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.