BN 8075 At East Adrian

Courtesy of Brian Ambrose.

November 7, 1981.

1964 Moses Lake Sugar Beet View

The caption of this one says these beets are being loaded at the U&I sugar plant in Moses Lake, but I'm having a hard time placing the location based on the background hills. Anyone care to venture a guess?

Ryan Awarded Contract For Dam Railroad

From the "Spokane Press."

July 18, 1934

US Eyes Ryan Work In Coulee

From the "Spokesman Review."

June 28, 1934

Milk Cans On The NP

Email from the NP Telltale email group.

By Doug Nighswonger

August 2001

"IN 1972, WHILE FOLLOWING THE LOCAL FROM COULEE CITY EAST I STOPPED AT THE DEPOT AT ALMIRA, WA ON THE FORMER NP CENTRAL WASHINGTON BRANCH. ON THE DEPOT PLATFORM SITTING IN THE SHADE WERE SEVERAL MILK CANS WITH THE SHIPPING TAGS ON THEM. 

"THE AGENT INFORMED ME THAT THEY STILL SHIPPED MILK TO A CREAMERY IN SPOKANE IN THE CABOOSE ON A BAGGAGE RATE. THE CANS WERE SILVER WITH THE LIDS PAINTED YELLOW. NOT ONLY WAS MILK STILL BEING SHIPPED BUT TELEGRAPH WAS THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN STATIONS. ON BRANCH LINES THINGS SOMETIMES TAKE A LONG TIME TO DIE OUT."

Milw 200 At Roxboro

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Flush with autoracks, container traffic, mechanical reefers and general merchandise, a late-running train #200 approaches Roxboro, WA, on August 26, 1978, behind SD's 17-138-143-15.

Coulee Dam Princesses

From the "Spokane Chronicle."

December 11, 1934

Difference Of Decades Bridge 126

Vintage photo courtesy of the NP Telltale.

1924 view versus 2018 view.

This is the bridge that came off of the NP at Adco and connected with the GN siding and then for a time the NP engine terminal near the GN depot. A map is included below all this to help give vision to the situation.

This crop of a topo map shows the NP entering the scene from near top left and splitting, with the right leg connecting to the GN while the left leg continues over the GN for points south.

 This map lays out the location of the NP engine terminal and has a note about how there is an agreement between the GN and NP for use of the GN siding for access by the NP to the engine terminal.

1940 Grand Coulee Dam View

Courtesy of the University of Idaho.

Easily seen on the far side of the downstream side of the dam are the railroad grades, including the line through the tunnel to the bridge on the far right of the image. This bridge was built for railroad use, but never actually was used for rail.

1908 NP AFE Reardan Track Extension-UPDATED!

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

Bill Maltby was kind enough to send along the following additional material:


I noticed the May 22 edition of your great blog on Big Bend Railroad History shows the AFE for a siding built in Reardan for Washington Water Power. This was almost surely for delivering parts for the construction of Little Falls Dam which was being built about that time. Little Falls didn't get its own construction railroad like Long Lake Dam did. (Long Lake is 5 miles upstream from Little Falls on the Spokane River).


This photo is probably the unloading area at the siding in Reardan. The two things that look like wheels are the rotor for the generators. There are also some heavy steel castings that I recognize as parts of the turbine scroll case.

The parts unloaded were then hauled north through the woods with this fine looking machine.

Here's another shot of the tractor with a "train". This shot appears to have been taken at the curve at the bottom of the hill where Little Falls Road drops down from the flats into the Spokane River Gorge. This hill needs careful driving in a modern vehicle. It must have been quite a thrill with the tractor and trailers.

I do have some construction photos of Little Falls that show narrow gauge tracks and small steam saddle tank switchers. I guess they were hauled in by the tractor or horses and used to move dirt from excavations.
This shot shows a steamer just downstream of the Little Falls power house.

More can be seen on the railroad that helped build the Long Lake Dam can be seen here.

1906 NP AFE Coulee City Freight House Extension

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

1890 Spokane Falls Map-Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern

Black line coming from the red circle in center heading up towards left then around the left edge of map before departing the edge at bottom left.

The bridge over the Spokane river was also used by the GN, along with the connecting track to the center of town, until the GN built their own bridge across the river.

US Construction Railroad Construction News Clippings

Courtesy of Jay Kemble.

From the "Okanogan County Rancher."
March 20, 1936

From the "Spokane Chronicle."
December 21, 1934

Adrian Roundhouse And Turntable Views

Vintage photos courtesy of the NP Telltale.

See this location today here.

In the background you can see Northern Pacific Bridge 59 crossing over the Great Northern tracks. The GN depot and train order signal is peeking from the left of the building in the top center.

There is no sign of the roundhouse having been built, but you can still walk around in the turntable pit and there is still a piece of concrete in the middle with a 1903 cast date in it.

1939 Grand Coulee East Mixplant View

1925 USGS Map-Marcellus Branch

Sinkholes On The Mansfield Branch

Photos courtesy of Scott Reiman of Douglas County Road Department.

May 2000

Good thing these sinkholes over the tunnel near McCue developed in 2000. The line was abandoned in 1985 and the tunnel sealed off at that time. It did make a mess of the county road that passed over the top.

April 2009 views:

1956 GN Electrics At Wenatchee

These popped up on Ebay recently, coupled with a page of photos of Grand Coulee Dam.

Thanks to Kurt Moose for bringing these to my attention!

5011 sitting at the engine house at Appleyard. As I recall, it was the last of the Y class engines to go to the Pennsylvania Railroad.

All of the class Z-1 engines lined up east of the main yard, likely before movement to the scrapper.

Milwaukee Train 200 At Warden

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Train #200, eastbound at Warden, WA

Crossing the gap on the beautiful summer afternoon of August 29, 1978 with units 44/135/182 on 60 cars. ABS signalling with GRS searchlights were in use between Othello and Marengo.

Waterville Railway Stockholder Letter

Courtesy of Darrin Nelson. See his fine blog here.

Difference Of Decades Adrian Trestle Number 59

Vintage 1979 photo courtesy of Nick Nicholas.

2018 view.

Difference Of Decades Adrian Trestle Number 59

Vintage 1936 photo courtesy of the NP Telltale.

2018 view.

In the 1936 view you can see a signal mast underneath the bridge in the distance. The concrete pad for it still exists today.

Difference Of Decades Adrian Bridge Number 59

Vintage 1936 photo courtesy of the NP Telltale.

2018 view.

Ross Sterling Mystery Photo-Milwaukee Road At Where?

Photo by Ross Sterling.

Scan attempts made by numerous people. Thanks to all that tried to help.

The late Ross Sterling of Moses Lake had a couple of poorly exposed photos in his collection. Here is the second one:

Hard to tell much of what is going on here, other than a GP9 on the point. The cleanup attempts from my friends did help:

Now we can see the lead unit number, 289, which was known to be assigned to the Mosey Local for quite some time up to 1980. What is not known is the location of the photo, nor what kind of GE locomotive is trailing the 289. Anyone care to hazard a guess?