[admiral]

Last Wednesday I had a hard decision to make, take a ride on a very, very windy and warm day, or not . . . So I did!



Due to some muddy off road conditions, and the fact my dementia hasn't kicked in (i.e. I can still remember my crash in the sand wash from a week ago), I decided this was gonna be one of my very rare pavement only rides. Not counting the driveway that is!



Well, as the title states, I decided to ride to some old railroad depot's here in the "crazyhood", and capture some "other stuff" when the opprotunity arose.



Note: After completing this ride, I discovered there wasn't enough time to complete my whole tour, so as I suggested to B-Dub on his navigational arrow thread, I will make this a series and continue posting other rides I take to railroad depot's here in my neck of the woods.



Note II: I'm not a railroad buff my any means, nor a history professor, so most of the historical stuff is what I found after quick www searching of a particular place.



Departure: Wednesday, 1100 hrs. Temp 55 degrees, winds 55 mph. Well, the winds are more like 30, but felt 55.



ATTACK WEEDS . . . not long after I began my ride, I came up over a rise in the road and had to quickly dodge this stuff. Only after successfully avoiding this suff and stopping, did I realize they were weeds trying to cross the road, with the help of the wind.

What's for Dinner Ma . . . We all have strange street signs, 'round here's no exception.

Abandoned Farm . . . Just imagine what once was

Huston, we have a problem . . . Old Huston, Id school. School District #30.

Tried to find a photo of the school when it was in use with no luck. Did find this photo when it had tree's out front. There are no signs tree's ever exsisted nowdays.

First Stop . . . Caldwell, ID RR Depot.

I believe the city perserved it and rents it out for weddings and chicken dinners!

Here's what it use to look like back in the day

I have more of last Wednesdays ride to post, but I have to go push the grocery cart for the wife, so I'll finish this segment tomorrow.

 

[B-dub]

Oh yeah!!! This is gonna be good!!! Did I mention I like trains, too, and old abandoned homesteads, and ....? (I have too many interests for my own good) I always enjoy your reports, and am looking forward to more of this one!

 

[elime]

The abandoned farmhouse really struck me. It made me wonder what the lives of the people who lived there was like and why was it abandoned. I bet it is a story that is lost for all time. I am looking forward to the rest of your ride.

 

[rm_hm]

Sites like this http://www.brian894x4.com/AbandonedRRmainpage.html

give me inspiration to go out searching for old stuff.

 

[admiral]

I'll finish this first day's ride





The Hat . . . Currently a bus stop, which once was a trolley stop for the Boise Valley Interurban Loop in the front of the College of Idaho in Caldwell, ID

I'd been by this bus stop hundreds of times without realizing there was a history behind the stop. Local newspaper article brought it to my attention several

years ago when the stop was restored. At some point this stop was nicknamed "The Hat" because similarity to a hat, I guess.

What it looked like back in the early 1900's. Boise Valley Interurban was a electric street car system in the Boise Valley, now called Treasure Valley. The interurban

was shutdown in 1928.

You can't park here . . . said the nice gentleman as I parked in front of the Nampa, ID RR Depot. "I'll be just a miniute" as he leaves me alone seeing I was just taking

a picture and wasn't planning on setting up a road block!

Yesteryear . . . I love the architecture of these old railroad depot's. I'm glad some communities were able to save them from the wrecking ball. This one is now a

musuem.

All aboard . . . next stop, Star, Id.



Coffee anyone? . . . this old passenger and freight building served Star, ID on the Boise Valley Interurban trolley loop, and has been converted into a Moxie Java coffee house.

You can see the owners have kept the buildings roots tied to the rail system. Also if you look closely, you can still see the freight door roller wheels above the door.

While doing some quick research, an old article mentioned the building had been moved to the east end of Star. It is now located on the west end of town, so I'm guessing it's been moved at least twice.

Old photo's of the Star Boise Valley Interurban stop

One more stop to come.

 

[admiral]

Surprised and confused in Middleton . . . started to rain while I was in Star, so I decided to head home. On my way home I rode through the town of Middleton, ID and something caught my eye. Like Caldwell, I've been through Middleton hundreds of times and never noticed this building before. So I was surprised to find a train related building, so I turned around to investigate. It is very near an old abandoned rail line to the left (out of sight) so it makes some sense. However, the abondoned rail line generally goes north and south, thus does not appear that it was related to the Boise Valley Interurban Loop, which rails ran east and west on the other side of this building.

But now some confusion sets in. While doing some research, I discovered that the building to the right in this photo is noted as the first Trolley Substation on the Interurban. So it looks like the brick building on the right is related to the Interurban, but I've not found anything mentioned of what is now the Civic Center. However, the civic center building looks train related, so I better buy the book on the Interurban so I'll know for sure.

Well, this ends the first installment of my RR Depot's and other Suff Ride. I'll be doing some similar rides in the future, so stayed tuned as I will add these upcoming rides to this thread.

 

[Roninboise]

Sites like this http://www.brian894x4.com/AbandonedRRmainpage.html

give me inspiration to go out searching for old stuff.

That RR site is very interesting.



Ron in Boise

 

[B-dub]

Looks like the area has quite a rich railroading history. I think it's cool that many of the buildings have been preserved. I enjoyed the past and present pictures. Thanks for sharing this with us. I also have an interest in old railroad grades. I've yet to ride one on my TW, but have done the original transcontinental railroad grade from Promontory Point, Utah west to Lucin, Utah. I've also driven the Uintah Railroad grade from Mack, Colorado to Watson, Utah. That was fun. The Uintah Railroad was known as the Crookedest Railroad in the West. This thread has got me thinking about doing other railroad grades. On a related note George Wyman, the first motorcyclist to make a transcontinental trip across America rode over half of his trip on the railroad because there were few decent roads at the time. Here's a little info about that. I look forward to seeing more in your series!

 

[MrDNA]

I'd love to take that ride. How long have you lived down there, admiral? Must have been amazing to watch the changes.

 

[elime]

Excellent! I also like the past/present pictures. Try to get them from the same angle if you can.

 

[admiral]

This thread has got me thinking about doing other railroad grades.

It would be fun to ride some of the old RR grades, where possible anyway. This past fall posted in a thread I can't remember right off, I road part of an old grade spur. I knew I wasn't going to go real far as I earlier been at a bridge where the deck no longer existed. However, I didn't even make it that far cause a rancher had fenced off his part of the old RR grade (no tresspassing), preventing further passage. You may have run into that or some other obstacles, such as removed bridges and what not. Sometimes there is no easy or possible go-arounds. Probably similar to trying to ride the old Route 66 hwy. But you got me thinking of some possibilities I could possibly add to this thread. That would be the "and stuff" portion. Great link you provided, fun to read about that adventure. Makes our adventures look, well, less adventure like!



Your interest in aviation (me too), gives me an idea to try and find as many backcountry airfields as I can. Maybe will add that here as well. Some are in roadless area's, so no way to ride to them (on motorcycle that is). I wonder if there are any of those navigational cement arrows here in ID.



Your sharing rides has given me more idea's. Oofta, why do we have to work!

 

[admiral]

I'd love to take that ride. How long have you lived down there, admiral? Must have been amazing to watch the changes.

Giggle, I'm old, but not old enough to have watched the changes, mostly! I was around when the Moxie Java opened up in Star. When it first opened I saw the the railroad reference stuff and wondered if there was a railroad type connection. Now I know. Plus, living as long as I have here, I had no idea about the Interurban trolley route until I started research for this thread, so I learned something.

 

[admiral]

Excellent! I also like the past/present pictures. Try to get them from the same angle if you can.

That's a good idea. Guess I need to do a little pre-planning and research in order to get the same angle, when possible. I've found some of the depot's have been moved rather than destroyed. Am thinking about one now, and I don't have a boat so probably can't get the same view since they moved the depot to a riverbank. But many I can. Thanks.

 

[MrDNA]

Yikes. I didn't mean to imply you were a vampire or anything like that. I guess it was a bit before all our time, being history and all... It just always fascinates me to see once productive things lying idle. The appeal is kind of like driving through the past. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Kankujoe]

Thanks for posting your photos & adventure for us to enjoy...

 

[lower al]

Thanks for letting us come along through your pictures

 

[admiral]

The scenic route to my daughter's track meet 5/1/2012



Thought I would update this series with a little railroad depot and other stuff. Had too (wanted too), go to my daughters track meet and decided I would ride my TW there. Well, looking out the window (actually I was pulling weeds and stuff), I thought to myself - self, why don't you take a scenic cruise on the way to the track meet. I generally agree with myself, so off I went.



My route would take me on some tar roads N.E. to Emmett, ID. Then some tar and dirt roads to Squaw Butte Fire Lookout (been wanting to visit the lookout for years). I would then head west back to New Plymouth, ID to the track meet via mostly dirt road with some tar at the end (not counting the ride home which is also tar based).



I may have gone a skosh out of my way to get to the track meet. New Plymouth is 12 miles N.W. from my house, I put on 100 and sumpin miles altogether. It was a fine day for a ride!



First stop in Emmett is the mostly abandoned Boise-Cascade sawmill. Looks eerie with nothing around but weeds and stuff.

Some old power plant info for the sawmill. Wouldn't have seen this if I hadn't pulled into the old parking lot

And here's the Emmett train depot, as far as I know

What it looked like before color photo's

I can't verify this, but the below photo is suppose to be the depot, err before trains. This according to the Gem County website I found the photo's on.

Looks similar, but if this was the same building as the depot, some modifications were done in later years.

I now head north out of Emmett toward the lookout

To be continue

 

[admiral]

5/1/2012 ride continued:



The last few miles to the lookout were very steep and washboardy (hope washboardy is a word). Regardless, the sure footed mule took me to my destination just fine.



Here's the lookout, all buttoned up for winter. The lookout is normally staffed during the fire season

View looking east sorta overlooking the Sweet/Montour, ID valley. Of course more scenic in person

View looking north with some other alien communication detection buildings in the distance

And of course I can't have a ride without a little action video

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w_hNdQNJvA[/media]





Until my next trip, enjoy, ride and above all else, have fun!

 

[B-dub]

I'm glad you got to go to the daughter's track meet, that was fun! That big powerplant is way cool. I appreciate the information you posted about it. The information and historical photos of the Emmett Depot were enjoyable as well. Beautiful views from the lookout!, and the videos sure do turn out nice with the Contour. Thanks for taking us along; I look forward to the next installment.

 

[Batman1USA]

Good Stuff!!