Little-Remarked Preservation In Southeast Idaho

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Tue Sep 21, 2021 6:13 pm

I was prepared for the one; I had not expected the other.

In preparation for my junket across remarkably railroad-desolate parts of the West, of course I looked up potential rail preservation sites and projects to visit in advance. There was a particular paucity of them in my chosen travels, but I managed to find this one:

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More info:
https://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocom ... isplay=421

https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM29XY

Now, this gets interesting--for us, at least--as the ONE example I remember so far as an actual "steam locomotive flooded and later retrieved" that we have here in the United States. Looks pretty good, no?

But THEN, see what I discovered around the corner!

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From Idaho Heritage Trust:

Quote:

The town of Conda was built in 1920 by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company to house the miners and their families engaged in the Company’s new phosphate ore mining operations about eight miles north of Soda springs. The company also built a railroad to Soda Springs that connected with the Union Pacific Line to ship their products. The Conda Bus was a motorized railroad passenger coach that ran between the two towns. It was used from 1922 to 1936 until more modern forms of transportation and good roads became available. The bus remained at Conda until 1960, when the new mine owner, J.R. Simplot, gave the bus to Willard and Betty Poulsen, Soda Springs residents who had lived in Conda. The Poulsens gifted the bus to the City of Soda Springs in 1982 and it was put in Corrigan Park and later restored. The town of Conda no longer exists.

See also http://idaho.untraveledroad.com/Caribou ... 3NSign.htm

This is apparently a 1923 White 15-passenger railbus, and railbuses are one of those many niche categories I've long paid attention to. But I had never heard of this thing until I saw it in person.

When I got home, I immediately pulled out the trilogy of books on rail motor cars by Edmund Keilty, considered the "definitive" works on the subject. And there I found the potential problem:

This car was apparently ordered from White by Anaconda to operate on their spur--built for Union Pacific service--between the "company town" of Conda and the town of Soda Springs. As such, it wasn't built for a railroad (excusing Keilty from listing it in the "White" section of Interurbans Without Wires, the "builder" book of the trilogy, which apparently only listed cars ordered by railroads); it wasn't a short line, so it escaped the "Idaho" chapter of The Short Line Doodlebug; and the connecting service, though ostensibly over a UP branch, wasn't run by UP, so it wasn't included in Doodlebug Country (the Class One Railroads doodlebug book). So this one flew right by the radar of at least this "doodlebug/railbus" fan, and no doubt many others.

In other research in the area, I'm trying to discern the history of the very serpentine line running north out of Soda Springs to what appear to be several phosphate and coal mines. It seems that Union Pacific now operates the trains on the line, but at one point it seems MDT, the past owners of Alaska RR FP7's 1508 and 1510, were operating there, and there's a tie-in there, as per the website for the FP7s' present-day home, the Verde Canyon RR:

Quote:

During the early 1980s, Western Railroad Builders constructed a rail line near Soda Springs, Idaho for the Conda Partnership (now Monsanto). They mined phosphorus used in many products such as soft drinks, toothpaste, baking and leavening agents, water treatment chemicals, insecticides and herbicides. Because of Dave [Durbano]’s railroad experience and entrepreneurial drive, he was given the opportunity to move the product on the industrial spur to the Union Pacific Railroad’s mainline.

So all I have to do now is go back and shoot a train passing the mechanically-timed geyser there:

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/308020/

John Risley · **Joined:** Tue Aug 24, 2004 10:34 pm **Posts:** 966

Nice presentation. Very interesting and I love mining history so this is really a cool find. What was the story on the submerged locomotive for those of us fascinated by what lurks under the water? Regards, John.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Sep 23, 2021 12:35 pm

John Risley wrote:

Nice presentation. Very interesting and I love mining history so this is really a cool find. What was the story on the submerged locomotive for those of us fascinated by what lurks under the water? Regards, John.

https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM29XY

Quote:

When the dam for Alexander Reservoir near Soda Springs, Idaho, was built in 1924, it hauled supplies to the dam. Trapped by rising water, the locomotive was abandoned. In 1976 the reservoir was drained for repairs, uncovering the locomotive. It was restored by Union Pacific Railroad, and presented to the City of Soda Springs.

Pretty much what the signs all say, too.