EWG Hanson View

Photo by Gary Durr.

May 2017

Grain isn't the only thing that the EWG(Eastern Washington Gateway RR) hauls... on this beautiful spring day C-40 #9129 hauls an extremely long string of Bare table cars East Bound through Hanson Washington. The cars have been in Storage all along the EWG line for more than a couple of years, and they are finally getting called back to service... They will be brought to Geiger Jct. and there the 9129 unit will be traded out for two big UP units, for it's final leg into Cheney Washington, where it will be interchanged to the BNSF and eventually forwarded to Union Pacific.

EWG Transformer Special

Photo by Ted Curphey.

May 2017

EWG Transformer Special starting it's assault on 1.9% Deep Creek Hill. Deep Creek is a old community, even predating Spokane by years. It was a popular watering hole on the Colville trail when in the waning days of the 49'er gold strike in California, reports of gold in the Colville Mountains brought many a hard luck 49'er north along a path between Fort Walla Walla and Colville. But the Northern Transcon would bypass Deep Creek and favor Spokane with prosperity for decades to come. Today Deep Creek is a forgotten station on the old NP Central Washington RR, now operated by the Eastern Washington Gateway RR.

Eastern Washington Gateway's Transformer Special moving through Medical Lake this afternoon with Zachary Hastings and Gary Durr in charge.

9129 At Coulee City

Photo by Bruce Butler.

April 2016

NIWX 9129, C40-8, ready to leave Coulee City WA with 24 grain loads.

EWG Telford View

Photo by Rodney Aho.

June 2017

The Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad traverses a marvelously diverse landscape on its 108-mile trek between Coulee City and Cheney—pine forests, swampy lowlands, wheat and chickpea fields, grassy pastures; and shown here, a tract of sagebrush-laden channeled scabland near Telford, WA. When catching this shot of a special train pulling baretables (well cars) earlier this spring, I was admonished to watch for rattlesnakes and ticks, especially prevalent this year.

Introducing The 9129

Photo by Gary Durr.

October 2017

9129 shows off it's new look, as the ugly black stripe and UP heralds are gone and a bit of EWG color added to her nose.... Creston, Wa. A few days ago...

A Trip To The EWG

Guest post by Dan Pipkin.

This wasn't my first official chase of the EWG but it's the first time I've managed to bring back photos. Taken the last day of 2017 at Almira with the crew getting the train ready to head out West a little after 9 AM on a frigid December morning.

Underway to Hanson with 5 cars to be loaded at the elevator.

One of my favorite shots from the trip; after dropping off a few cars at Hanson the EWG makes it way towards Cement while running light power, in the distance is the little town of Hartline.

EWG running light power through Hartline headed towards Cement for more work to be done. 

Coasting downgrade from Odair, the EWG is nearly at the end of the line at Coulee City.

Now changing cabs to 9129 with a new nose job, the crew begins shuffling cars around the Coulee City grain facility.

Another shot of the EWG working Coulee City on a beautiful, chilly December afternoon.

With the work being finished at Coulee City, the EWG heads back East towards Odair for some more shuffling of rail cars.

One of the best shots of the day was also the last wrapping up a nice little chase. The EWG was headed through Odair with some more work to do once again, with only an hour or so left of daylight.

“In the Pit”

Guest post by Frederick Manfred Simon.

March 21 2018

How many of us have witnessed or even performed an inspection on or repairs to a locomotive? Thought so! So few of us buffs understand what it takes to keep a locomotive in good working order, let alone complying with the myriad FRA criterion such as in performing a 92-day inspection. I won’t even bother to list them. But just imagine the mass of electrical and mechanical moving parts; the tolerances and limits; the maximums and minimums; the fluids and consumables; the safety appliances, all must be checked, verified, and as required, repaired, refilled, and replaced before the “unit” can return to service. Not an easy task nor one to be taken lightly. It never is. The railroad depends on its motive power for its bread and butter; to be ready to work at a moments notice; to safely perform at the highest level for indefinite periods without fail or failing on line. Here, in the “Pit,” at Davenport on the Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad, under the NIWX C40-8 9129, running gear, truck frames, traction motors and related components are meticulously inspected, double checked, go-no-go findings discussed, confirmed, recorded and signed off. The entire locomotive is step-by-step – literally – inch-by-inch scrutinized by two sets of trained eyes. Every non-complying item, each defect is resolved by certified personnel which can take several days. Longer if repairs require. Only then is the “Blue Card” signed and the locomotive released for service for another three months before the entire process is necessarily repeated. 

“Purple Haze”

Guest post by Frederick Manfred Simon.

January 30, 2018

Mused Jimi Hendrix - an avid science fiction fan - whilst being interviewed: “You know the
song … It was about going through this land. This mythical [land] … because that’s what I like to do is write a lot of mythical scenes. You know, like the history of the wars on Neptune.” Well, I’m might be a bit of a mythologist myself, though I’m no meteorologist, near as I can tell the gaseous, Jovian-like, vapor is “scud clouds” boiling overhead refracting and commingling into a mythical, Neptunesque purple haze the myriad lights from near-by Spokane International Airport and the Highline Grain facility where antecedent, former Union Pacific Dash-8 9129, meets its descendent, BNSF Dash-9 1023. Now NIWX owned 9129 and her sisters from another mother, an SD40T-2 and SD45, have brought in from CW Sub points west some 60 EWG “Scoot Train” loads of Eastern Washington wheat to be posited into Highline’s mega silos where it will be, graded, State-inspected, classified, mixed, and loaded for export into this BNSF unit grain train of which 1023 brings up the rear as its DPU on this brisk penultimate January evening of 2018. 

“Creston Crepusculum”

Guest post by Frederick Manfred Simon.

September 16, 2016 


Save for the trace of sunlight on the distant wheat country horizon, the sun has retracted its warming rays and left a crystal clear pale blue sky for the stars to emerge and begin to twinkle in. With the empty grain hoppers dropped and spotted; loaded ones picked up; the terminal brake test completed, it’s time to start heading homeward, towards Cheney, sixty some miles eastbound on what was once the Northern Pacific’s, later Burlington Northern’s “CW” branch that reaches Coulee City. One the last bastions of covered wagons and first generation geeps that brought long trains of 40-foot wheat service boxcars in and out with six or more unit consists in the 1980’s. The wagons and geeps are long gone just as the NP and BN are, predecessors of today’s BNSF. The line itself is now in the hands of the State and operated by the Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad using six-axle Dash 2’s and Dash 8’s with plenty of tractive effort to muscle fifty-car-plus loaded ACF and PS2 covered hoppers but only at 10 miles an hour. With only a few hours left to work for this crew means another must bring the train into Cheney from wherever this one ties down at.

2017 EWG Scoot Train At Coulee City

January 26, 2017.

MRL 290

Former Great Northern SDP40 321, as the Montana Rail Link 290, leased to the Eastern Washington Gateway and seen in Coulee City, on March 7, 2016. This locomotive is notable in that it was one of 6 built for the GN in 1966 as a passenger engine.

Note in the first photo there are a few telegraph poles still standing here, along with a flanger sign (the dark grey/black sign near the left of the photo) which told plow crews where to raise the plow to avoid hitting crossings and such. In the right hand center background of the photo can be seen the grade which ran straight past this location, heading south to Adrian. This section was abandoned in 1953.

See this shot at Railpictures.net as well

Crossing county road J NE.

Entering Coulee City. The former depot, seen on the right, has been the Senior Center since 1977. The red building on the left once belonged to the Potlatch Lumber dealer.

Building the train by pulling cars from the south track first. 

Starting the pull to leave town. The concrete silos were constructed in the wake of the abandonment of the nearby Mansfield branch. On the left of the train is the former Centennial Mills crib elevator, steel tanks, and warehouse.