It took almost 20 years for the Northern Pacific's competition to arrive on Gray's Harbor. In the case of the Milwaukee Road, it was a result of an agreement with the Union Pacific.
The Milwaukee's connection to the branch was even more complicated than the Union Pacific's. The Milwaukee had long been wooing Tacoma Eastern Railroad head John Bagley. The Tacoma Eastern extended southeast from Tacoma to the foot of Mt. Rainier, then rolled even further south through the back country of western Washington. When Milwaukee trackage rights over Tacoma Eastern rails ran out, the Milwaukee simply built lines off the ends of Tacoma Eastern rail heads, eventually putting Milwaukee trains into Olympia, Maytown, Chehalis and Raymond on Willapa Harbor.
Construction began in March, 1909, at Maytown and ended at Helsing Junction (originally “Portola,” 12 miles west of Centralia), where joined the Union Pacific. The branch ran along south side of the Chehalis River valley, roughly paralleling the Northern Pacific line in the north. The new arrivals learned from the Northern Pacific's blunder in Ocosta and ran their line directly to Aberdeen. It was opened to traffic on as far as Aberdeen on August 15, 1910. The Milwaukee and the UP joined the Northern Pacific in building joint facilities in both Aberdeen and Hoquiam, putting in a small engine facility in the latter city. The only construction which followed was a short line from Montesano to South Montesano, which opened May 30, 1913.
The strange system of Class I and logging railroad was unified when the
Milwaukee bought up the Tacoma Eastern in 1918.
References
Tempest in the Timber by J. A. Phillips, III http://pw2.netcom.com/~whstlpnk/harbor.html
Grays Harbor Railroads by Mike Davidson http://www.wagenweb.org/graysharbor/railroads/ghrr.html
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