The disconnect in front of Renton History Museum is now connected again, thanks to last week’s installation of three western red cedar logs.
“We’re just really excited to have them back,” says Liz Stewart, Renton History Museum director. “People actually noticed that they were gone.”
Some of those people – making up a small crowd – gathered to watch the logs’ arrival last Thursday morning.
The disconnect, an old logging exhibition, was installed outside the museum in 1981. This was the third time the logs have been replaced. The last three rotting logs were removed last winter.
The fresh set of three logs, each 42 feet long, connect two diconnected trucks, built by Pacific Car and Foundry in 1923. When in use, this logging contraption would run on railroad tracks, as a way of transporting logs to timber mills.
Stacked atop each other, the logs are the only connection between the two trucks. The logs were not usually tied down, but attached to the teeth of the disconnect. Disconnects were used to transport especially long logs, up to 80 feet long, Stewart says. These logs usually went from wherever they were cut, to Lake Washington, then to Elliot Bay, and San Francisco for construction. The long logs, typically Douglas Firs, were often used for telephone poles, pilings, or masts or yardarms of ships.
According to a PACCAR document, a crew of three to four brakemen would ride along with the loads of logs on the disconnects. It was their job to keep the logs from pulling apart when going uphill or smashing together when going downhill. The trains would go only about 5 to 7 mph. Disconnected trucks could be reattached so they could travel empty back to the loading site.
Stewart says disconnects were used in the Renton area from the 1880s until 1959. The local May Creek Logging Co. used disconnects like the one outside Renton History Museum.
Renton’s disconnect was originally built for a logging company is Southwest Washington. Weyerhaeuser was the last owner and user, in Longview. The stretch of track in front of the museum was donated by Burlington Northern.
The new logs in the museum’s exhibit were tracked down by City Forester Terry Flatley. The logs had been trees in Bonney Lake that were cut down to make room for a new house. Knotty Tree Service cut down the trees and brought them to Renton History Museum last Thursday morning. A crane lifted and set the logs atop the disconnect.
Stewart expects the new logs to last 10 years. They will have to be replaced once they show signs of rotting, so they don’t roll off the exhibit. The largest log weighs 12,000 pounds.
