1965 Beverly View

 May 11, 1965

Peach Branch Newspaper Clippings

Guest post by Ted Curphey.

Doing more research into Great Northern Railway's Bluestem-Columbia River branchline that was graded but not finished with track. Here is a full set of articles from the Spokesman Review and Spokane Daily Chronicle newspapers detailing the acquisition of land and initial construction in late 1911 through the troubles with landslides and washouts 1912-1914 to when GN gave up on the branch in 1915. GN briefly looked at the branch again in 1922, but that was when the idea of the Grand Coulee Dam came to life, forever sealing the fate of the proposed branchline.

Sept 29th, 1911

Oct 13th, 1911

Nov 10th, 1911

Dec 4th, 1911

Dec 8th, 1911

Jan 13th, 1912

Jan 28th, 1912

Mar 8th, 1912

June 9th, 1912

June 29th, 1912

July 5th, 1912

Oct 4th, 1912

Oct 27th, 1912

Dec 1st, 1912

Dec 12th, 1912

Dec 28th, 1912

Jan 15th, 1913

Mar 10th, 1913

Dec 25th, 1913

Mar 18th, 1914

March 21st, 1914

Nov 30th, 1914

Dec 14th, 1914

Dec 16th, 1914

March 24th, 1915

April 12th, 1915

Aug 11th, 1916

Feb 3rd, 1922

Progress Being Made On Dam

Article I wrote for Them Dam Writers.

One yardstick to apply to the progress being made on Grand Coulee Dam was taken during a snapshot in May 1936. It was based on the tonnage handled by the railroad built for the purpose to move materials and equipment from Odair, near Coulee City, up the upper Grand Coulee, and then down the hill to the dam site. The story in the facts and figures was discussed in the MWAK “Columbian,” the house organ of the general contractors. It read as follows:

 

An oil burning Shay that backs down a 5 percent grade had a great part in moving the 162,000,000 net pounds that came in by rail by April 1. That meant a gross tonnage of 290,000,000 pounds for 2087 cars used.

 

A locomotive made daily trips from the mainline at Odair, 31 miles away, to Electric City. The low-geared Shay continued the additional five miles to the government warehouse by swinging wide about curves and along the cutbacks of high abutments.

 

From the cement silos to the warehouse yards is two miles, about 4000 feet as the crow flies. Up and down this grade, the Shay creeps along at the rate of from eight to ten mles per hour. This gear-driven engine is used in place of a road locomotive becasue the steep grade requires it.

 

Since the first use of the Shay on July 23, 1935, the month of March has taken over a lion’s share in monthly railroad work as 23,641 net tons, or 48, 316 gross tons, came into Electric City on 530 cars and 561 empties were returned. Tonnage for March was four times the 550-ton average for each month of the railroad operations in 1936. January and February were next highest in order with 16, 077 and 14,380 tons.

 

The explanation lay in the increaced cement shipments of 25 cars daily, with 72,000 pounds per car net; the 3,000,000 feet of timering arrived during the last two months and the 187 carloads of steel for the concrete-carrying trestles.

 

The 2087 carloads brought in meant 962 cars of bulk cement for the cement silos, and the 1125 of miscellaneous, such as timber, steel and explosives. Cement itself, both bulk and sack, reached 70,000,000lbs since the beginning of work.

 

The 120,000 net tons that had passed over the railroads represented 55 percent of all tonnage checked by the company warehouse, even though in the 21 months of receiving material, the railroad had only been in operation 8 of them.

 

Transportation equipment consisted of two engines, the road locomotive and the Shay. The road locomotive was built for the Southern Pacific Railway in March 1903. It was purchased by MWAk on July 29, 1935. The road locomotive had been in operation for two and a half months at the time of the article. It was making a daily trip to Odair, leaving at 5am and returning at 10am. The engine weighed 135 tons and was capable of carrying 3500 tons per train, or about 50 carloads of cement, the amount required at the peak of operations. It was derelict and out of service in 1937, likely due to age, and was scrapped at the dam.

 

The 80-ton Shay, was built for the Charles R. McCormick Lumber Co. as their #200, on May 27, 1926. This logging line had operations located around Quilcene, WA. It was purchased by MWAK on January 28, 1936. It operated from Electric City to the government warehouse, transfered materials about the yard at Electric City, unloaded, reloaded and carried them for the dam site whenever needed. It’s capacity was 5 cars downgrade and 5 empties up. It was always placed on the downgrade side of the cars it was moving, so it backed down the hill to lead it’s loads, in order to keep the high point of water around the firebox, making a boiler explosion less likely. This engine was scrapped at the dam in 1949.

 

The line did not sport a turntable to turn the locomotives. It did have a number of switchbacks in order to get down to the level of the warehouse near the river. From there material was trucked to wherever needed.

 

Train service and maintenance took place during the second shift only, using 30 men. Track was kept up by two section crews, each with six men and a foreman.

 

The storage yard at Electric City was used because of the lack of a suitable space at the dam site proper. The yard had more than adequate space, being 4,000 feet long and 200 feet wide. Loads were spotted about the yard over three lines of track.

 

Two cranes took care of loading and unloading heavy materials, one a locomotive crane with a 50-foot boom; the other a 75-ton gantry crane. Also in the yards was a repair shop and a steel bending machine, where reeinforcing steel, as for concrete, was cut and shaped. In the yard were stored much structural steel, pipe, machinery, timber, bridge steel, piling and other bulky materials.

 

Transportation equipment, with the exception of the cars that actually carring the materials, belonged to the company and was at it’s disposal. With the railroad owned by the government, the lines would be taken over by the government on the completion of the dam.

The shay is pulling empty cement boxcars through the cut at the northeast end of Grand Coulee. This area later became the back entrance to the USBR Grand Coulee Project Office and Industrial Area. Photo courtesy of the Coulee Pioneer Museum.

The former Southern Pacific engine, repainted to honor Governor Martin for the first official train to the dam, is now out of service and being prepped for scrap, after having been worn out after many years of heavy use. Photo courtesy of the EWU Hu Blonk archive.

More on the Branch To Peach

Guest post by Ted Curphey.

Starting in 1911, Great Northern Railway let a contract for grading of a new branchline running north from Bluestem through Davenport and down Hawk Creek Canyon to the Columbia River at Peach then turning north toward the mouth of the Spokane River at Fort Spokane. Just below Hawk Creek Falls a short distance from Peach a tunnel was to be bored through a sharp bend in Hawk Creek Canyon. By early 1912 the tunnel was well along when this tragedy took the life Peter Olsen, originally of Sweden.

The incident convinced the project engineers that the soil above the tunnel was too unstable and the would be tunnel was turned into a deep cut that still exists. But it would be all for naught. Starting around 1907, the US Department of the Interior started earmarking various valleys for future dam and reservoir projects. Wanting to head off costly relocations of facilities such as railroads, they informed the railroad seeking to build in those valleys of their intention to flood those same valleys. I'm still trying to determine when the Great Northern was informed of the department's intention to flood the Columbia River Valley, but it was about the time the grading was finishing up on the new branch line. GN decided to not lay track on the grade. Of course the construction of the dam wouldn't take place until the Public Works Administration of the Great Depression. But this project actually went through unlike so many of those planned projects of the USDI. Other planned projects that never came about were at the mouth of the Deschutes River in Oregon and one just east of Connell to be filled by a diverted Palouse River with the reservoir extending all the way to Kahlotus.

From the "Spokesman Review."

January 29, 1912.

Map showing the tunnel location in relation to Hawk Creek Falls.

If it had completed as proposed, the branch would have crossed Hawk Creek on a tall bridge above the boat. The tunnel would have been just to the right of the bridge in this view.

The retaining wall holding up the roadbed for the GN branch above Hawk Creek Falls can be seen in this view.

Really, if it wasn't for all the trouble they had at that one spot, GN probably would have laid track on the branch.

Jayne Singleton added:


Here is an historic image of Peach WA where you can see the mouth of Hawk Creek in the distance and possibly where the RR tunnel would have come out. The water level is now where the two "sandy face" areas are. I was there this past week right below them. I Always think about Peach and the orchards that existed. We also have an image of the farm that was located where Hawk Creek campground is now, before the creation of Lake Roosevelt.

Making Way For Grand Coulee Dam

From the "Spokesman Review."

August 17, 1934

Would Tap Wheat Section

From the Wenatchee "World."

May 25, 1909

Cement Unloading At Cement

Courtesy of the Coulee Pioneer Museum

April 3, 1972

This was the time of the building of the third powerhouse at Grand Coulee Dam. Bulk cement was brought int by railroad car, and then unloaded into trucks for the final 30 mile move to the construction site at the dam.

This unloading site was built for this purpose, as there had not been a siding of any sort here prior.

In this view, you can see the waters of Banks Lake and the town of Coulee City on the upper left.

Scotty Watson Is New Grain Co Manager

Courtesy of Darrin Nelson.

From the Waterville "Empire-Press."

June 13, 1974

I grabbed this as it has some corporate history of CWGG.

GN Electrics At Wenatchee Views

Photos by Frederick A. Bonke.