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The Northern Pacific installed GRS Model 2-A semaphores on the west side of Stampede Pass in 1914. By the
time I got around to photographing what remained in 1980 there were surprisingly quite a few left.
Immediately out of Auburn at Milepost 102 you could find semaphores all the way to Ravensdale at Milepost
87. At Kanaskat the next siding to the east searchlight signals were in place. The ex-NP semaphores in Northern Idaho and Western Montana lasted much longer than those in Washington as MRL who leased the line from BN in late 1987 has been slow to replace them. There were eight semaphores in Northern Idaho along MRL trackage from Sandpoint, ID to Hope, ID. From west to east, a single blade was located just east of Kootenai, ID at MP 113.8 (113.8 miles west of Paradise, MT) and then three sets of two east of there with one final single semaphore at MP 105.7 west of Hope, ID. These were all installed by the NP in 1914. The pair of blades at MP 1122/1123 were easily viewed alongside Highway 200 as were the two on the Pack River Fill at MP 1078/1079. The set on the Pack River Fill were without doubt the most photographed set of semaphores in Idaho. The others took a little effort to photograph. All had permissive type blades painted yellow and black. A few of the blades had some interesting changes before being removed. The blade mounted at MP 1122 was replaced with a red blunted end semaphore blade sometime between 1988 and 1991. And the semaphore furthest east at MP 1057 had what appears to be a solar panel attached to the mast by 1996. In a one day blitz on March 30, 1998 they were all removed and replaced with more modern signals by MRL. And now on to the Gallery.... |
