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From the "Spokesman Review."

February 15, 1896

PCC Cab Ride

 
Guest post by Vaughn MacKenzie.

Railroading with Mike & Tom on the Palouse River & Coulee City, early November 1997. Longtime friend David Roberts and I scored a cab ride from Cheney to Reardan and it was a fantastic adventure. The weather was perfect, albeit cold & drafty in the aging GP35 lead locomotive. The excitement began just as we were rolling out of town at 10mph with our consist of 52 cars when we nearly hit a white Olds at a crossing. A lady panicked and stopped on the tracks then couldn’t get backed up, and her passenger quickly bailed out. She was frantically fumbling with the gear selector. Tom dumped the air and we stopped mere inches from her bumper. The rest of the ride was less eventful but beautiful. The accomodations in the locomotive were somewhat lacking, so if nature called we were instructed to step onto the catwalk when we were out in open countryside, secure a firm grip on the railing with one hand and let it fly with the other 😂.

1893 Spokane County Map View

 

Coach Fares CW Branch Spokane To Coulee City

 

Barreling Down The Track

From "Wheat Life."

December 2019

B23 Picking Up Mail At Deep Creek

Photographer unknown.

Date unknown, but no later than 1954.

1928 NP AFE Deep Creek Area Wigwags

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

CW Turn Near Deep Creek

Courtesy of Tom Carver.

Tom says:
"The Coulee City Turn always had a Geep trailing the consist to use for switching at elevators where seven units would be too long a consist for switching. Getting a late start on this day, the train is westbound near Deep Creek, Washington, in October 1980."

Hand Drawn CW Map

Drawn by Robert Scott for a feature on the Eastern Washington Gateway he was working on at the time.

Grand Coulee Dam-Ten Good NP Trips

BN 1975 Station Revenues C-H

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz and the PNRA.

Big Bend Region News

From the Spokane Falls "Chronicle."

March 18, 1890

NP Doodlebug Near Deep Creek

Thanks to Mike Denuty for digging this one up somewhere.

1951 timeframe.

EWG Deep Creek View

Photo by Gary Durr.

May 2017

An EWG Westbound scoot train led by three big EMD units, is just starting its climb out of Deep creek at MP 15 on a beautiful warm spring afternoon. After one of the most grueling winters that I have ever experienced, it is wonderful to see the beautiful blue skies, green trees and fields... and BARE ground..Spring has sprung here in Eastern Washington....the many flooded fields and drainage ditches are finally drying up and the weather has been getting increasingly warmer... Life is Good...

BN AFE Index Card-Deep Creek

Courtesy of the PNRA and Aaron Schwarz.

1913 NP AFE Deep Creek Culvert

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

Snowy Deep Creek View

Photo by Gary Durr.

March 2017

One sunny snowy day on the Eastern Washington Gateway RR... When I was not Working....,EWG Engineer, Bruce Butler eases the second half of a loaded train through Deep creek canyon with a single Former MRL SD45 pulling loads that were left at Hite...We had to reduce tonnage as we only had two units and they had to double the hill both down and up deep creek, as there were too many loads for the two SD45's to handle up deep creek and with no working dynamic breaks at this time, and lots of Ice build up on the rails, wheels and breaks of the cars, to many to handle safely on the long down hill also.

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.