Equipment Dam-Bound

No date, but during the building of the third powerhouse at Grand Coulee Dam.

1960 Coulee City Aerial View

 Click for a very large view.

1927 NP AFE Coulee City Turntable Removal

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

Was The Siding At Adrian Built By The GN, Or The NP?

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

1920 Columbia Basin Orchards Warehouse Location

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

1968 GN View

Photo courtesy of Jerry Quinn.

I saw this in a slide show of his a few weeks ago and he was kind enough to share it with me.

1968

Location is between Stratford and Wilson Creek, as shot from SR 28.

Undated 1977 Freight Train Delay Report

Courtesy of the Casey Adams collection of the Cascade Rail Foundation.

Undated Hartline Mill Views

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

1910s Ephrata Depot View

Young photo.

Depot looked like this up through the big remodel around 1942.

Coulee City Engine Facility Scene

Photo courtesy of the Bonneville Power Administration.

Photographer unknown.

October 5, 1939.

Material is being stored here for use in the first power line between Grand Coulee Dam and Bonneville Dam. The angle iron shown will soon be bolted together as the towers to hold the power line.

Serving Larson Air Force Base

Courtesy of the Casey Adams collection of the Cascade Rail Foundation.

June 1, 1954

Warden Area Crew Complaints

From the Cascade Rail Foundation Casey Adams Files.

1928 NP AFE Coulee City Unloading Platform

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

GN Quincy Shoofly

USBR photo. Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society Museum.

February 27, 1950

Yeah, I know, where is it today? Right here!

1950 Smyrna View

USBR photo. Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society Museum.

May 5, 1950

Ephrata, Port Seek State Funds For Truck Access Route Design

From "GCJ News."

March 7, 2026

EPHRATA — Ephrata city council members on Wednesday approved an application seeking state funds to design a major arterial roadway and rail overpass that would link the north end of town at Basin Street/State Route 28 to the Ephrata Port District.

City engineer Shawn O’Brien outlined provisions of the grant application — submitted in conjunction with the port district — to the Washington State Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board.

The city and port are seeking $302,750 in state monies in 2027, with each contributing $23,625 in matching funds, for a total estimated cost of $350,000. The application deadline was Friday, March 6.

If approved, the feasibility study and engineering design would enhance the possibility of receiving additional state and federal monies in the future to construct the arterial/rail crossing, which has a preliminary estimated cost of $5 million, said O’Brien.

Both the roadway and rail overpass proposals are listed in the city’s 2026-2031 Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program.

The project’s main focus is to provide direct truck access from SR 28 to the port district, its rail spur, commercial and industrial tenants, and the Ephrata Airport. Currently, that access is limited. Trucks on the highway must enter town and turn onto East Division, or approach the port from State Route 282 along Nat Washington Way or Airport Street to the south.

The proposed connector would “provide a dedicated truck route through airport and industrial zones, not winding through residential and school zone areas, as it does now along Division Street,” Dave Bren, the city’s project engineer and grant writer, stated in the funding request.

A new north-south arterial could also ease traffic congestion at existing rail crossings at Division and Nat Washington Way, particularly for school bus traffic at certain times of the day. And, said council member Valli Millard, for residents on the northeast side of town.

“It is so congested up there,” she said.

The proposal has received letters of support from the Ephrata School District, Grant Transit Authority, and state Department of Transportation. 

Councilman Mike Warren commended city staff for pursuing the project, saying it has been a long-standing need for the community, while fellow councilman Matt Moore appreciated the collaboration with port officials.

If ultimately constructed, the new arterial would connect with State Route 28 at the intersection of Road B-NW, where the state Department of Transportation is proposing to construct a roundabout in 2028.

From that intersection, the new roadway would cross the Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail tracks via an overpass — a key component that makes the project “feasible,” said O’Brien — and continue south to an eastward extension of Third Avenue N.E.

There, the arterial would split: one roadway would proceed east from Third Avenue and connect to Railroad Street at the port district; the other roadway would continue south and link up to both East Division Avenue and Enterprise Street.

Right-of-way acquisition would involve one private property owner on the east side of the railroad tracks, said O’Brien.

Adrian School View

USBR photo. Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society Museum.

May 12, 1950

Check out the GN outfit cars in the background!

GN Cement Hopper View

USBR photo. Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society Museum. 

June 28, 1950. 

Best guess for a location is south of Adrian/Adco on the line to Wheeler, somewhere north of Gloyd. 

"Columbia Basin Project, Irrigation Division 2nd Section East Low Canal. View showing cement siding and unloading operation. Cement is trucked approximately two miles to Batch Plant."

Undated U&I Sugar View

USBR photo. Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society Museum.

No date.

"Beet stockpiles at the Utah and Idaho beet sugar factory near Moses Lake. View taken from atop one of the pulp silos. The three large piles are about 32 feet deep, 200 feet wide, and one-fourth of a mile long."

Note the 4 NP gondolas towards the upper right.

Shoofly Near Tiflis

USBR photo. Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society Museum.

September 22, 1950

Where in the heck is this spot??? It's right here!

1950 Ephrata View

USBR photo, courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society Museum.

October 10, 1950

Work is being done on the third floor of the USBR Ephrata Field Office. Prominent in the background is the 10,000 gallon water tank for the Great Northern. What other landmarks can you see?

Railway Express Delivery To Grand Coulee Dam

USBR photo. Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society Museum.

September 4, 1945

My Chase Of The "New" CBRW SD40-2s

My photos.

October 13, 2025

Koren

Frischnecht

Connell

Near the Moon Road crossing.

Moon Road crossing.

Shano

Early 1960s Beverly View

Courtesy of JoAnn Pearson

Mystery Photo Of Pretty Girls-Or Not

USBR photo. Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society Museum.

December 8, 1934

Recently I had a chance to start to look through the nearly 1 million photos donated to this museum in Ephrata by the Bureau of Reclamation. Most photos in the 1934 cabinet have no caption information, but any person with knowledge of how Grand Coulee Dam was constructed would be able to figure out what was going on. But, that's not really my forte. 

I found the picture, below, that most people looking at construction history of the dam would be stumped with. Why a picture of three pretty girls?

I knew right away, because of the railroad construction to the dam, which is my forte.

Left to right: Princess Mildred Smith, from Wilbur. Queen Louise Turner, from Harrington. Princess Lorraine Morgan, from Grand Coulee Center. 

The winners of the Queen of the Columbia Contest.

To summarize, the Queen of the Columbia was a beauty contest that was timed to coincide with the completion of the railroad to the Grand Coulee Dam construction site. They were to preside over the placing of the golden spike at Grand Coulee.

I wrote up a story on this contest for Them Dam Writers, which I posted back in 2022.  The winner even got to run the David Ryan steam engine, a worn out Climax. 

If you don't want to look at the story I linked to, here are a few newspaper photos I was working with for that piece: