Moses Lake NP Line Pondered

From the "Spokesman Review."

October 17, 1948

BN 2213 At Ephrata

Guest post by Ryan Reed.

On May 15, 1988, BN 2213 West wakes up Ephrata, Wash. with nearly quarter-century Great Northern heritage up front. The ex-GN main in eastern Washington was never on my to-do list, but a recent magazine article on the line got my buddy Carl Sonner jacked up to see it, so off we went for a two-day trip on May 14th, and 15th - to a territory off our beaten path. On this trip we photographed Trinidad Loop for the first time and was thoroughly impressed despite waiting so long for a train that Carl actually fell asleep on the hillside. We chased this train all the way across the line and with that ex-GN GP30 on the point trailed by a bunch of GP9s, we were lovin' it. It's funny, I never made big efforts to see the ex-GN, but ended up shooting all of it from Spokane to about Index on multiple two or three day trips. It just kind of happened.

Open Big Tract In Grant County

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

July 5, 1913

New Line To Coast

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

April 8, 1913

A Splendid Opportunity

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

February 12, 1912

Road Will Shorten Distance To Coast

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

November 23, 1911

Run Trains On Pasco Branch

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

October 31, 1910

Survey New Route

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

December 28, 1909

Build New Road From Connell To Adrian

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

June 2, 1909

NP 307 At Reardan

Photographer unknown.

Date unknown.

Wheeler Turn With The SD9

My photo.

May 15, 2026

1949 Mansfield Aerial View

 

Location Made For NP Cutoff

From the Spokane "Chronicle."

April 11, 1910

Z Train At Adrian

May 16, 2026

I was waiting at my preferred train watching spot at Adrian, for that late Amtrak #7 I wound up catching at Marlin instead. This Z train came flying through before I left. It met #7 at Gibson. I wound up seeing the Z again at Latah Junction a few hours later.

In the distance in this shot is Beezley Hill, with the town of Ephrata being right below it.

My location is right where the NP used to cross this line.

 

Late Empire Builder

5-16-26 

Today's very late #7 at Marlin, WA.

Looking for Bacon

October 21, 2010

Back on October 21, 2010 John Neff joined me, my wife, and daughter for a walk of the former NP through Dry Coulee, south of Coulee City. Here we are at the old station of Bacon.

1941 GN Unloading Dock In Ephrata Set Ablaze

From GCJ News.

https://www.gcj.news/in-other-news-50/

Ritzville Branch Map

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

1939

From Mainline To Branchline To End Of The Line

Photo date April 19, 2012.

What was once the planned relocation of the Northern Pacific mainline across Washington State, became a backwater branchline that is now out of service. 

Drivers along Interstate 90 east of Moses Lake, WA are often confused by the railroad line that "follows" the road. It was, in fact, the other way around. 

The NP was aware that their mainline was longer than the competing lines of the Milwaukee and the Great Northern, so came up with a plan for a line to branch off their mainline at Ritzville, and run mostly due west to Ellensburg. This would save about 80 miles of running time, instead of dipping south through Pasco and then back north through Yakima. The line was surveyed and grading started at Ritzville and connected into the abuilding Connell Northern branch headed north out of Warden, WA, at a location called Bassett Junction. 

Rail was laid from Bassett to Remple (now called Schrag), when the project stopped. Cold. Why? The opening of the Panama Canal. It would seem that enough traffic disappeared from the otherwise very frugal NP that the project could no longer be justified. 

The NP did look at completing the line a few more times over the years, including a plan to use the Milwaukee grade to Ellensburg. The last internal  correspondence the NP had about this project was about 1951. 

Most traffic on on the branch was from a modest sized grain elevator at Schrag. It was still shipping when Burlington Northern sold off the old Connell Northern branch in 1986 to the Washington Central. Operations continued to be seasonal as ownership changed to the Columbia Basin Railway, after BN bought back the Washington Central, but promptly spun the Connell Northern lines right back out.

In the Columbia Basin era, car supply became dependent on the State of Washington having purchased older hopper cars, and doling them out to a few shortlines, in order to help keep truck traffic off state roads. In the photo you'll see these greenish yellow cars in abundance. 

I'm not so sure the brain-trust who put the state program cars into service thought much about the rule about 50 year old cars being prohibited from interchange service, but that is what seems to have killed off service on this branch. The photo here is from 2012, but in a few short years these cars were parked at Schrag, rusting to the rails, as they were all too old to hand off to the BNSF anymore. 

Those cars sat for about two years before they were rounded up and doled out to other state-owned shortlines for captive use, where they are still today. 

The Columbia Basin Railway ownership has changed recently. All the small power like the pictured GP9s are now long gone, and the branch is being used to store out of service Cryotrans reefers, with the mechanical refrigeration parts removed. There are nearly 100 of these cars out there today.  Is this the end of what was supposed to be a mainline?

Most of this information I plan on using for a program at the upcoming NPRHA convention this year in Toppenish, WA.  

CCET 319 At Royal City

Courtesy of Jonathan Fischer.

January 14, 2019

651 At Warden

Courtesy of Jonathan Fischer.

January 12, 2018

Trains On The Adrian Cutoff

From the "Spokesman Review."

October 24, 1903

Smack Through The Middle Of The Columbia Basin

From the "Spokesman Review."

January 26, 1947

Bacon Tunnel, Near Coulee City, Changed To Full-Depth Operation

From the "Spokesman Review."

July 23, 1947

Biggest Things Abound In Basin

From the "Spokesman Review."

December 23, 1946

Galloping Goose Views

Courtesy of NMAC.

1930s

Locations between Davenport and Reardan.

1933 Land Ownership Maps Soap Lake To Adrian

1933

Of note, at the Adrian townsite, there is a chunk owned by CF Berlet. He had been instrumental in getting the Adrian Irrigation Company set up back in 1907, and was part of the lawsuits that saw the company's demise.

1980 Davenport View

Photo courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:

"And because I've always got "just one more" vintage photo to show, here we are at Davenport, Washington, in the predawn hours of October 11, 1980, when I dragged my buddy Brian Elchlepp with me across the mountains to chase an A-A-A-A-Geep-B-Geep set on the Coulee City local. We just drove east along the railroad until we found the train tied down at the depot, then waited for the crew to show up. The headlight is on dim, cab lights are on as the crew readies their workspace, and numberboards and rooftop gumball flasher is on. 

"What a day! We made a full day of it, chasing all the way west to Coulee City and then back to Spokane. It made for a long day of driving, and I know I'm an old man now (I was only 20 at the time!), but if something like this were to happen today. . .well, I can guarantee you Brian and I would be hot-footin' it no matter how much sleep we'd be losing."

Tunnel Construction Scene

Courtesy of the NMAC.

1935-36 timeframe. 

This tunnel was built on a 5% grade, It's located adjacent to the Coulee Dam city hall.

Milwaukee Clawing At Cohasset

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

Blair says:

"Here's one from August, 1978: Milwaukee Road Westbound freight (likely a #205 symbol) claws its way up the 2.2% Saddle Mountain grade near old Cohasset Pit, Washington. Two SD40-2's cut in behind a couple dozen grain loads. Loud. Smoky. Sand in the air. Incredible to experience."

 

BN CW local At Medical Lake

Courtesy of Tom Carver.

October 1980

"BN's CW local, a.k.a. the Coulee City Turn, is westbound at Medical Lake, Wash., after diverging onto the branch at Cheney. BN's numbering scheme placed A units with even numbers and B units with odd, so the chances of lead F9A 818 being paired with trailing 817 were only fair at best. Covered hoppers were starting to take over by this time in October 1980, but there is still a good sized cut of 40-foot grain boxes entrained as well. It's harvest time, so the seven-unit mix of Fs and Geeps will be needed on the return trip the following day."