Larry Sloan did a clinic recently describing an industrial warehouse with a bow string roof structure. It inspired me to revisit an area I became very familiar with during my 40- year career as an industrial real estate broker. My clients included Foss Maritime, Olympic Stain, Colonial Cedar Products and Marco Marine.
Lake Union was once a very busy complex of warehousing and shipping served by rail and ships. The Great Northern served both sides of the Lake Washington Ship Canal with extensive trackage in the area now home to Amazon and fine waterfront restaurants. Many of the buildings along Westlake had rail service and Terry Avenue had significant trackage before the Terry Avenue Freight house there became a fine restaurant. So, let’s take a tour of the area using Google Earth and photographs I shot in the 1970’s of the many interesting structures and businesses.
There will be many locations that can inspire intricate trackwork, scratch-built structures and operational challenges. This is a chance to see buildings not available as Cornerstone kits.
Russ Segner
Welcome to the 4th Division
The Model Railroading Guide for Train Enthusiasts from age 3 to 93!
Is this clinic live or taped?
Hi Russ,
I’m interested. Will this be a virtual event?
That’s why we need more 3D artists making custom buildings…
Tip of the hat to the Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern, the first standard-gauge railroad in Seattle !
In 1885, after the Northern Pacific announced its choice of Tacoma as its western terminal over long-time rival Seattle, Seattle business interests determined that they needed a railroad of their own to serve their businesses. Led by Judge Thomas Burke and Daniel Gilman, they organized the Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern Railway, to build their own trans-continental railroad with a Seattle terminal, and make themselves millionaires.
Within just a couple of years, they built their railroad north from the Columbia Street waterfront ( near the present-day ferry terminal ) through Interbay to a trestle near Fremont ( west of the present auto drawbridge ). From there, they built west to the busy commercial town of Ballard and east along the north shore of Lake Union, then to Kenmore, Bothell, and Woodinville. From Woodinville Junction, the main line ran south to Issaquah, then east to Fall City, Snoqualmie, and North Bend. The North Branch ran through Snohomish to Sumas and a junction with the Canadian Pacific.
Fearing competition, the Northern Pacific bought them out, and merged with them by 1901.
You can still visit the Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern a couple of ways.
The roadbed was converted to a network of county bicycle trails, including the Burke Gilman Trail ( honoring founders Burke and Gilman ), the Sammamish River Trail, the East Lake Sammamish Trail, and the Preston-Snoqualmie Trail.
https://kingcounty.gov/services/parks-recreation/parks/trails.aspx
And by rail, you can ride the Snoqualmie Valley Railroad at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie and North Bend.
https://www.trainmuseum.org/index.php/visit-us/regular-trains
Happy Rail-Fanning !