OPPOSITE: Despite being a modern railroad, many old traditions remained on the Simpson Railroad. The crew spins No. 1202 on the armstrong turntable at the Simpson roundhouse in Shelton, Wash., on March 29, 2013. LEFT: No. 1201 leads a train returning to Shelton from Mill 5 on February 9, 2013. JOEL HAWTHORN PHOTOS BELOW LEFT: Three out of the four Simpson Railroad engines pause in the roundhouse in Shelton between assignments on a warm July evening. The roundhouse is one of only two that currently exist in the state of Washington. ROBERT W. SCOTT
have made special moves to Mill 5 since. The railroad focused operations in the immediate mill area and around Shelton. The Simpson Railroad operated
with a half-century-old fleet consisting of one SW900 and three SW1200s. The railroad housed its diesels in an actual roundhouse with an armstrong turntable, which combined to make present day operations take on the look of yesteryear. At one time the Pacific Northwest
was dotted with hundreds of railroads dedicated to the lumber industry beginning in the late 1800s. The common carrier railroads built extensive branchlines to tap the rich timber resources of the region that were fed by logging railroads. Many lines survived into the postwar years. As logging practices improved and shipment by trucks increased, there was less need for rail lines into the forests. Over the past 30 years, the Northwest has lost several railroads that once had a strong presence including the Chehalis Western in 1993, log hauling on the St. Maries River Railroad in 2009, and most recently in early 2015 the Weyerhauser Woods operation out of Longview, Wash. At one time logging railroads could
be found from coast to coast, but the Simpson Railroad was the only remaining logging railroad operation in the United States. Now only the isolated Englewood Railway on Canada’s Vancouver Island remains as the last logger in all of North America. The closing of the Simpson Railroad brings to an end 125 years of continuous timber railroading along Puget Sound. It is fitting that one of the nation’s oldest operating logging railroads was also the last one standing. Such longevity is truly a testament to the workers that made Simpson such a special operation.
SIMPSON TIMBER CO. FINAL DIESEL ROSTER NUMBER MODEL
YEAR HERITAGE
STC 900 EMD SW9 1955 Built new for STC STC 1200 EMD SW1200 1956 “ “ STC 1201 EMD SW1200 1956 “ “ STC 1202 EMD SW1200 1959 ex-BN 259, ex-FWD 610
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