1372 on Casey Jones S= team Special = ; TT00052

= 12/= 25/2002 11:13 PM &nbs= p; John Crosby = Per Sunday, 22 December 2002, Seattle Times Pacific Northwest Magazine. In the weekly "Now and Then" photo column by Paul = Dorpat, are two pix (photographed from roughly the same spot on N. Northlake Way, toward roughly the spot where Pacific Avenue N. makes a 90 degree turn to = the west and becomes N. 34th Street, Seattle, (Wallingford neighborhood):=

Then, 1957, a steam powered, eastward passenger special. There is too much steam coming ar= ound the drivers to be certain of wheel configuration.

Now, 2002, a lone eastward bicycle rider on the Burke-Gilman Bicyc= le Trail (the second rails to trails project in the country, opened in 1978; = the first is the C & O Canal Trail, northwestward from the District of Columbia, into Maryland, and then to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia).<= /o:p>

These photos are of interest to me because I live on and ride the Burke-Gilman Trail daily, and because after I quit the Milwaukee Road on 27 August 1978 a= nd went to work for Burlington Northern, Inc., I actually worked this line as an e= xtra board switchman out of B.N.

Balmer= Yard. = At that time, this line was known as the "Ballard Low Line" and serviced= by Job 6 out of Balmer. The building in the background of= the "Then" is behind a spur track where we always made a "dutch drop" in order to get the crummy and a co= uple cars ahead of the engine for the work at the end of the line, which at that tim= e was Dunn Lumber at Latona Avenue N., about a half a mile east. The train in this picture has just pasted my house on NW Can= al St (Fremont Neighborhood) within the last 10 minutes (the house, orginally company housing for the mill under the F= remont Bridge, was built before the Lake Washington Ship Canal out front. The Canal was finished in 1914. I bought it in 1985.

The following text, from the Seattle Times, does not contain a lin= k to the pictures, which I could not find on line. Anyone having access to the Seatt= le Times, or a library where it can be found, might find these two pictures interesting.

John Crosby

Seattle

Northwest Life: Sunday, December 22, 2002

Pacific Northwest Magazine

Riding On Memories

By Paul Dorpat

Life, the leisure part of it, is a relatively simple affair for ra= il fans. Perhaps the one conflict that can add distress is whether to be on a train= or off it.

On Dec. 1, 1956, super rail fan Lawton Gowey<= /span> was one of the nearly 1,300 joyfully crammed into the 13 cars behind North= ern Pacific steam engine No. 1372 for the first Casey Jones Special to Snoqual= mie. The route followed the old Seattle Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad right-of-way. Seven months later Gowey chose not to ride the train but chase it. Here, on June 29, 1957, he has b= eaten the same engine to the north side of Lake Union. Gowey made a snapshot of the Special that, with the = smoke and steam escaping it, we can almost hear. In a moment more he was steppin= g on his own car's throttle to catch the train crossing a concrete trestle near= by on the University of Washington campus.= He made it in time.

For 12 years the region's rail fans were engaged with nearly 50 no= stalgic excursions out of Seattle. The pianist Carol Cornish was 71 when she started promoting these trips. Actually, as her assistant Tom Baker notes in his "Memories of the Ca= sey Jones Excursions," Carol Cornish was a stage name. Her actual name was Edna Baker.

While no relation to Tom, Carol Cornish treated him as such. Calli= ng him her "Train Host," she encouraged the garrulous and handsome Bake= r to walk from car to car sharing his good will and broad smile with the passen= gers. Baker and his kids also sold box lunches, and printed programs.

More often than not they needed more cars, and would borrow them i= f necessary to get everyone aboard. The last Casey Jones came to North Bend on June 9, 1968. It was also the day Carol Cornish died.=

Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.

= 12/= 27/2002 7:48 AM = ; Jim Dick Just had a chance to look at the picture of the= S. L. S & E. that John Crosby mentioned earlier. One can type seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/ in the Address bar and get to the cover page of the Pacific Northwest magazine and click on the Now & Then: Riding on Memories. After having looke= d at the pictures, you might go back and look at the cover article: Passing Fan= cies. A prominent contributor to this list is mentioned in the article.

12/27/2002 10:59 PM John Crosby = Finally found the link to this photo from the magazine section of The Seattle Time= s, Sunday, 22 December 2002. Worth checking out.

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