The Spokane, Coeur d'Alene & Palouse Railroad‏

Back in the day when a Spokane citizen wanted to visit a girlfriend 70 miles away in Moscow, Idaho or Colfax, Washington they could walk there, ride there on a horse and wagon or take the SC&P . To get there you needed  to cross the Rock Creek Trestle, an adventure unto itself.

When leaving Spokane the riders went past this frequency changing station that converted electricity to AC to DC or the other way around. This building still stands as a condo apartments near Liberty Park in East Spokane.

After passing the building there was a 5 mile grade to deal with that went up the north face of the South Hill that you can still see today. Altamont Road has a bike trail bridge crossing it where the railroad bridge was. It proceeded east then started heading south near Glen Aire Road is today. The right of way can be seen on the west side of   Mountain and made its way to the south side as it went downgrade near Big Rock Road and into the Palouse region. Spokane was loaded with railroads, trolley lines, interurbans even cable cars ran up the South Hill. Luckily we gone rid of it all.

 Did I mention that it sometimes snows around here?