Wednesday, December 24, 2014

1925 Schrag Topo Map

Map shows the grade beyond Schrag that went all the way to Ritzville. Too bad the NP did not complete the cutoff.


Friday, December 19, 2014

Train Burns On Rock Island Trestle-2

Jim Berg stopped by right after the bridge was reopened and took these photos.

Photos courtesy of Jim Berg.








Wednesday, December 10, 2014

1923 Tiflis Topo Map

A place located near the middle of no where, these 2 different railroad junctions would lead you to believe that rail operations were quite busy here. One, the Milwaukee Road from Warden to Tiflis, where the branch to Marcellus split from the branch to Moses Lake. Two, the Northern Pacific from Connell to Warden then north to Coulee City, branched at Bassett Jct for what the NP called it's "Ritzville Branch," which only had rail laid as far as Schrag, though was fully graded to Ritzville. That was to be part of a cutoff the NP intended to use to shorten it's line across the state.

Today, all of the NP tracks shown here survive, as part of the Columbia Basin Railway.