|
| Title | Seattle Renton & Southern Line maintenance car, Seattle, ca. 1916 |
| Photographer | Unknown |
| Date | ca. 1916 |
| Caption | Louis "Pa Hip" is the moustachioed gentleman leaning out of the window of the streetcar he built. Hipkins, a master mechanic and blacksmith, created the vehicle at the car barns that once stood at Rainier Avenue and Hudson Street. The work car serviced the line that ran from downtown Seattle along the shores of Lake Washington to Renton. |
| Notes | Handwritten on verso: Taken in Seattle 1916 or 1917. S.R.S. - No 1 - (Seattle Rainier Street Car Line).
Stewart Moline standing (left). 1 - ? 2 - Mac Mannis. 3 - Known only as Oscar.
This work car ran on 4th Avenue to Stewart Street where it turned to go back to Rainier Valley to Renton. (Passenger ran every 1/2 hour.)
Caption taken from RVHS records.
See transcribed article in "Additional Information" below for more information. |
| Subjects | Street railroads--Washington (State)--Seattle
Railroad construction & maintenance--Washington (State)--Seattle
Street railroad employees--Washington (State)--Seattle
|
| Places | United States--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Digital Collection | Rainier Valley Historical Society Photograph Collection |
| Accession Number | 93.001.456 |
| Ordering Information | To order a copy of this photograph, please email Rvhsoffice@aol.com and mention the Accession Number. |
| Repository | Rainier Valley Historical Society, Seattle |
| Repository Collection | Hall-Summers Collection |
| Physical Description | 1 photographic print mounted on cardboard: b&w; 5 x 6 1/2 in. |
| Type | Image |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned as a 3000 pixel TIFF image in 8-bit grayscale, resized to 640 pixels in the longest dimension and compressed into JPEG format using Photoshop 6.0 and its JPEG quality measurement 3. |
| Additional Information | The Maintenance Car of the Seattle Renton & Southern Line, circa 1916. This is the shop-built locomotive used as a repair car for maintenance work on the streetcar line between Renton and Seattle. The car traveled along Rainier Avenue from Renton to downtown Seattle, then up 4th Avenue to Stewart Street. This photo was taken in 1916 or '17. It was also used for hauling coal cars, probably from Newcastle, and delivering them to one of the many fuel yards along Rainier Avenue that in turn delivered the coal to their customers' homes by horse and wagon.
Louis Hipkins, looking out of the cab window on the locomotive, was the master mechanic and blacksmith that built the locomotive at the company car barns on Rainier Avenue at Hudson Street. He was known as "Pa Hip" to all his friends and fellow employees.
He worked for the car line, building and repairing the cars for 47 years. When the car line changed ownership, which it did many times, the new owners insisted he remain with the company before the sale was finalized.
The line ceased operations on January 1st, 1937, ending 47 years of private transportation service. The Rainier Valley line was the only streetcar line that was not bought and operated by the city. There were several owners over the 47 years and they all lost money except Mr. Osgood, the original investor. When the rail line ceased operating, city buses took over the transportation needs of the Valley.
When Pa Hip retired, he and his wife moved to their cabin on Camano Island where about ten Columbia City residents also built summer homes. The post office address for their "little community" was what else but "Columbia City #2, Camano Island, Washington."
By Buzz Anderson, 9/27/00 |
