1914 Mansfield Branch Rate Case Part 1

From the files of the Public Service Commission of Washington

The Waterville Railway

Coulee Dam Cement Boxcar

A kind fellow passed this photo along, taken in the yard at Skykomish way back in the late 1930s. Hoards of boxcars brought cement to the dam site. Some came from the west side of the state, as this car's location would suggest. Note the cement dust along the top of the car and door.

Waterville Railroad Streamliner?

By Doug Welch

no date

The five-mile farmer owned Waterville Railway, between Waterville and Douglas, Wash., in Douglas County, is not as long as most other railroads in the state and nation. But it IS just as wide.

And it has one distinction that very few railroads anywhere can claim-(1) it has never gone into bankruptcy, and (2) it has never borrowed money from Uncle Sam

A few of the directors got together the other night in Directory A.A. Murdock’s hardware store in Waterville, looked over the annual balance sheet and considered their assets. The assets were very close to nil, and so were the liabilities; and the road earned barely enough to keep its engineer and fireman in wages, and its single locomotive in repair.

But the Waterville Railway is still Waterville’s only rail connection with the outside world, and the town breathed a sigh of relief when the news got out that the old line is still holding its own.

Were it not for the kindly interest of a railway fan--M.W. Miller, Waterville transfer—the Waterville line might long ago have turned up its toes. Five years ago Miller took over the general management for the sheer fun of it, and today he finds himself competing in some instances with his own trucking operations. Greater love hath no railway fan than that.

In the interests of economy—and it was like cutting a piece out of his own heart—Miller laid up the railway’s one picturesque passenger coach, and reduced the operating schedule to tow round trips a week—Tuesday and Friday.

He also ripped up the tracks between the Waterville roundhouse and depot, so that Waterville now has a depot with no railway in front of it. Outbound wheat is loaded, and inbound foodstuffs and farm supplies unloaded unloaded at the roundhouse.

When the Great Northern Railway in 1909 built their branch line from Columbia River Junction (below Wenatchee) to Mansfield in the Big Bend county, they passed up Waterville because of difficult grades.

More than a hundred residents of Waterville then subscribed $80,000 to construct a connecting line. The Great Northern gave then rails and ties. The $80,000—most of which is still outstanding—was spent on a rebuilt locomotive and passenger coach.

Excepting perhaps logging railroads, the Waterville line has one of the steepest grades in the state. Old No. 949 has almost more than it can do in handling five loaded and five empty box cars from Douglas up to Waterville. But going the other way—brother, it travels like a streamliner.

Ephrata Train Bulletin Board

Found this hiding away in the local museum, in a place not normally seen by the public.

I can assume it was donated after the last GN/BN train left town, in May of 1971, as the new Amtrak service did not run via Ephrata anymore.

Bacon Siphon Construction Railroad

There was a short-lived construction railroad in the Columbia Basin that few have ever heard of. It connected with no others. It ran for a short distance. Most of it was underground.




This railroad was used by the Bureau of Reclamation to construct what would be called the Bacon Siphon Tunnel.
The name "Bacon" comes from the NP station on the Adrian Cut-off of the same name.

The Bureau needed to get water from the Equalizing Reservoir at Coulee City through a coulee at the top of the lower Grand Coulee. So, they built this tunnel, that would carry water just like a siphon. It was built to railroad sizes, and the first tunnel was completed in the late 1940s.

A second tunnel was completed in the 1970s. Here is how the original tunnel looks today in the off season.

Coulee City in 1916

Here is the railroad part of an old photograph from 1916. You can see the 2 stall roundhouse peeking out from behind one of the buildings in the background.

Compare with this other early view of Coulee City.

1915 Liberty Bell At Ephrata

The Historylink Website has a piece on the visit of the Libery Bell to Seattle and surrounding area. Here is a snippet from that site:

On July 14, 1915, the Liberty Bell -- one of the United States’ foremost symbols of freedom and independence -- visits Everett, Seattle, and Tacoma en route to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. The bell traveled the country by train, greeting throngs of joyous well-wishers in towns along the way. The crowds in Washington state are no exception.

Beginning in the late 1800s, the Liberty Bell was often displayed at exhibitions throughout the country as a way to heal the rift caused by the Civil War. By the 1900s, concerns were raised over transporting around by train the already cracked bell. The 1915 tour, which began on July 4, would be the bell's last. It has remained in Philadelphia ever since it returned.

The trip west took it straight across the Midwest, then north to Idaho and into Washington. The Liberty Bell went to Everett, and from there to Seattle. Crowds in Everett were so immense that the trip to Seattle was delayed by almost an hour, so that everyone could get a glimpse.

It had to get to Seattle by going through Ephrata, so here it is at Ephrata on July 13, 1915.


Note that the bell is visible on the flatcar between the flags.

Wilson Creek in 1900

This should be filed under a difference of decades as well, as the vantage point for this photo still exists, just that I have not gotten there yet!

Wilson Creek was an Intermediate Terminal on the Great Northern. In 1925, the GN moved it to Wenatchee, and built the yard and such there.

There is anecdotal evidence of the coaling dock burning down in 1919 or 1920.