Last night the Shelton City council voted to tear down the Simpson roundhouse rather than turn it into a museum. They did vote to accept a piece of property from Simpson without holding the company responsible for any environmental damage. This leaves the future of the railroad equipment doubtful. Anybody want a 60 foot turntable?

What happened to all the locomotives and shop equipment ?

Facebook group formed (see Flimsies), with a goal of preserving the roundhouse. It's a start, and I wish them well.

AlcoC420,

What part of "doutful" is unclear. If anybody want's anything contact Sierra Pacific Industries. Here is the status of the four locos:

#900 “CITY OF ELMA” EMD SW900 C/N 20609 5-55
To Sierra Pacific Industries Shelton, WA 04-15 (not used)
Donated to unknown
(setting in roundhouse 10-16)
#1200 “CITY OF SHELTON” EMD SW1200 C/N 20634 4-56
To Sierra Pacific Industries Shelton, WA 04-15 (not used)
(setting in roundhouse 10-16)
#1201 “CITY OF McCLEARY” EMD SW1200 C/N 20635 5-56
To Sierra Pacific Industries Shelton, WA 04-15 (not used)
Western Washington RR Chehalis, WA 09-16
#1202 “CITY OF MONTESANO” EMD SW1200 C/N 25046 3-59
ex-CB&Q (FW&D) #610
to Burlington Northern (FW&D) #610 (renumbered to #259)
to Pacific Transportation Services (dealer) Tacoma, WA 1983
to Simpson 1984
To Sierra Pacific Industries Shelton, WA 04-15 (not used)
Western Washington RR Chehalis, WA 09-16

Fat lot of good a Facebook group does when you can't even see it.

[quote="John T"]AlcoC420,

What part of "doutful" is unclear.

I do not see it necessary to be smart about it.

When you say the city was going to tear the roundhouse down and ask if anyone wanted a 60 foot turntable, then I took that to mean that NONE of this is needed any more. So if the roundhouse and the turntable are not needed, I assumed that the equipment was sold.

Now doing a goggle search, shows that the mill was sold.

So I ask a very simple question, did not need a snide remark.

Simple answer: Equipment sold with the mill or Simpson still owns the equipment.

Simple answer=I don't know. All of the railroad equipment was sold to Sierra Pacific Industries. You would have to ask them about sale or donation.

Wow, what a comedown from what Simpson once was.

I first visited there in `1967 or '68. Got a pass to be on the property
and the first thing that I saw when I went into the roundhouse was an
engine wiper at work. All 4 engines shined like new, pride in ownership.

For those interested, I found the Shelton City Commission meeting online:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPjjy6TNboA&feature=youtu.be

The discussion of the Roundhouse begins at 45:45 and lasts until 1:52:00.

Having listened to the entire portion of the meeting relevant to the Simpson Railroad/Roundhouse acquisition, they did NOT vote to tear down the roundhouse. They can't as they do not even own it.

The city was separately offered the railroad and the roundhouse for free in exchange foe indemnity to Simpson Lumber. The motion that passed was to accept the railroad and explore operations (not rail-trail which was one option considered) and to not accept the roundhouse. It was pretty clear one member was in favor of accepting the roundhouse and two opposed. For the railroad, two favored acquisition and exploration of operation (freight was implied), one acquisition for rail trail (he changed to exploration of operation).

Public comment was pretty evenly split. Those opposed were so due to concerns over environmental liability and the budgetary woes of the city. Some opposed acquisition of both the railroad and the roundhouse and some only the roundhouse.

The end result is that the roundhouse is left with Simpson Lumber. They might well choose to tear it down or leave it for now, but that was not mentioned at all in the meeting. The railroad will be acquired by the city and operations will be investigated. That seems to mean the rails are safe for the moment pending the investigation. The member in favor of acquiring the roundhouse tried to pass a motion that they would acquire the railroad and explore operations and defer a decision on the roundhouse to study it more, and neither other member would second the motion, so it seems they did not want to hear any more about it.