Tacoma-Seattle on Milwaukee

[Roy4449]

The owners of the Pacific Coast Steamship Co. organized the Pacific Coast Coal Company to mine extensive coal deposits in the hills from Maple Valley to Issaquah htat they had recently purchased in 1896. The Pacific Coast Coal Company purchased the narrow gauge Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad in 1897, renamed it the Pacific Coast Railroad Co. and operated it as a subsidiary.  The railroad had extensive track to serve eventually 11 mines and hauled the coal to Seattle for local consumption and also was transported by the Pacific Coast Steamship Co. to California. The tracks were changed to standard gauge for interchange.  

 The Milwaukee obtained trackage rights from Maple Valley to Seattle and built there own line from Black River  junction to Tacoma where the main freight yard was located.  The UP operated over the Milwaukee line from Tacoma to a point in Seattle.  The Great Northern purchased the Pacific Coast Railroad in 1952 and replaced the locomotives and coal cars from older GN equipment.  GN operated the Pacific Coast Railroad as a subsidiary until 1970 when it was merged into GN.  UP purchased the Milw. line from Black River junction to Tacoma.  Tacoma Rail purchased the freight yard which is now a container port, the larges in the Northwest.

The Milwaukee Rail r.o.w. from Renton east was railbanked and a trail is presently built up to Snoqualmie Pass.

[1oldgoat]

The John Wayne trail that covers the mainline ROW mentioned above actually continues all the way to the WA/ID border! However, the section between Landsburg (just east of Maple Valley) to Cedar Falls passes through the Cedar River watershed which supplies Seattle's drinking water and is therefore off limits. A nice feature on the trail is location of MILW mileposts. In addition to the trail on the mainline, another trail extends north from the junction at Cedar Falls almost to the King County line. (Not to mention the trails that cover most of the old Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern (former NP Snoqualmie branch).