1934 Dry Coulee Area Profile Map

 

1898 Odair Profile Map

 

It's Bacon!

1934 

Milepost 117 as measured from Cheney.

1898 Coulee City Profile Map

 

CBRW Near Connell

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:
"I had shortlines on my mind when I took off for Eastern Washington a week ago--there are enough of them to keep one busy for a month, at least. But time was limited and near the top of the list was Nick Temple's Columbia Basin Railroad, operating former BN (Northern Pacific) and Milwaukee Road lines out of the Warden area, connected to the outside world via a BNSF connection at Connell.
Connell lies in the bottom of a coulee, or canyon, and northbound BNSF mainline trains have a tough .8% go of it on a series of several climbs ultimately to just outside of Cheney before the drop into Spokane.

"Columbia Basin has its own mountain to surmount--a little bit steeper, and certainly much shorter, but given the railroad's fleet of SD9 and GP7 and 9 locomotives on trains approaching 10,000 tons off the BNSF--well, it's a spectacle that should be plastered all over the rail magazines that people allegedly still read. Simply put: there's no place in North America where so many old EMD's gang up to hoist tonnage up a steep grade.
So Columbia Basin was near the top of the list--and it didn't disappoint. Monday trains are supposedly the heaviest, and the railroad MU'ed five SD9s and one ex-ATSF GP7 to bring a 96 car train back from the BNSF.

"The climb out of Connell is a ten-mile grade of a ruling 1.0%; included are several 7 and 8 degree curves, including one horseshoe. Much of the railroad climbing the hill out of Connell is not readily visible without driving along farmer's fields or a good hike; I put my drone up in the air to record this view of the northbound train moving through one S-curve and heading into the horseshoe curve. Pity I didn't make a recording. At 12 miles per hour, the show lasted a good 15 minutes and was a wonderful memory of days of early-generation EMD's up against it."

 

Rotary Snowplow View At Rocklyn

Photo by Dean Ferris.

Dean says:

"From my rotary chase of BN's CW Branch (now the Washington Eastern) at Rocklyn, WA on January 11, 1993."

Bridge Steel Is Unloaded

Clipping from the "Spokesman Review."

August 11, 1934.

Photos courtesy of the John Kemble collection.

$125,000 Orchard Is Sold

From the "Spokesman-Review."

February 13, 1931

BN Train At Rock Island

Photo courtesy of Dean Ferris.

Dean says:

"On August 2, 1989 a westbound intermodal passes the 1944 Whitcomb which switched the Rock Island, WA silicon plant.

1900 NP Washington Central Branch Extension Survey-In Douglas County

Location starts about a mile north of Mansfield and runs Middle Foster Creek. At this time, this is the only survey I have. Related sections are not available to me, which might show the line dropping into Brewster or Mansfield.

E-32 At Othello

Wade Stevenson photo. 

Tiflis Track Profile

 

Train Ride For Cubs During Transportation Month

From the Coulee City "News & Standard."

January 31, 1974

Scrambled Cars

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

April 12, 1949

Jardine Track Profile

 

E-39 At Othello

Wade Stevenson photo. 

E-1 At Othello

Wade Stevenson photo. 

End Of An Era

Courtesy of Tom Carver.

October 1980

"The westbound Central Washington, or CW, local ran from Spokane to Coulee City, WA, on the ex-NP branch of the same name. Out one day and back the next, it is seen here westbound at Marshall, WA., in October, 1980. Enough upgrades to the branch were finished by the following year to replace the classic 40-foot grain boxes with 100-ton covered hoppers, and would also be the last year for the Parkwater (Spokane) based F-unit fleet. It is shown here rolling over the former NP mainline from Spokane to Seattle, prior to entering the branch at Cheney. The track in the foreground was the joint Milwaukee Road/Union Pacific main and the track up on the hillside was the former SP&S line to Pasco. At one time there was an NP interlocking and tower here at the end of double track west of Spokane, located behind the last boxcars visible through the overpass."

Ride On The Mansfield Branch

Photos courtesy of Olaf Rasmussen, as found at the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum.

1981

Extra 2060 East At Beverly

Photo by James Estes.

October 4, 1969

Seiler Track Profile

 

McDonald Track Profile

 

Goodrich Track Profile

 

Moses Lake Track Profile

 

Milwaukee E-4 At Othello

Wade Stevenson photo. 

1946

Speeder Adventures on the Mansfield Branch

Photos courtesy of Olaf Rasmussen, as found at the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum.

1986