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!
Courtesy of Darrin Nelson.
Darrin says:
"Waterville native Alan Loebsack, stands on a stack of wooden grain doors to get a better vantage point of the train arriving in Douglas. He and his cousin David Loebsack, had the foresight to capture the train during its final year of operation. One this day, they chased the train from WIthrow all the way down to the tunnel at Douglas Creek Falls. Photo from the spring of 1984. A year later the line would be closed."
Courtesy of Tom Carver.
October 1980.
"Climbing west up Marshall Coulee on the Spokane Division's 1st Subdivision main (former NP) from Spokane, Wash., these Fs and Geeps are not working too hard with a long train of empty covered hoppers and 40-foot grain boxes. Destined for the branch line to Coulee City, these same seven units will be needed the next day to return with 100 or so cars heavily loaded with grain. Upon reaching Cheney, about seven miles west of this location, the train will enter the 108-mile long 8th Sub "Central Washington" branch from the former Northern Pacific main. The roadbed on the left was joint UP-MILW trackage into Spokane and the line above that is the former SP&S main. In 1986 a crossover track was installed here between the the former NP and SP&S lines to divert traffic off the SP&S prior to that route being closed. The faint whitish-grey coating on the landscape is residual ash from the Mt. St. Helens volcanic eruption in May."
