Pacific abandoned its plans to build out to the mouth of the Columbia on the north bank, and as a result the Ilwaco railroad never had any outside rail connection.
On December 23, 1910, the Union Pacific, the owner of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company reorganized its operations, and the Ilwaco railroad became officially known as the Ilwaco Division of the Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company. The company then embarked on a publicity campaign to get more summer vacationers to travel to the Long Beach Peninsula. Improvements were also made to the rolling and floating stock of the company. Starting in the summer season of 1910 through 1913 (there was a slight dip in 1912 due to persistent bad weather at the beach), these efforts produced the most business the company had ever seen.
The summer of 1913 was the absolute peak for the railroad. The weather was good, a competitor resort had been destroyed by fire, and jetty projects at the mouth of the Columbia River required hauling passengers and freight. New facilities were built at Nahcotta and improvements were made to the station and trackage in Ilwaco. At this time, there were few automobiles on the Long Beach Peninsula. The railroad charged $68 to transport an automobile from Portland to Ilwaco.
to Astoria and then a steamboat (usually the Nahcotta) to the Megler dock.
However, by 1920, the real competitor for the railroad had become the automobile. A paved highway on the south bank of the Columbia was completed in 1916, running from Portland to Astoria. On May 1, 1921, regular automobile ferry
service was initiated from Astoria
to a dock at McGowan to McGowan, west of railroad's dock at Megler and closer to the Long Beach Peninsula. Now people could drive their automobiles all the way to Astoria and onto a ferry to take them over to the Long Beach Peninsula, without the need of either railroad or steamboat.
Ferry traffic quickly rose, and the ferry company, owned by Captain Fritz S. Elving, rapidly built new ferries (Tourist, Tourist No. 2, and later, Tourist No. 3) and dock facilities. The ferries departed from a specially-built dock at 14th Street in Astoria which included a ramp to allow rapid loading and unloading of automobiles. Pacific County, Washington helped out the Elving Company, giving them a $400 a year subsidy, and probably more importantly, building a road on pilings around the rocky promontory at Fort Columbia that the railroad had been forced to blast a tunnel through.
In 1926, the Union Pacific Railroad
tried to best the Elving company by building their own automobile ferry, the North Beach. Union Pacific had ferry slips built at Astoria and at Megler. Although the North Beach was a well-built vessel, launched on April 28, 1927 with fanfare, and making its first run on July 6, 1927, North Beach could never manage to compete with Captain Elving's boats. J.W. McGowan, a businessman of McGowan
, owned stock in Elving's ferry company, and he made it difficult for the railroad to build a road over his property to their competing ferry dock at Megler. Union Pacific shut down ferry
operations to Megler in September 1930 selling to one of its employees, claiming they'd lost $40,000 per year in the ferry business.
Roads were extended and improved in the Long Beach Peninsula in the early 1920s. At the same time freight business fell off sharply for the railroad. Steamboat connections were lost both at Nahcotta
and Columbia River terminals. Meanwhile, the railroad was still trying to pay the expenses for the expansion of the Megler facilities to accommodate the ferry enterprise.
In 1925, motor truck operators in Astoria started using the ferries to transfer directly over to the Long Beach Peninsula which cut sharply into the railroad's freight business. The railroad calculated that the line had suffered losses of $300,000 from 1925 to 1928. Apparently the railroad then hit on the idea of forming a new subsidiary, the Astoria, North Shore and Willapa Harbor Railroad, selling stock in the railroad to local residents, and then using the proceeds from the stock sale to buy out its losing operation. Supposedly the new operation would return the route to profitability by operating cheaper small diesel-electric engines and cut its expenses by 90%. The plan also included a new ferry for motor traffic and used of trucks instead of rail to deliver freight. There were some problems with the legality of the stock proposal, as the sale could not proceed without the approval of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Local opposition was high, and the plan eventually came to nothing.
This left abandonment of the line as the only realistic business option. In that time, abandonment of a common carrier's route required the consent of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The Union Pacific sought this consent, and following a hearing, on July 12, 1930, the railroad obtained permission to abandon from the Interstate Commerce Commission
and the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission
. Asay summed up the terrible financial condition of the railroad at this time:
The last train was run on September 9, 1930. Feagans describes the scene as follows:
By the summer of 1931, all the structures (save for the Megler terminal), the engines rolling stock of the railroad had been sold to a scrapping firm in Portland for $28,000, and the rails and ties ripped up from the roadbed.
Since 1966, the Astoria-Megler Bridge
has crossed the Columbia River, replacing the ferry lines. Its northern bridgehead is just about midway between McGowan and the site of the railway's Megler dock to the east.
Feagans in the early 1970s was able to trace many relics of the railroad. He was also able to interview people who well remembered the railroad and who had even worked on it. These sources may have helped Feagans as he traced down at least four passenger coaches that had been lifted off their trucks and converted into housing units in various locations in Long Beach. He located and photographed various artifacts including a baggage rack and an iron coach stove. Feagans also photographed the ruins of the trestle crossing the Wallacut river and the dock at Nahcotta, as well as places where the rails for whatever reason, had been left in place.
In March 2000, an inspection of the area showed surprisingly many structures still standing related to the railroad. The tunnel under Fort Columbia, widened and shortened, continues to be used by the highway. Fort Columbia itself continues to be maintained well as a state park. The Ilwaco freight depot, which was in a derelict state in the early 1970s, had been restored and permanently preserved as part of the Ilwaco Heritage Museum.
At Long Beach the old station survived as a pair of housing units. By the year 2000, the Long Beach Station had been purchased relocated to a park area by the city. As of March 25, 2000, the station was being reconstructed, as shown in the photo at left.
North of Long Beach, the life saving station
still remains, although several remodeling efforts and overgrown shrubs and trees obscure the original architecture. The station has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places
. The highway appears to pass at just about the same distance from the station as did the railway.
The Seaview depot still remains, but is converted into a restaurant. At Ocean Park, the railway ran in the street in front of the Taylor Hotel, built in 1887. The building was still standing and in good condition as of March, 2000, when it was called the Taylor Place. In Nahcotta, the depot built after the 1915 fire, still stands but is now (as of March 2000) a grocery store.
Columbia Bar
The Columbia Bar is a system of bars and shoals at the mouth of the Columbia River spanning the US states of Oregon and Washington. The bar is about wide and long....
up the Long Beach Peninsula
Long Beach Peninsula
The Long Beach Peninsula is an arm of land in western Washington state. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the south by the Columbia River, and the east by Willapa Bay...
to Nahcotta, Washington
Nahcotta, Washington
Nahcotta is an unincorporated community in Pacific County, in the American state of Washington. It is located on Willapa Bay, on the eastern coast of the Long Beach Peninsula.-History:thumb|right|200px|Nahcotta, WA 1893...
, on Willapa Bay
Willapa Bay
Willapa Bay is a bay located on the southwest Pacific coast of Washington state in the United States. The Long Beach Peninsula separates Willapa Bay from the greater expanse of the Pacific Ocean. With over of water surface Willapa Bay is the second largest estuary on the United States Pacific coast...
. The line ran entirely in Pacific County, Washington, and had no connection to any outside rail line. The railroad had a number of nicknames, including the "Clamshell Railroad" and the "Irregular, Rambling and Never-Get-There Railroad."
Initial Ownership and Related Companies
Jacob Kamm
Jacob Kamm was a prominent early transportation businessman in Oregon.-Early life:Kamm was born on December 12, 1823 in Canton of Glarus, Switzerland. His family immigrated to America when he was 8 to Illinois, St. Louis, then New Orleans. He worked as a Printer's devil beginning at age 12...
, I.W. Case, H.S. Gile, and B.A. Seaborg. L.A. Loomis was a pioneer on the Long Beach Peninsula
Long Beach Peninsula
The Long Beach Peninsula is an arm of land in western Washington state. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the south by the Columbia River, and the east by Willapa Bay...
. He had formed the Ilwaco Wharf Company in July, 1874. In addition to Loomis, incorporators of the Ilwaco Wharf Company included Robert Carruthers, George Johnson, Abraham Wing, and Captain J.H.D. Gray. They sold shares and raised $2,500 to build a pier and freighthouse on Baker's Bay
Baker's Bay
Baker's Bay is a 3 mile long bay on the island of Great Guana Cay. It is the location of the Baker's Bay Golf & Ocean Club, as well as the controversy surrounding it....
at Ilwaco, near the mouth of the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
. Later, on February 23, 1875, L.A. Loomis and some of the same incorporators of the Ilwaco Wharf Company incorporated the Ilwaco Steam Navigation Company, with the goal of buying a steamboat and running passengers and freight across the Columbia from Astoria
Astoria, Oregon
Astoria is the county seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Situated near the mouth of the Columbia River, the city was named after the American investor John Jacob Astor. His American Fur Company founded Fort Astoria at the site in 1811...
to the Ilwaco wharf that they'd built. They sold stock again, raised $25,000 in working capital, and for $22,000, bought the steamboat General Canby.
Other steamboats making the run to Ilwaco in the days before the railroad was built include the U.S. Grant, the R.R. Thompson, and the General Miles. From 1884 to 1888, the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company is reported to have put the Alaskan (sidewheeler)
Alaskan (sidewheeler)
The steamship Alaskan operated from 1884 to 1889 on the Columbia River and Puget Sound. Alaskan and her near-sistership Olympian were known as “Henry Villard’s White Elephants.” There were a number of vessels named Alaska and Alaskan, this large side-wheel steamboat should not be confused with...
on the run from Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
to Ilwaco.
For a number of years the company struggled to make a profit, relying on government mail and troop transport contracts, which did not pay much. Eventually L.A. Loomis and some of his fellow entrepreneurs settled on the idea of building a railroad to replace the stage coach line that they had used to make the connection between Ilwaco and points on the Long Beach Peninsula. Loomis and others incorporated the Ilwaco, Shoalwater Bay & Grays Harbor Railroad on November 23, 1883. Survey work was commissioned, to be done by Major A.F. Searles, of Portland. It was estimated that the railroad could be built for a cost of $5,000 per mile. This meant that it would take about $100,000 to build the railroad. The company's founders raised the money through sale of stock, which took several years to reach a level of capital where construction could begin.
Construction
Narrow gauge
A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...
(three feet between the rails) was selected to save money on grading and other construction. Also, smaller and less expensive engines and cars could be used. The rails themselves, as well as one of the first engines, came from the Utah and Northern Railway
Utah and Northern Railway
The Utah and Northern Railway is a defunct railroad that was operated in the Utah Territory and later in the Idaho Territory and Montana Territory in the western United States during the 1870s and 1880s. It was the first railroad in Idaho and in Montana....
, which had been made standard gauge in 1887. The rails were light, 35 pounds to the foot (52 kg/m). By 1888, the railroad had picked up some more used rolling stock from the Utah and Northern, and completed laying track to Long Beach
Long Beach, Washington
Long Beach is a city in Pacific County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,283 at the 2000 census and grew to 1,392 at the 2010 census...
. Construction began in April, 1888, starting at Ilwaco. The corporation was reorganized at about the same time, so that the Ilwaco Steam Navigation Company became the Ilwaco Railroad and Navigation Company (incorporated August 16, 1888). Grading the rest of the line continued through the rest of 1888. The line had reached Long Beach by July 19, 1888. The northern terminus had been originally planned to be at place called New Saratoga, one-half mile south of Oysterville
Oysterville, Washington
Oysterville is an unincorporated community in Pacific County, Washington, United States.-History:Oysterville was first settled in 1841 by John Douglas, who married a local Chinook woman. Oysterville was established and named in 1854 by J.A. Clark. It was a hub of oyster farming as the name suggests...
. It turned out that a better steamboat landing was at Nahcotta
Nahcotta, Washington
Nahcotta is an unincorporated community in Pacific County, in the American state of Washington. It is located on Willapa Bay, on the eastern coast of the Long Beach Peninsula.-History:thumb|right|200px|Nahcotta, WA 1893...
, about 5 miles (8 km) south of Oysterville, and so Nahcotta became the northern end of the line. By January 1889, grading was almost complete all the way to Nahcotta, however, the railroad had run out of money when the track only reached as far as Ocean Park
Ocean Park, Washington
Ocean Park is a census-designated place in Pacific County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,573 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Ocean Park is located at...
. More funds were raised, and by May 1889, the railroad had been completed to Nahcotta, costing twice the originally estimated $100,000.
Frugality of management
The line was built with 35-pound per foot rail, which was too light for the equipment. Loomis as president was very frugal, especially on maintenance expenses. For example, even though there were several derailments caused by rotting cross-ties, Loomis refused to pay for any replacements unless he could punch a hole the tie with his walking stick. For all of these reasons, it took the train several hours to complete its run of only 15 miles (24.1 km). No trains ran on Sunday, at least in April 1905. The railroad's early operations attracted some criticism from a local newspaper, which in an 1896 purported "advertisement" for the railroad, stated among other things:Running by the tide
Because of the extreme shallow water at the railroad's dock in Ilwaco restricted steamboat access to times when it was permitted by the tide, for so long as the railroad's southern terminus was at Ilwaco, the railroad's schedule was based on the tide charts. For example, a schedule for April, 1905, shows times of departure from Astoria for the steamer Nahcotta as varying from as early as 5:00 a.m. to as late as 8:30 a.m. Mills imagined the scene as follows:Steamboat connections
See also Steamboats of Willapa BaySteamboats of Willapa Bay
Willapa Bay is a large shallow body of water near the Pacific Ocean in southwestern Washington. For a number of years before modern roads were built in Pacific County, Washington, the bay was used as the means of travel around the county, by powered and unpowered craft. This article discusses...
After the line was acquired by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company in 1900, the company put the T. J. Potter
T. J. Potter
The T.J. Potter was a steamboat that operated in the Northwestern United States. The boat was launched in 1888. Her upper cabins came from the steamboat Wide West. This required some modification, because the T.J. Potter was a side-wheeler, whereas the Wide West had been a stern-wheeler...
on the route from Portland direct to Ilwaco to bring more vacationers to the Long Beach Peninsula
Long Beach Peninsula
The Long Beach Peninsula is an arm of land in western Washington state. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the south by the Columbia River, and the east by Willapa Bay...
. The new company also made improvements to line's trackage, which presumably resulted in the improvement of service so that it only took an hour to complete the train's journey from Ilwaco to Nahcotta. Presumably things had improved by 1905, when the railroad claimed to be able to make the run in just an hour from south to north.
At Nahcotta the propeller steamers Shamrock and Reliable would met the train at the end of the Nahcotta dock, and pick up passengers bound for South Bend
South Bend, Washington
South Bend is a city in Pacific County, Washington, United States. It is the county seat of Pacific County. The population was 1,637 as of the 2010 census, a decrease of 9.4% from the 2000 census figures. The town is widely known for its oysters and scenery....
across Willapa Bay
Willapa Bay
Willapa Bay is a bay located on the southwest Pacific coast of Washington state in the United States. The Long Beach Peninsula separates Willapa Bay from the greater expanse of the Pacific Ocean. With over of water surface Willapa Bay is the second largest estuary on the United States Pacific coast...
. In 1896, another steamer employed on the Willapa Bay run was the Edgar.
Logging transport
Large logs were hauled out to the Ilwaco dock chained down to flat cars, one log to a car. There, they were dumped in Baker's BayBaker's Bay
Baker's Bay is a 3 mile long bay on the island of Great Guana Cay. It is the location of the Baker's Bay Golf & Ocean Club, as well as the controversy surrounding it....
to be made into rafts for water transport to sawmills. Feagans also reports that very large logs were hauled on disconnect logging trucks, and provides a photo, but gives no date or location.
Personnel on original line
In 1891, the company's officers were L.A. Loomis, president, J.R. Goulter, secretary, and R.V. Egbert, Superintendent. Egbert left in 1895 and was replaced by Wallace Glover. Loomis and Coulter held their positions at least through 1896.Depots, stops and facilities on the original line
Stops on the line in 1896 in order from south to north were Ilwaco, Holman Station, Seaview, Long Beach, Tioga, Breakers Station, Pacific Park, Cranberry Station, Oceanside, Loomis,, Ocean Park, and Nahcotta.Ilwaco
The railroad ran south down First Street in Ilwaco, and then out onto to a dock in Baker's Bay. Floating logs were stored behind log booms on the west side of the Ilwaco dock.Holman Station
A water tank was located at Holman Station, which was also known as the Willows.Black Lake
The railroad kept a cranberryCranberry
Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus Oxycoccus of the genus Vaccinium. In some methods of classification, Oxycoccus is regarded as a genus in its own right...
warehouse at Black Lake, a little north of Ilwaco. Feagans states that this warehouse was built about March 1915, the same time that the second Nahcotta depot was built to replace the one that had been destroyed by fire in January of that year. Black Lake itself was sometimes called Johnson Lake or Whealdon's Pond. B.A. Seaborg, one of the founders of the Ilwaco railroad, had a sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
on the lake, where he cut boards to make crates to pack the salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
he canned at his plant (called "Aberdeen Packing Company") on Main Street in Ilwaco.
Seaview
There was only a platform and shed at SeaviewSeaview, Washington
Seaview is an unincorporated area in Pacific County, Washington. It is part of the Long Beach, Washington urban cluster and had a population for its ZIP code at the 2000 census of 516 people.-Geography:...
until 1905 when a regular depot was built. That depot building still exists, and is now a restaurant.
Long Beach
For further information see: Long Beach, WashingtonThe railroad's major destination was Long Beach, an early tourist trap, and location of a number of popular hotels, including the Tinker's Hotel and the Hotel Portland.
Breakers Station
The stop at the Breakers Hotel north of Long Beach was called "Breakers Station." There had been two hotels at this location, both built by Joseph M. Arthur, and both name the Breakers Hotel. The first Breakers Hotel, built in 1901, burned down in 1904. The second one, pictured in the images here, replaced it. The image at right shows the Breakers Hotel from the beach side looking east. The hotel was built just behind a sand dune, and the rail line ran between the hotel and the trees in the background. A promotional postcard for the second Breakers Hotel advertised it as the "social center of the summer season," with the "best ladies' orchestra," a "large dancing pavilion," and "practically fire-proof." Guests were encouraged to "buy your ticket and check your baggage at any O.R.& N Co. Ticket Office direct to Breakers Station"Cranberry Station
Cranberry Station was the next stop north of The Breakers. Little is known about this stop, other than it presumably had something to do with cranberries.Loomis Station
LoomisLoomis, Washington
Loomis station was a stop on the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company's narrow gauge line that ran on the Long Beach Peninsula in Pacific County, Washington, USA from 1889 to 1930. The stop actually consisted of simply the mansion of Lewis A. Loomis, the founder and president of the line. He...
Station consisted of simply the mansion of Lewis A. Loomis, the founder and president of the line. The station was on the east side of the line. L.A. Loomis died in 1913, his mansion fell into disrepair, and the railroad ceased making stops at Loomis. The ghost station of Loomis Station should not be confused with the actual town of Loomis, Washington in Okanogan County, which as of May 2009 has no article in Wikipedia.
Klipsan Beach Life Saving Station
The railroad also took the crew of the Klipsan Beach Life Saving StationKlipsan Beach Life Saving Station
Klipsan Beach was the site of a station of the United States Life-Saving Service. The station buildings still remain, although they are privately owned. The station is on the National Register of Historic Places. The station's name was originally Ilwaco Beach, and only later became known as...
to wherever a vessel might have stranded on the beach along the line. Occasional special runs were made to bring on-lookers to a wreck site, and weekly excursions were made to take vacationers to watch the lifeboat rescue drills at the Klipsan Beach Station.
Ocean Park
Ocean ParkOcean Park, Washington
Ocean Park is a census-designated place in Pacific County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,573 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Ocean Park is located at...
had been founded by Methodists as an alcohol-free summer community. It was much closer to the beach than it is today, because of sand accretion. The depot at Ocean Part was located on the east side of the tracks immediately to the north of a road crossing. There were several businesses in the area. The railroad transported boxes of canned razor clams from canneries at Ocean Park Park. The railroad also built a siding in Ocean Park for the Ilwaco Mill & Lumber Company.
Nahcotta
The railroad built a long dock out into deep water in Willapa Bay at Nahcotta. Willapa Bay was the location of a major oyster fishery, and transporting the harvested oysters south to Ilwaco, and eventually Portland, became a significant business of the railroad. The first Nahcotta depot was located just south of the tracks. The lading extended northwards from a freight door a few feet towards the track, which at that point had a stub switch. The railroad had a three-stall roundhouseRoundhouse
A roundhouse is a building used by railroads for servicing locomotives. Roundhouses are large, circular or semicircular structures that were traditionally located surrounding or adjacent to turntables...
, water tank, and a gallows turntable at Nahcotta. Businesses in Nahcotta included the Bayview (formerly the Morrison) Hotel, built in 1889, and the Nahcotta Hotel, and Morehead's general store. Most of Nahcotta's business district burned down on January 27, 1915, and was never rebuilt, a total insurance loss of $32,500. The railroad ran a train of volunteers to Nahcotta to fight the fire. Structures lost included the first Nahcotta depot, valued at $1,500 for insurance purposes. The railroad's car sheds survived, as did the cars inside.
Oysterville
OystervilleOysterville, Washington
Oysterville is an unincorporated community in Pacific County, Washington, United States.-History:Oysterville was first settled in 1841 by John Douglas, who married a local Chinook woman. Oysterville was established and named in 1854 by J.A. Clark. It was a hub of oyster farming as the name suggests...
was not a stop on the original line. In 1890, citizens of Oysterville attempted to organize an extension of the railroad north from Nahcotta to improve business conditions there, but were not able to raise the funds to do so.
Improvements and extension under new management
In August, 1900, Loomis sold his stock to the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, which assumed total control over the railroad, which had then total assets in rolling stock, track, and real property valued at $248,000. The new owners made a number improvements to the track and rolling stock of the railroad. Trains now ran faster and on time. The dock and railroad facilities at Nahcotta were improved. Two important safety items, air brakesAir brake (rail)
An air brake is a conveyance braking system actuated by compressed air. Modern trains rely upon a fail-safe air brake system that is based upon a design patented by George Westinghouse on March 5, 1872. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company was subsequently organized to manufacture and sell...
and Janney couplers
Coupling (railway)
A coupling is a mechanism for connecting rolling stock in a train. The design of the coupler is standard, and is almost as important as the railway gauge, since flexibility and convenience are maximised if all rolling stock can be coupled together.The equipment that connects the couplings to the...
, were adopted in 1903. The railroad also got into the business of hauling logs from Nahcotta down to Ilwaco. The company acquired the steam tug Flora Bell to round up log tows on Willapa Bay and bring them to Nahcotta to be loaded onto trains bound for Ilwaco.
For a number of years there had been a plan by various persons and companies to build a standard gauge railroad all along the north bank of the Columbia from the ocean at Ilwaco to Wallula Gap
Wallula Gap
Wallula Gap is a large water gap of the Columbia River through basalt anticlines in the Columbia River Basin in the U.S. state of Washington, just south of the confluence of the Walla Walla and Columbia rivers...
near the junction of the Snake
Snake River
The Snake is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean...
and the Columbia rivers. The first leg of this work was to be a railroad built along the north shore of the Columbia river from Ilwaco to Knappton, a small settlement 17 miles (27 km) to the east. The work was contracted out by the Columbia Valley Railroad, but it was supervised by the chief engineer of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. After various legal and survey matters settled the route (which actually ran inland from the Columbia shore), construction began in 1907 and was finally completed, following many legal and financial difficulties, in June, 1908, with a terminus at Megler.
The railroad never quite made it to Knappton, which was about one and a half miles further east. The most notable engineering feature of the extension was a tunnel, the only one on the line, blasted through the rock at Scarborough Head. This was right under an army coast defense facility known as Fort Columbia. A large dock, supposedly the largest on the Columbia was built at Megler. The tunnel was 910 feet (277 m) long and The dock was reported to measure 120 feet (36.6 m) by 900 feet (274.3 m) in area.
Marine connections improved at south end of line
At this time, the Willapa Transportation Company was running both of their steamboats, the Reliable and the Shamrock, on the run from South Bend to the Long Beach Peninsula, so that it was now possible to travel from South Bend by steamboat to Nahcotta, board the train and ride down to Megler, transfer to the T. J. Potter, and travel on the T. J. Potter upriver to Portland. The fare for this was $4.25 one-way and $7.25 round trip. The only alternative route required transfer to the Nahcotta, going south across the Columbia River to Astoria, and then boarding a train bound for Portland on the Astoria and Columbia Railroad. Since the rail trip from Astoria took as long to get to Portland as it took for the T. J. Potter to steam upriver, the alternative route was not favored.
Additional stops along extended line
Next, for about a mile, the railroad ran along flat bench next to the river until it reached McGowan
McGowan, Washington
McGowan, Washington was a stop on the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company's narrow gauge line that ran on the Long Beach Peninsula in Pacific County, Washington, USA from 1889 to 1930. In the late 19th century, P.J. McGowan bought land in the area for $1,200, and built his house and a dock and a...
, where the McGowan family had built a large dock and a cannery. A passing track was built at McGowan. The railroad then entered the tunnel under Fort Columbia. Just on the west end of tunnel was the small depot for the fort's needs. A long pier extended into the river from Fort Columbia, this is shown on the Corps of Engineers maps as the pier "QM", for quartermaster.
The next stop on the line was Chinook
Chinook, Washington
Chinook is a census-designated place in Pacific County, Washington, United States. The population was 457 at the 2000 census and increased to 466 at the 2010 census.-History:...
, where the railway ran through the streets of the small town. By 1927, an auto road had been built from Megler to Chinook and then to Ilwaco. This roadway ran parallel to the railway up to Chinook, where the railway then went inland somewhat to cross the Wallicut river. Subsequent stops on the line's extension were Ellis, Wallicut, and a stop called China, after the large number of Chinese cannery workers who lived there.
Business reorganization and improvement with extension of line
Business increased substantly following the extension of the railroad. More passenger trains were run. Shipping of freight, particularly of raw logs increased greatly, until the Willapa BayWillapa Bay
Willapa Bay is a bay located on the southwest Pacific coast of Washington state in the United States. The Long Beach Peninsula separates Willapa Bay from the greater expanse of the Pacific Ocean. With over of water surface Willapa Bay is the second largest estuary on the United States Pacific coast...
area was logged out a few years later. The extension had been built to allow ready conversion to standard gauge, by use of larger standard gauge cross-ties. However, by 1910, the Northern Pacific abandoned its plans to build out to the mouth of the Columbia on the north bank, and as a result the Ilwaco railroad never had any outside rail connection.
On December 23, 1910, the Union Pacific, the owner of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company reorganized its operations, and the Ilwaco railroad became officially known as the Ilwaco Division of the Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company. The company then embarked on a publicity campaign to get more summer vacationers to travel to the Long Beach Peninsula. Improvements were also made to the rolling and floating stock of the company. Starting in the summer season of 1910 through 1913 (there was a slight dip in 1912 due to persistent bad weather at the beach), these efforts produced the most business the company had ever seen.
The summer of 1913 was the absolute peak for the railroad. The weather was good, a competitor resort had been destroyed by fire, and jetty projects at the mouth of the Columbia River required hauling passengers and freight. New facilities were built at Nahcotta and improvements were made to the station and trackage in Ilwaco. At this time, there were few automobiles on the Long Beach Peninsula. The railroad charged $68 to transport an automobile from Portland to Ilwaco.
Decline and abandonment
After 1913, business fell off for the railroad, and would never come back to that peak. Even so, the owners continued to make some investments in the line, such as completing the relaying of the line with 56-pound rails all the way up to Nahcotta. A paved highway was completed from Portland to Astoria which caused river passenger traffic to fall off. The T. J. Potter was condemned at the start of the 1916 season and not replaced, which cut off direct water access to the Long Beach Peninsula from Portland (the source of most of the tourist business) to the railroad's dock at Megler. The railroad still ran the steamers Harvest Queen and Nahcotta down the Columbia until 1921, but apparently only on the Portland-Astoria run. This left only the previously-thought inferior route of taking a train from PortlandPortland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
to Astoria and then a steamboat (usually the Nahcotta) to the Megler dock.
However, by 1920, the real competitor for the railroad had become the automobile. A paved highway on the south bank of the Columbia was completed in 1916, running from Portland to Astoria. On May 1, 1921, regular automobile ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
service was initiated from Astoria
Astoria, Oregon
Astoria is the county seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Situated near the mouth of the Columbia River, the city was named after the American investor John Jacob Astor. His American Fur Company founded Fort Astoria at the site in 1811...
to a dock at McGowan to McGowan, west of railroad's dock at Megler and closer to the Long Beach Peninsula. Now people could drive their automobiles all the way to Astoria and onto a ferry to take them over to the Long Beach Peninsula, without the need of either railroad or steamboat.
Ferry traffic quickly rose, and the ferry company, owned by Captain Fritz S. Elving, rapidly built new ferries (Tourist, Tourist No. 2, and later, Tourist No. 3) and dock facilities. The ferries departed from a specially-built dock at 14th Street in Astoria which included a ramp to allow rapid loading and unloading of automobiles. Pacific County, Washington helped out the Elving Company, giving them a $400 a year subsidy, and probably more importantly, building a road on pilings around the rocky promontory at Fort Columbia that the railroad had been forced to blast a tunnel through.
In 1926, the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
tried to best the Elving company by building their own automobile ferry, the North Beach. Union Pacific had ferry slips built at Astoria and at Megler. Although the North Beach was a well-built vessel, launched on April 28, 1927 with fanfare, and making its first run on July 6, 1927, North Beach could never manage to compete with Captain Elving's boats. J.W. McGowan, a businessman of McGowan
McGowan, Washington
McGowan, Washington was a stop on the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company's narrow gauge line that ran on the Long Beach Peninsula in Pacific County, Washington, USA from 1889 to 1930. In the late 19th century, P.J. McGowan bought land in the area for $1,200, and built his house and a dock and a...
, owned stock in Elving's ferry company, and he made it difficult for the railroad to build a road over his property to their competing ferry dock at Megler. Union Pacific shut down ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
operations to Megler in September 1930 selling to one of its employees, claiming they'd lost $40,000 per year in the ferry business.
Roads were extended and improved in the Long Beach Peninsula in the early 1920s. At the same time freight business fell off sharply for the railroad. Steamboat connections were lost both at Nahcotta
Nahcotta, Washington
Nahcotta is an unincorporated community in Pacific County, in the American state of Washington. It is located on Willapa Bay, on the eastern coast of the Long Beach Peninsula.-History:thumb|right|200px|Nahcotta, WA 1893...
and Columbia River terminals. Meanwhile, the railroad was still trying to pay the expenses for the expansion of the Megler facilities to accommodate the ferry enterprise.
In 1925, motor truck operators in Astoria started using the ferries to transfer directly over to the Long Beach Peninsula which cut sharply into the railroad's freight business. The railroad calculated that the line had suffered losses of $300,000 from 1925 to 1928. Apparently the railroad then hit on the idea of forming a new subsidiary, the Astoria, North Shore and Willapa Harbor Railroad, selling stock in the railroad to local residents, and then using the proceeds from the stock sale to buy out its losing operation. Supposedly the new operation would return the route to profitability by operating cheaper small diesel-electric engines and cut its expenses by 90%. The plan also included a new ferry for motor traffic and used of trucks instead of rail to deliver freight. There were some problems with the legality of the stock proposal, as the sale could not proceed without the approval of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Local opposition was high, and the plan eventually came to nothing.
This left abandonment of the line as the only realistic business option. In that time, abandonment of a common carrier's route required the consent of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The Union Pacific sought this consent, and following a hearing, on July 12, 1930, the railroad obtained permission to abandon from the Interstate Commerce Commission
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...
and the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission
Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission is a three-member board appointed by the Governor of Washington and confirmed by the Washington State Senate to six year terms...
. Asay summed up the terrible financial condition of the railroad at this time:
The last train was run on September 9, 1930. Feagans describes the scene as follows:
By the summer of 1931, all the structures (save for the Megler terminal), the engines rolling stock of the railroad had been sold to a scrapping firm in Portland for $28,000, and the rails and ties ripped up from the roadbed.
The railroad route today
Astoria-Megler Bridge
The Astoria–Megler Bridge is a steel girder continuous truss bridge that spans the Columbia River between Astoria, Oregon and Point Ellice near Megler, Washington, in the United States. The span is from the mouth of the river, and was the last segment of U.S. Route 101 between Olympia, Washington...
has crossed the Columbia River, replacing the ferry lines. Its northern bridgehead is just about midway between McGowan and the site of the railway's Megler dock to the east.
Feagans in the early 1970s was able to trace many relics of the railroad. He was also able to interview people who well remembered the railroad and who had even worked on it. These sources may have helped Feagans as he traced down at least four passenger coaches that had been lifted off their trucks and converted into housing units in various locations in Long Beach. He located and photographed various artifacts including a baggage rack and an iron coach stove. Feagans also photographed the ruins of the trestle crossing the Wallacut river and the dock at Nahcotta, as well as places where the rails for whatever reason, had been left in place.
In March 2000, an inspection of the area showed surprisingly many structures still standing related to the railroad. The tunnel under Fort Columbia, widened and shortened, continues to be used by the highway. Fort Columbia itself continues to be maintained well as a state park. The Ilwaco freight depot, which was in a derelict state in the early 1970s, had been restored and permanently preserved as part of the Ilwaco Heritage Museum.
At Long Beach the old station survived as a pair of housing units. By the year 2000, the Long Beach Station had been purchased relocated to a park area by the city. As of March 25, 2000, the station was being reconstructed, as shown in the photo at left.
North of Long Beach, the life saving station
Klipsan Beach Life Saving Station
Klipsan Beach was the site of a station of the United States Life-Saving Service. The station buildings still remain, although they are privately owned. The station is on the National Register of Historic Places. The station's name was originally Ilwaco Beach, and only later became known as...
still remains, although several remodeling efforts and overgrown shrubs and trees obscure the original architecture. The station has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. The highway appears to pass at just about the same distance from the station as did the railway.
The Seaview depot still remains, but is converted into a restaurant. At Ocean Park, the railway ran in the street in front of the Taylor Hotel, built in 1887. The building was still standing and in good condition as of March, 2000, when it was called the Taylor Place. In Nahcotta, the depot built after the 1915 fire, still stands but is now (as of March 2000) a grocery store.
Locomotives
| No. | O-W R&N renumber | Union Pac. # | Type | Driver diameter | Cylinders | Boiler pressure | Builder | Builder # | Date Built | Weight Weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force on the object due to gravity. Its magnitude , often denoted by an italic letter W, is the product of the mass m of the object and the magnitude of the local gravitational acceleration g; thus:... (lb) |
Tractive effort Tractive effort As used in mechanical engineering, the term tractive force is the pulling or pushing force exerted by a vehicle on another vehicle or object. The term tractive effort is synonymous with tractive force, and is often used in railway engineering to describe the pulling or pushing capability of a... (lbf) |
Overall length | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2-6-0 2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called a Mogul... |
42" | 12-18" | 125 psi | Baldwin Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad locomotives. It was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally, and later in nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Although the company was very successful as a producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of... |
4564 | 3/79 | 39,000 | 6,557 | 42'6" | ex Utah & Northern Utah and Northern Railway The Utah and Northern Railway is a defunct railroad that was operated in the Utah Territory and later in the Idaho Territory and Montana Territory in the western United States during the 1870s and 1880s. It was the first railroad in Idaho and in Montana.... #15, sold to IR&N 1888 for $2,500, #15, scrapped either 1911 or 1915 |
||
| 2 | 2-6-0 2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called a Mogul... |
40" | 12-18" | 125 psi | Porter H. K. Porter, Inc H. K. Porter, Inc. manufactured light-duty railroad locomotives in the USA, starting in 1866. The company became the largest producer of industrial locomotives, and built almost eight thousand of them... |
1155 | 4/90 | 7,430 | Built for IR&N for $6,075, scrapped or sold 1908 | ||||
| 3 | 2-4-0 2-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-4-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels.... |
42" | 10-18" | 125 psi | Porter | 289 | 2/78 | 20,000 | 5,600 | Built for Walla Walla & Columbia River RR as #5, also called "Mountain Queen" on that line. Sold 1892 to Mill Creek Flume and Manufacturing Co., then in 1894 to the Cascades Railroad Cascades Railroad The Cascades Railroad ran for about on the north bank of the Columbia River around the Cascades Rapids. The owner was the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. The railroad operated as a portage around the rapids. The railroad was broad gauge from 1860 to 1880, standard gauge from 1880 to 1883, and ... serving as their #7; sold 1900 (Robertson) or 1905 (Feagans) to a southern Oregon logging concern. |
|||
| 3The IR&N had two locomotives numbered "3." | N1 | 1 | 4-4-0 4-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-4-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels... |
43" | 14-18" | 130 psi | Baldwin | 4224 | 12/77 | 45,500 | 7,837 | 46'6" | Known on IR&N as the "second No. 3". Built 1877 for South Pacific Coast South Pacific Coast Railroad The South Pacific Coast Railroad was a narrow gauge steam railroad running between Santa Cruz, California and Alameda, with a ferry connection in Alameda to San Francisco. The railroad was created as the Santa Clara Valley Railroad, founded by local strawberry growers as a way to get their crops... as #7 and later #26. Sold Feb 1907 to IR&N for $2,500, delivered Aug 1908 scrapped 1937 (Robertson) or 1931 (Feagans). |
| 4 | N2 | 2 | 2-6-0 2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called a Mogul... |
42" | 12-18" | 125 psi | Baldwin | 5121 | 5/80 | 45,500 | 7,837 | 42'6" | Built for Utah & Northern as #19, later #23, sold 1887 to Portland and Willamette Valley Railway as #1, bought by IR&N in 1906 for $500, scrapped 1941 (Robertson) or 1931 (Feagans). |
| 5 | N3 | 3 | 4-4-0 4-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-4-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels... |
43" | 12-18" | 140 psi | Baldwin | 4956 | 2/80 | 50,400 | 8,560 | 50'6" | Built for South Pacific Coast as #9, rebuilt 1905, sold to IR&N July 18, 1908 for $2,645, scrapped 1937 (Robertson) or 1931 (Feagans) |
| 6 | N4 | 4 | 4-6-0 4-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. This wheel arrangement became the second-most popular... |
48" | 16-24" | 140 psi | Baldwin | 1925 | 5/91 | 74,000 | 12,430 | 47'6" | Largest engine ever used on IR&N. Built for South Pacific Coast as #23, sold to IR&N on January 1, 1907 (Feagans) or February 1907 (Robertson), for $5,700, scrapped 1931 |
Passenger equipment
| No. | Renumber | Type | Name | Date Built | Builder | Length | Width | Height | Pass. Cap. | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250 | N-2 | combine Combine car A combine car in North American parlance, most often referred to simply as a combine, is a type of railroad car which combines sections for both passengers and freight.... |
"Combination" | 1890 | Jackson and Sharp | 42' 3" | 8' 4" | 12' | 32 | Built new for IR&N |
| 300 | coach | Jackson and Sharp | 36' 3" | 8' 4" | 12' | 46 | ex Utah & Northern Utah and Northern Railway The Utah and Northern Railway is a defunct railroad that was operated in the Utah Territory and later in the Idaho Territory and Montana Territory in the western United States during the 1870s and 1880s. It was the first railroad in Idaho and in Montana.... , sold to IR&N 1889, condemned 1915 |
|||
| 301 | coach | "L.A. Loomis" | 1890 | Jackson and Sharp | 42' 3" | 8' 7" | 11' 4" | 48 | Built new for IR&N | |
| 302 | coach | "Easterbrook" | 1890 | Jackson and Sharp | 42' 3" | 8' 7" | 11' 4" | 52 | Built new for IR&N | |
| 303 | coach | "North Beach" | 1890 | Jackson and Sharp | 42' 3" | 8' 7" | 11' 4" | 50 | Built new for IR&N | |
| 304 | coach | Carter Bros. | 39' 11" | 8' 0" | 11' 4" | 50 | From South Pacific Coast South Pacific Coast Railroad The South Pacific Coast Railroad was a narrow gauge steam railroad running between Santa Cruz, California and Alameda, with a ferry connection in Alameda to San Francisco. The railroad was created as the Santa Clara Valley Railroad, founded by local strawberry growers as a way to get their crops... 1908 |
|||
| 305 | coach | Carter Bros. | 39' 11" | 8' 0" | 11' 4" | 50 | From South Pacific Coast 1908 | |||
| 306 | coach | Carter Bros. | 39' 8" | 8' 0" | 11' 7" | 50 | From South Pacific Coast 1908 | |||
| 307 | coach | Carter Bros. | 38' 0" | 8' 6" | 11' 9" | 46 | From South Pacific Coast 1908 | |||
| 308 | N10? | coach | Carter Bros. | 38' 0" | 8' 6" | 11' 9" | 46 | From South Pacific Coast 1908. | ||
Steamboats and other floating stock
For further information, see Steamboats associated with Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company.Photographs
- Ilwaco Railway Engine No. 2
- Long term Nahcotta resident Lee Riley Osborne describes early days of Nahcotta, in an article including many photos of the Ilwaco Railroad at Nahcotta and other points, as well as the T. J. Potter and other vessels employed by the company
- Chinook Observer, Chinook Washington (historical photographs page)
