The Farthest North Garden Railway:
 Planning the Great Northern Phase II Layout (GN-Phase II): The heritage of the Roslyn Washington coal mines

  
   
     
   
 

So far the established railroad lines for the Phase II project were two: The Alaska Railroad and the Great Northern. I had already converted a 40-2 to battery power and had the shop repaint it in the AKRR colors. In 2008 I added two USA SD-70 Macs--the type of locomotive currently used by the Alaska Railroad (AKRR).   

  
   
 

The Great Northern passenger consist leaves the CRD bar on the new Phase II wye in 2006 on its first run on the new Llagas track. I purchased the AB units from NWRCS earlier that year. (Click image).

Meanwhile I was delighted to learn that Roslyn was in reality an old railroad town. On the other hand, Roslyn was not on the Great Northern line as I had hoped. It had come into being directly as a result of the need of another transcontinental railroad--the Northern Pacific--to establish a town there to exploit rich coal veins in the immediate area. Thus, Roslyn was not only a historic railroad town, but it owed its very existence to the railroad.

  
  abandoned depot at Cle Elum  
  The railroad right-of-way, which still shows up on some maps of Roslyn, is an old coal line which was built in 1886 and abandoned in 1963 when the last coal mine along this short line finally closed down. The coal was used to fuel the NP steam locomotives.   
   
   
 
Above: Historic photos of two of the NP Roslyn coal mines
 
 
 Roslyn has a very rich history rooted in the coal mines of the Northern Pacific Railroad. I count nine mines similar to those seen above in the area from Cle Elum along the mainline to Ronald on the northwestern end of the coal short line.  From the standpoint of a model railroad enthusiast, not only would this be nearly impossible to ignore, but the historic legacy lends itself to all kinds of modeling possibilities.
  
   
     
One of the more obvious recent signs of this heritage is this statue of a coal miner--part of a memorial to all the miners who lost their lives in the many underground mines around Roslyn.  It seems that fatal mining accidents were a way of life in this coal mining town. This memorial was constructed in front of the building which housed the KBHR radio station from Northern Exposure--after the filming of NX. The fictional KBHR radio station was placed inside the Northwestern Improvement Company building--a huge company store for the miners and their families. 
There is also a coal-miners' mural and a museum largely dedicated to the local history of the coal mining activities. It is immediately adjacent to the Roslyn Cafe and includes this outdoor display of old coal-mining cars. It was not a difficult decision.  With such a rich mining heritage to be found here, I decided that I would incorporate some element of Roslyn's coal-mining history. 
 
Above: Coal cars outside the Roslyn Museum on West Pennsylvania Avenue.

Below: Miners' mural on a building on Roslyn's Pennsylvania Avenue. 
  
 
  Chris Stevens at Minnifield Communication Radio KBHR--the Voice of Cicely, Alaska  
The KBHR "studio" in Roslyn, Washington
KBHR sits in this building, the old Northwestern Improvement Company store in Roslyn.  A version of this building could possibly eventually become a part of the CRD model.
 
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