Harry S. Truman Library & Museum.
Snapshot of crowd gathering to meet President Harry S. Truman's train in Wenatchee, Washington, during his whistlestop tour for Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman. From: Richard Cull.
October 2, 1952
This site features daily historical railroad posts from the Big Bend/Columbia Plateau region of Washington state. As a personal site, this is my online filing cabinet of interesting things I've come across about railroading in the area. Thanks for stopping by! Shoutout to Kirtus Dolorina for stopping by to borrow other people's work!
Harry S. Truman Library & Museum.
Snapshot of crowd gathering to meet President Harry S. Truman's train in Wenatchee, Washington, during his whistlestop tour for Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman. From: Richard Cull.
October 2, 1952
Credit: U.S. Navy
Harry S. Truman Library & Museum.
June 9, 1948
A crowd gathers at the Wenatchee, Washington train station to meet President Harry S. Truman who is making a presidential campaign stop on his trip to the West Coast and to view flood waters in the area. From: Naval Photo Center, sent to the Truman Library by the National Archives.
Photo by Ken Ardinger. From the collection of Ted Curphey.
July 20, 1987
Located inside what was then the Carnation potato processing facility, now run by Simplot.
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.
Guest post by Michael Sawyer.
Digging Out on Highway 2: A Winter Memory
Thirty-three years ago, today. I found myself in an inconvenient situation along Washington State Highway 2, positioned between Hartline and Coulee City. While attempting a U-turn that proved to be ill-advised, my truck became stuck in the deep winter conditions.
Fortunately, assistance was nearby. The section Foreman and the Plow Engineer came to my aid, working together to dig my truck out and get me back on the road.
State Highway 2, Washington
January 12, 1993
©️ 2026 Michael Douglas Sawyer | Photography
All Rights Reserved
Photo by Doug Harrop. Courtesy of James Belmont.
May 25, 1976
Burlington Northern train 88 ascends a 1% grade through Lynch Coulee on the former Great Northern east of Trinidad, Washington.
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 😂.
The Riverland Rail Yard ca. 1943. The US Army took over the Milwaukie Road Hanford Branch Line, rebuilt it, and constructed a rail interchange yard, shop, engine storage and station. The Army constructed 163 new track miles on H.E.W. Railroad. Huge amounts of materiel and supplies came to the H.E.W. through this yard. There is no trace left. (Photo by Robley Johnson and courtesy of the National Archives)