1983 BN Train At Trinidad

Courtesy of Brian Ambrose.

Train 3-198 on December 10, 1983

A Hysterical Map Of The Grand Coulee Dam

Two-mile Tunnel Is New Superlative For Coulee

From the "Spokesman Review."

December 23, 1946

Spirited Moses Lake Bids

From the Ellensburg "Record."

December 7, 1970

1911 NP AFE Davenport Culvert

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

Do You Remember?

From the Spokane "Press."

October 11, 1907

1901 NP AFE Wilbur Wye

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

Milwaukee Trains Keep On Running

From the "Spokesman Review."

March 1, 1980

A Clever Brakeman

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

February 17, 1893

1921 NP AFE Rocklyn Milk Platform

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

Crick & Kuney Work Finished

From the "Spokesman Review."

January 23, 1935

Non-Suit Berlet In Land Case

From the "Wenatchee World."

October 19, 1909

The Dam Railroad Tunnel

Article I wrote for Them Dam Writers.

In order for the construction of Grand Coulee Dam to be successful, the planners knew that a railroad would be the best option for bringing in supplies. A big concern was where to stage those supplies, and initial plans had them on the sloped bench on the east side of the river, immediately downstream of the construction site.

Railroaders like as level a track as possible; it’s easier for locomotives to start and stop trains. The problem with the dam site was a big elevation change. At the rail head at Odair, the elevation is 1676 feet. The current town of Grand Coulee is at 1520 feet. Coulee Dam is at 1150 feet. The distance from Odair to Grand Coulee allows the elevation change to happen gradually, so it’s still easy for trains to run. The drastic change from Grand Coulee to Coulee Dam happens in a short distance, and in a dramatic way.

The surveyors for the railroad developed a way down to a point on the river where a bridge could be used to get to the staging site. The curves would be sharp, but not unreasonable. The east-side bench was envisioned as the location of the concrete mixing plant, machine shops, warehouse, affiliated structures, and the MWAK field engineer's office at the 1020-foot elevation level. A steam shovel was put to work leveling off the 5- to 10-degree slope for this plan.

On October 29, 1934, plans were announced by Harvey Slocum, construction superintendent for MWAK, for a 150- to 200-foot-long tunnel, to be bored through a solid granite mass, northwest of the Engineer's Town site. The tunnel was to be located about 100 feet from the spot where the construction contracts for two adjoining railroad right-of-ways were to meet. One was being built from Odair to the damsite by David H. Ryan, and the other by the Spokane construction firm of Crick & Kuney, which built the remaining grades around the damsite, among other things.

The tunnel was necessary in order to do away with a nearly impossible turn along the outside of the 800-foot, solid rock wall. By making the tunnel, no sharp curve would be necessary. Locomotives and cars would then be able to run along the outside of the mountain of rock to a curve near the river, over a railway bridge, and then along the 1020-foot level on the east shore. Bridge construction had started back on October 1 and had finished 2 weeks later.

Tunnel construction kicked off on November 29 with crews jack-hammering and blasting the granite face on the south side of the tunnel. By December 7, the bore hole was large enough that it was beginning to get dark inside in the daytime.

After the first of the year, crews were about 35 feet into the rock. The muck was being hauled out by wheelbarrows. Behind the drillers, a group of carpenters followed who were timbering the roof. It was assumed that the tunnel would be completed in another month, and that together, the tunnel and grade below would consume two months total.

The weather at this time had been around negative-5 degrees, with a biting wind. Night-shift workers claimed it wasn't any fun to face the cold blasts, and one of them swore to “never leave Santa Barbara again” once this job was completed.

About March 11, work was resumed after being shut down for roughly six weeks to provide more men to work on the cofferdam. By this time, 85 feet had been completed. From the north end of the bore, the grade outside of the tunnel had been leveled off to the bridge. Workers were reporting that the blue granite, through which their jack hammers were biting, was the hardest rock they had ever worked with. Frequent re-sharpening of tools and a minimum feet-per-hour was caused by the hard rock. The project overall was not being hurried to completion at the time, since there were no scheduled shipments of cement to the dam site until the latter part of the summer, at the earliest.

The crews had not used the typical method of boring a small-diameter hole the entire length of the tunnel and then expanding that bore to full tunnel size. The tunnel was instead blasted and hammered partway, then the small-bore method was used for the second half.

By May 13 there was roughly thirty feet to go. Drilling and blasting continued, making up the full size of the tunnel, and a week later, the entire bore was completed. It was 20-feet high and 15-feet wide. It was also on a 5% grade, meaning the tracks would rise five feet over a distance of 100 feet, which is very steep for a railroad. This is why logging locomotives were to be used, since they employed a gearing scheme to compound their effort in pulling loads up a grade, sacrificing speed for pulling power.

After seven months on a two-month project, word from MWAK came that it did not plan to use the railroad to bring material to the east side of the river, as originally intended. With the heavy grade work between the cliff and Engineers’ Town, a nagging slide area near the tunnel, the instability of the bank on the east side of the bridge, and then a curve on the east side that would be too sharp, it was decided that anything needed on the east side could be hauled by trucks.

The mainline to the tunnel was stub-ended a short distance from the portal, a few railroad-car lengths beyond a switch that led to a track at a lower elevation heading towards the dam. That switch led to the line past the site where the Green Hut Cafe and the Visitor's Center would eventually be located. This track eventually made it all the way to the west side of the right powerhouse.

Other project changes included building the staging yard near Electric City, with the railroad delivering finished items to the construction site via either the car skip or the switchbacks. Cement unloading was constructed above the dam and a series of pipes moved the powder to the mix plant on the west side of the construction face. Limited rail access to the east side of the dam was made via the construction trestle over the face of the growing dam.

Today, a small sign in the parking lot for the Coulee Dam City Hall marks the location of the tunnel. Access means crawling through the brush, crossing Fiddle Creek, and then climbing the slope to the tunnel. Both ends have been fenced off, as rock does occasionally fall inside the bore. The grade on both ends of the tunnel can be followed, but below the tunnel, the grade edges private property boundaries. The curve at the bottom of the grade toward the bridge location has completely changed and traces are hard to find anymore.

The granite bluff with the tunnel through it can be seen on the left side of the photo, just to the right of what is now the Coulee Dam City Hall. The grade from the tunnel to the MWAK bridge on the right is very evident.

A portion of penstock is being trucked over the MWAK bridge. Near the uppler left corner, the tunnel can be seen. Note you can see daylight through it at this angle.

Classic view of the tunnel as looking toward the east bank of the Columbia River. The trestle in the foreground is crossing Fiddle Creek.

Current view of the tunnel, looking towards the east bank of the Columbia River. The metal bridge over the river can just be seen between the telephone poles.

View through the tunnel from the north side, looking up the grade.

View of the granite rock through with the tunnel passes.

View of the tunnel from the south side, when peering through the chain link fence.

The old sign in the city hall parking lot. The current sign says the same thing.

Four Lakes Siding

Guest post by Ted Curphey.

I found this 1943 topo map that shows a siding at Four Lakes, WA along the NP CW branch. In modern terms the siding extended from the I-90 overpasses to half way to Craig Rd. The siding was gone from the 1954 maps. I had not previously realized there was a siding there. A few years ago the switch into the Highline facility was installed into the mainline about the mid-point of the old siding.

Adrian Irrigation Flume

Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society.

The site of the flume seen here, taken from near the NP engine terminal near the GN depot at Adrian, is now county road 20.7 NE. The dry channel of Crab Creek is below the flume.

1918 NP AFE Davenport Well

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

1912 NP AFE Mitchell Spur

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

Govan Ghosts

Guest post by Frederick Manfred Simon.

January 10, 2018

Eerily silent – the florescent landing lights and glow of what at first glance appears to be an alien craft counting down to liftoff thrusting its rocket, spear-like plume of light cutting into the black, fog-cloaked pitch of Govan. A Ghost “town” of near nil inhabitants living, of a schoolhouse haunted, of infernos past repeated, and of bloody ax murders unsolved. A Dantean “place” that may as well be the netherworld: able to unnerve the steadiest of souls…in the dead of night. Mangy dogs unseen growling; howling packs of yipping coyotes in the distance near; faint shadows of concrete elevators monolithic; wraiths appear staring out from broken tattered-curtain windows of homesteads homeless. Ice-cased from the brume atmosphere the earthbound tunnel motor has just come to rest holding the CW main pending a relief crew to take her and train farther west. Further. Into twilight.

1910 Adrian Area View

Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society.

The photo was taken from the fill leading to NP bridge number 59.  On the right, the ditch of the Adrian Irrigation Company is full and flowing. The large building on the right is the Adrian Hotel.

Build Ditch At Adrian

From the "Wenatchee World."

July 25, 1908

GN Will Rebuild Mansfield Line

From the "Spokesman Review."

Courtesy of Darrin Nelson.

August 5, 1948

1910 Adrian Area View

Courtesy of the Grand County Historical Museum.

The empty channel of Crab Creek dominates this view. On the left, a GN train is on the main and approaching Adrian. Note the siding next to it, and what is probably a construction spur for the NP crews building the bridge over Crab Creek. In the center is the GN depot, and towards the right of it are section building and then the NP engine terminal, including a 2 stall roundhouse. The ditch of the Adrian Irrigation Company can be seen on the far right.

1910 Adrian View

Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Museum.

The wooden flume across the photo is for the ditch of the Adrian Irrigation Company. The GN depot is the peaked roof behind the boxcars left of center.  The hotel is in the center on the hill. Part of the NP engine terminal can be seen between the flume and the string of boxcars and reefers.

1921 NP AFE Schrag ROW Assessment

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

1915 NP AFE Bruce ROW Fence

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

Town of Adrian View

Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Museum.

About 1910.

Note the GN depot towards the right center. The Adrian Grange is the lighter colored building near the center. Note the footbridge over Crab Creek on the right.
Track to the NP engine terminal is the closest one on the right of the photo.

NP Bridge Number 59 Construction At Adrian

Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Museum.

1909-1910 time frame.

The guys are working in the channel of Crab Creek. The GN mainline can be seen in the distance to the right. 

1950s Ephrata Depot View

Courtesy of Phil Borck.

“Unbroken”

Guest post by Frederick Manfred Simon. 

January 24, 2018

Raining. Has been for days. Off, more on. Soaking the sweeping, seeded fields as gravity forces the runoff into trickles then streams that overflow every little-to-large depression ad infinitum. Morose, mercurial clouds, messengers of inclemency relentlessly release their heavy burden upon the sacrificial land. Along the miles of contouring blacktop uncovered winter wheat: this year’s harvest painting the muddy earth with neat rows of green freckles. Out here every man counts. Every man does what he is able and more to move the EWG “Scoot” down the line. Moreover, every man is “here” because he is a railroader at heart. Diesel flows through his veins, oil blackens his duds, that pungent odor of creosote rises from his steel-toed boots, and the “105” hangs proudly from his keychain. He’s at home out on the rails riding the iron horse to wherever the tracks take him. He uses his gut acumen to accomplish the task at hand; to get his machinal horses to bite into the railhead and pull thousands of wheat tons, east. Adding more and more from wherever the outbound crew has left empties that are filled or will be, soon. Today is no different. I see mechanics, Jeff and Starr who’ve been weathering the damp morning making sure the girls are good to go. True, their dresses aren’t pretty, anymore. But they’re not here for their looks but their brawn. Back in Cheney, 96 milepoles east, the crew is already on duty reviewing their track warrants, job briefing the pending work, then load – grip in hand – into the crew van for the 2-hours west with unseen crewman Murphy. But they’ll work around him. Meanwhile, bundled CWGG hands finish loading their allotment of Color Mark and “Employee-Owned” CH’s which they one-by-one muscle-spot under the crib spout across the CW Main from the brick Methodist Church using their lime green Steiger. The enduring scene produced a few memorable images, yet only one embodies the essence of the “CW.” A tradition only briefly broken by derailments, storms, and once by embargo awaiting dismantling, when wise men came together and saved it from certain death. 

Grand Coulee Dam Site Throng Cheers Railway

From the "Spokesman Review."

December 9, 1934

Cut Into Bank For Rail Line

From the "Spokesman Review."

July 30, 1935

1915 NP AFE Bridge 20 Near Bassett Junction

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

1909 NP AFE Four Lakes Spur Track

Courtesy of the NPRHA.