Russ Segner

This month we will hold our second new clinic in the Renton area. We will meet at 6:30 pm Thursday evening on May 26 at the Renton Highlands Library, a new library just east of I-405. The address is 2801 NE 10th St, Renton, WA 98056. Click here to see the 4D Clinics page with additional information and a map.

The focus of the meeting will be getting acquainted with fellow NMRA members interested in establishing this new clinic on an ongoing basis. Another clinic will be held June 30 at the old Renton library.

Program: “DuPont Dynamite Train – 1906 to 1975”

The DuPont Company began construction of a blasting materials plant just north of the Nisqually Delta next to Fort Lewis/McCord in 1906. The plant was to supply dynamite and black powder to mining, logging, and construction activities from northern California to Alaska. It supplied munitions to the US Military through the Vietnam War and was closed in 1975. The 1000 acre site was subsequently acquired by the Weyerhaeuser Company.

New information and photos of the plant and its railroad equipment were recently made available to us by Don Marenci, a model railroader and former resident of DuPont. The plant facility was served by the Northern Pacific with a spur from the Prairie line near exit 119 on I-5. An unusual feature of the plant was that it used a 3 foot narrow gauge railway within the plant to move materials between the manufacturing buildings and bunkers and to move finished product down a 5% grade to a wharf on Puget Sound.

Some of the rolling stock and one operating locomotive still exist on a display track at the DuPont Historical Museum. This little railroad is perfect for modeling if you like small and unusual railroad equipment. Come and learn a little of the history and be inspired to do some scratch building.