CW Trainorders-2

 

CW Trainorders-1

 

WER Blair Style

Courtesy of Blair Kooistra.

September 2020

Blair says:

"World-traveler Steven J. Brown and I made the most of today, rambling the countryside west and south of Spokane for a bit of branchline and shortline variety-and had a blast doing so.

"Our intelligence said "be at Reardan for sunrise," and there we were, and almost to the minute, the eastbound Eastern Washington Railroad scoot train headed to Four Lakes arrived as the sun peaked over the horizon. Two SD40-2's on a full train had engineer Ted Curphey peg the throttles to the 8th notch on the climb out of Reardan, winding between the hills in the amazing light of dawn. At Hite, a GP30 was added for additional grunt climbing out of Deep Creek. The morning was still, the light sublime. . .I really love eastern Washington at dawn..."

 

All For Townsites

From the "Spokesman Review."

February 15, 1896

Old Almira Trainorders-1

Courtesy of the Grant County Historical Society.

NP 307 At Reardan

Photographer unknown.

Date unknown.

Galloping Goose Views

Courtesy of NMAC.

1930s

Locations between Davenport and Reardan.

An F For Everyone!

Photo courtesy Tom Carver. 

October 1980

Tom says:

"BN's CW (Central Washington) local, a.k.a. Coulee City turn, is heading west at Reardan with enough Fs and a Geep for the return trip with a heavy train of loads picked up at the grain elevators where these empties will be dropped off on the way west. A Geep was always included on the rear of the consist for switching elevator the Seattle Branch out of Davenport, the former Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern, which the NP purchased in 1890. 

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 😂.

1972 Davenport Trainorder

 

Coach Fares CW Branch Spokane To Coulee City

 

Lugging The Grain

Courtesy of Tom Carver.

September 1980

"The same train as in my last post, the CW local is east of Reardan, Wash. Its seven units are wide open lugging a huge train of loaded grain boxes that increases in size with each successive stop at elevator tracks to pull loads. To the casual observer, this prairie scene would be more likely associated with Oklahoma, Kansas, or Texas than Washington State."

1979 BN Station Revenues-Spokane Division

 

1928 NP AFE Reardan Pumphouse Upgrade

Courtesy of the NPRHA.

1962 Reardan View

Photographer unknown.

1929 NP AFE Reardan Union Oil Spur

Courtesy of the NPRHA.