Ruff View

Courtesy of the John Barriger Library, George Lentzner Collection. 

Pronounced "roof."

Location is just south of town along the intersections of county roads W NE and 5 NE.

1942 Coast Division Timetable

Just the pages that relate to this corner of the world.

1916 Ruff ROW Maps

It's pronounced "roof."

Warehouses Were For Wheat And Baptisms

From the "Columbia Basin Herald."

June 23, 1972

Ruff Farmers Warehouse Company View

From the "Grant County Journal."

March 17, 1977

Carload Shipments Received On Marcellus Branch

Courtesy of the PNRA. 

Thanks to Aaron Schwarz for digging this out.

June 30, 1931

Marcellus Branch Revenues-1960 to 1977

Courtesy of Micheal Sol.

Mosey Local Switching Lists

Courtesy of Allen Miller.

My last bit of paper dump. Switching Lists from the Mosey Local. Not sure who the conductor was that fancied himself an artist too, but this apparently was his way of laying out the work for the night.               Some of the abbreviations and terms used; Ampot was American Potato, Skone was Skone & Connors and S.S. was Sunspiced Inc. all potato shippers, either fresh or frozen. A.B. is Air Base, as in Larsen Air Force Base. Apparently there were two "Basins" Basin Produce, another potato shipper and also a Basin Propane. Don't know who Rogers was. The third one was awfully light, I darkened it up the best I could. I recognize some of the crew names written on the locomotive drawings. Pope was an engineer, mostly famous for being on the Beverly Helper. Hase was brakeman Dick Haase, formerly Cle Elum substation operator who went into train service when the electrification was shut down.

1933 Neppel Grain Statement

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz.

1969 Marcellus Time Claim

Courtesy of Aaron Schwarz.

 

1965 Ruff View

May 5, 1965

Note the depot on the right center.

1965 Ruff

May 11, 1965

There probably isn't many more houses there today. The grain elevators are still in operation, but the tracks and depot are long gone now.

2017-2018 Public Grain Warehouses And Dealers

1925 USGS Map-Marcellus Branch

Hot, Smoky Fire Hits Ruff Grainery

From the "Spokesman Review."

February 20, 1972

1967 Near Ruff Photos

From the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center

May 30, 1967

Extracted from a file containing gruesome photos of a grade crossing incident at this crossing the night before.

Ruff Depot

Courtesy of the Odessa Historisches Museum.

The Ruff depot has seen better days in this early 1970s photograph. It was closed as an agency in June 1933 and converted into a dwelling for the section foreman sometime later. This depot was built as a Type E (that is, without a freight room) but at some point a freight room was added to it, making it a Type F depot. They ruined the looks of the building by sawing off the roof overhang and removing the brackets.

Anyone want to comment about what looks like the remnant of a wheat fire?

Ruff Depot

Photograph by J. Foust; courtesy of the Othello Community Museum.

This line was served regularly with assigned power from Othello because of the business out at the Air Base and the U&I Sugar plant at Scalley and a side trip was made, as needed, on the Marcellus line. During the annual wheat rush, two separate trains were run to serve each of the branches switching needs. Towards the end of all Milwaukee operations out west, there were fewer locomotives than needed, so sometimes they were borrowed from the Tacoma area to run the branch. While it had been long closed, a train with boxcar loads of wheat passes the depot at Ruff on its way to the mainline at Warden.

1955 Ruff Aerial View

Close up of town:

What this spot looks like today. Click here.