St.Maries River Railroad

St.Maries Idaho is one of my favorite places. I grew up near here and used to frequent the St.Maries yard when it was the Milwaukee Road. The St.Maries River Railroad was created in 1980 from part of the remnants of the Milwaukee Road in north Idaho. Potlatch Forest Industries purchased the Milwaukee mainline from Avery to Plummer Jct and the Elk River branch line from St.Maries to Bovill. They are now operating from the Regelus Mill east of St.Maries to Plummer Jct. on the Milwaukee former main line and from St.Maries to Clarkia on the Elk River branch line. Operations are M-F with the Clarkia logger running to Clarkia in the afternoons. The Plummer turn usually runs 3 days a week to connect with the UP at Plummer Jct.

St.Maries west yard

This is a shot from inside St.Maries River Railroad GP 9 #101(former Milwaukee Road unit) shoving into the scale track. The St.Maries depot is to the right and the engine house to the left. The GP9 is shoving the loads that need to be weighed. The loads have just been picked up from the PFI Mill in St.Maries and will be taken to Plummer later this afternoon and will be interchanged there with the Union Pacific. The UP will take the loads to Spokane on a portion of the old Milwaukee Passenger line.

St.Maries #103 in the St.Maries Engine House

In 1995 I shot the St.Maries River Railroad GP9 inside the St.Maries engine house, during a routine maintenance procedure. This place is spotless.

St.Maries SW1200 #502 returning from Regelus

This is a recent shot of St.Maries SW 1200 #502 with a pretty healthy cut of loads from the Regelus Mill, just east of St.Maries on the former Milwaukee mainline. #502 hauled these back to St.Maries where they were scaled and taken that afternoon to Plummer Jct. to be interchanged with the UP. click here to return to the main page