John Wayne and the CMSP&P

Dougvv · **Joined:** Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:52 pm **Posts:** 914

Hi,

The recent thread about John Wayne being atthe Golden Spike Centenial in 1969 has spured me to see if anyone knows about a myth I heard about the Duke and the Milwakee Road.

I do not recall where I heard or read it.

Supposedly, a section hand or station agent in Montana was of similar build to John Wayne and was used in distant shots and doubled in stunts.

I was courius if this was true and what the man's name was on the Milwakee Road. Any help would be appreciated.

I am a big fan of both Railroad history and John Wayne.

Thanks.

Doug vV

dinwitty · **Joined:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm **Posts:** 2226

probably if you know the movie he was in (John Wayne) you could check the credits.

There may be some movie boards, fans of John Wayne who may know every inch of this and that about John.

dinwitty · **Joined:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm **Posts:** 2226

I just did a dig and found this goodie, Chuck Robertson was one of his standins

Quote:

There is the famous story that when Chuck Roberson took his grandson around the studio the boy asked Duke what he did in films. Duke replied that he stood in for his grandad on close ups'

bad baaaaaaed....heh

other standins...

Ted White-Hatari
Jim Burke-True Grit & The Shootist
Jock Mahoney-various 40s Republic films
Chuck Hayward-The Alamo(parts, along with Chuck Roberson), North To Alaska
Fred Graham-40s Republics

Dougvv · **Joined:** Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:52 pm **Posts:** 914

Hi,

Thanks for the info.

I think this thing I'm trying to recall came from a Trains Magazine article of the Miluakee Road as it was in the 1960s or maybe as late as the early 1970s. I think maybe the article was in a 1980 or 1990 issue of Trains.

Doug vV

dinwitty · **Joined:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm **Posts:** 2226

I'm waiting for activation on a John Wayne forum to ask some questions. Apparently part of the Milwaukee road had been converted to a trail and named the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, a few tidbits on it some politicians were looking at closing the trail because of a tunnel somewhere, I'm still poking around as time goes here.

Rainier Rails · **Posted:** Sat Jan 30, 2016 4:20 am

dinwitty wrote:

I'm waiting for activation on a John Wayne forum to ask some questions. Apparently part of the Milwaukee road had been converted to a trail and named the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, a few tidbits on it some politicians were looking at closing the trail because of a tunnel somewhere, I'm still poking around as time goes here.

The segment of the former MILW Lines West mainline here in Washington is now owned by the state and known in its entirety as the "John Wayne Pioneer Trail"; the western end of the former mainline, over Snoqualmie Pass & Tunnel in the Cascade Mountains, is also known as the "Iron Horse Trail". Over in Idaho/Montana, there is a similar trail from Avery, ID, east over St. Paul Pass & Tunnel in the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Mountains.

Anyways, at the mention of the trail potentially closing due to a tunnel, I thought this was recalling the fact that part of the Iron Horse segment was indeed closed in early 2009 due to structural issues inside Snoqualmie Pass Tunnel. However, funding was found and the tunnel segment reopened in Summer 2011. Looking at the Wikipedia page for the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, I found the much-more-recent attempt to close part of the trail, quoted here:

John Wayne Pioneer Trail Page on Wikipedia wrote:

In 2015, two Washington state representatives from the 9th district attempted to include language in an amendment to the state's 2015 capital budget that would close a 130-mile-long (210 km) section of the trail east of the Columbia River. It was later revealed that a typo, referring to the closed section as “from the Columbia River to the Columbia River”, nullified the amendment temporarily.

Surprisingly, I hadn't heard anything about this before now. Looks like someone didn't check thoroughly enough for typos! Oops.

Historical content: John Crosby's MILW Coast Division website has a page on Snoqualmie Pass & Tunnel, with comparisons made to the older and adjacent NP tunnel on Stampede Pass. From just east of the respective tunnels/summits eastward down through Easton and Cle Elum, these 2 roads paralleled each other, much in the same way as they did in west central Montana.

Of course, as has been discussed before on here and elsewhere, if things had gone differently in the 1980's, instead of bicyclists, the Coast Division of the former Lines West could be hosting BNSF freights. Oh well.