Valleyford celebrates the S&IE Railroad that served it many years ago.

The little town of Valleyford located south of Spokane used to have railroad service some 60 years ago yet the town still remembers the good times.  They put on a show with the local town folks with memories on how they got on the train to go to the big city of Spokane back in 1940 at the cost of 35 cents.  They had a group of 4 kids doing music of the day and many were in costume for the event. We had 2 sessions with standing room only and it was fun.

I tried to keep my presentation on the Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad that had about 140 miles of track with overhead wires and it was the modern way to run a railroad. They ran about 6 passenger trains a day as well as several freight trains that served the Palouse Empire including Moscow, Idaho and Colfax, Washington. I showed my photo CD collection along with maps and models.

Noted historian Charlie Mutchler followed up on the finer details of why they built it and how they did it. We had German officials in 1908 studying the line shown in the photo on the table to see what they could bring back to do it in the Fatherland. It was an enjoyable day for everyone including my wife who sat in on the first presentation, and she is not a railfan!

Show time for the Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad.

I was asked to make a presentation to the Valleyford Historical Society tomorrow ( Saturday May 4th ) at 11 am and again at 1 pm.  I will do the history of the line that ran from downtown Spokane to Moscow and Colfax, Washington from the turn of the century to around 1960. The line was electrified even through the Great Northern era. 

I will have photos, models and a CD photo presentation with my collection that I acquired many years ago. It's happening at the Valleyford Coffee Shop on Old Palouse Highway 12212 E. Palouse Hy, which is about 1.5 miles from Highway 27 ( take Pines Road to Old Palouse Hy - go west )

We both might learn something about Old Spokane and what made it grow in the early days. 

The color of Orange

I was lucky enough to be around when the Milwaukee Road Little Joes were still running around Avery, Idaho and Montana. My first visit to Avery introduced me to Boxcabs and Little Joes ( named after Joe Stalin who was supposed to get them in 1948 but the Cold War put a stop to that ) in 1970 and lasted until June 8th, 1974, the last time I saw them run. My HO collection has 3 of them in inventory at the moment, 2 brass and 1 MTH brand.

Don't you just love the headlight glow? Its real.

My paint colors differ a little bit from MTH colors but so did the colors vary on the real ones, depending how much sun the engine got. The GN collection in the background in the Blue main yard reminds me of Hillyard, Washington when I arrived in Spokane in 1967. It was a different world back then.

GN's first diesels got the complete Empire Builder colors along with the yellow pin stripes. Later years (1964? ) they went to a simpler paint minus the stripes. In 1967 they switched to

the evil Big Sky Blue!

I got ambitious enough to put a number of locos in the Blue main yard for this overview of different power units  Someone asked me what my favorite railroad is and my answer ended with 6 railroad names.

The Spokane. Portland & Seattle was the smaller brother of the big guys around Spokane but it still had a warm spot in my heart as it had a lot of Alco power which made it different than the others. I am waiting the the Alco C-636 models promised last year and the wait goes on! In the meantime I will run the smaller C-424s and 425s as you see in this photo.  The RS-1 in the background does not count.

My final trivia message to all you modelers out there is to make your flat cars something special. This one has a commercial load I purchased at Sunset Junction and put on a 50 foot flat car. The deck is weathered, sure but without the chains holding the load in place it just didn't look right. I used CA glue to set the chain to the car and after it dried I took CA gel and went over the connection to better secure it the chain to the car. Regular CA does not have any shear strength except if you get it on your fingers! That switch in the background needs to get attention by the rust crew!

Rolling around Spokane

I came upon this vehicle a day or 2 ago and it is Mr. Herzog's machine doing yard work for the BNSF. his end is the power car and it had about 5 well cars in tow along with a controller car on the other end.

It can be operated at either end  but the machine behind it has the ability to run on tracks on top of the well cars to pick up junk, branches, bushes, trespassers, etc. I am proud to say that I did not have to trespass on BNSF property to get either shot!

Visiting the Inland Empire back in the good old days...as long as you don't count in outdoor plumbing!

No, Hurricane Sandy did not get to Coeur d'Alene last week but quick melting of snow in the mountains can make its own problems for people who live near the lake. The Coeur d'Alene Hotel that currently stands would be behind the larger structure. We now have dams to mitigate this problem most of the time.

I think this is a photo op for the photographer as the guy in the cab is also in there on close up shots as well. This rock can be found just north of the Spokane River on Division St. It is also paved and is 8 lanes wide.  The car is no longer there.

 Here we have a 4 car trolley leaving downtown Spokane heading east. The GN tower is in the background behind the pole. The tracks are all gone and this area is now all buildings, mostly for the educational centers that is a big deal for Spokane.

The trolley is crossing the original Northern Pacific main line through Spokane at the turn of the century ( 1900 ) In 1914 the NP elevated the entire line through town and is now the BN/ BNSF main line through the Northwest. The current Amtrak station is where the passenger cars are located.

Visiting the GN shops in Hillyard 40 years ago.

Here I am in the middle of the repair shops at Hillyard and no one is yelling at me to get out. I guess I was not a terrorist threat back then!  The first time I saw BN green is that engine to the right in the primer green undercoat.

In 1967 GN introduced a new color for their railroad in the form of Big Sky Blue. It was not received well by most of the GN fans. This is the view from the GN control tower base on the west side of the tracks.

During a 1970 NRHS Convention we got to visit the control tower and this mostly Big Sky engines are coming in from Seattle, passing through the yard before heading east again. 

A big deal for the facility was this transfer table that could move engines and cars between different buildings.

This shot was taken from the Francis Ave. overpass with a 300 mm lens back in the good old days.  The control

tower can be seen in the background. The main lines were to the far right of the photo. BN switcher does the work so the yard may have 2 more years to survive when I took this photo in 1972.

The GN herald on the building came down right after the BN merger was announced. Can't have any of that

heritage stuff surviving! The SP&S Railroad used Hillyard exclusively except for the 2 FA's that hung out

at Parkwater yards for the Scribner turn when cars were picked up or dropped off in Marshall Canyon for the NP.

The passenger station to the right was moved to the Spokane Valley and made into an unsuccessful

restaurant and is still there in poor repair. It was hauled by a moving company over Bigalow

Gulch and I have pictures to prove it.

Different eras of power are shown here as the blue unit is from the 50s and the big orange unit is a

passenger unit from the late 60s. The small box to the rear is a clue for the steam generator unit.

Looking north from the Francis Avenue bridge shows how big the yard was and it had a hump in the middle. The crews always had to be aware that cars can roll out either end if not carefully set with brakes. The Western Fruit Express repair shops are on the slight rise to the right of the photos. Sometimes it snows in Spokane.

Looking south on a much better day shows the cattle pens that were there. The tracks that angled off to the left are in the repair tracks. Look how they used to haul wood with banding on groups to hold them in place. Where's OSHA?

When Spokane was a railroad town

I was searching the archives and I ran across maps that Hugh Ebright photographed some 3 years ago from a collection of map grids from a relative of his.

Spokane was loaded with tracks when I got here in 1967. In 1907 we had the longest electric railroad in the world owned by a single corporation called the

Spokane and Inland Empire that ran south from Spokane to Colfax and Moscow, Idaho. It the line going to the bottom right of the photo. We had Interurbans, cable cars, trolleys and 5 major railroads. Not bad for a medium sized town in the middle of the Northwest.

I have others showing Hillyard, Parkwater, Fort Wright, NP tower complex, etc. Fascinating!

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?

Now I am starting to really miss the BN.

Could this be a 50 year old switch engine?  It sure could if you consider the year the engine was originally built in. The 6297 is a control cab for hump yard service down in Pasco. It was built from an old Great Northern SD 9 and they added the switcher cab to control the engine it is attached to. 6297 does not have an engine but the other engine gives power to the traction motors of the switcher. No vibration and plenty of pulling power at low speeds.

1976 was a big year for our country and the railroads. Our 200th anniversary was celebrated by many railroads with many painting one or more units in patriotic colors. See 2 together was a rare theat.

Today we think of the mighty BN as a main line hauler but here we have a old Geeps hauling cars up a steep hills on the Camas Prairie Railroad they got in the merger. Those trestles on the hill are where they are going.

The mid 1980s BN got into the business of leasing 100 LMX locos from GE. They also leased a similar amount from EMD in the form of SD60s lettered for Oakway. I have not seen either one in years.

The wide nosed F45s were a favorite of mine as they seemed to have lots of muscle and character. They are all gone as well. This one just entered the Marshall Canyon heading west.

Now I am starting to really miss the BN.

Could this be a 50 year old switch engine?  It sure could if you consider the year the engine was originally built in.

The 6297 is a control cab for hump yard service down in Pasco. It was built from an old Great Northern SD 9 and they added the switcher cab to control the engine it is attached to. 6297 does not have an engine but the other engine gives power to the traction motors of the switcher. No vibration and plenty of pulling power at low speeds.

1976 was a big year for our country and the railroads. Our 200th anniversary was celebrated by many railroads with many painting one or more units in patriotic colors. See 2 together was a rare theat.

Today we think of the mighty BN as a main line hauler but here we have a old Geeps hauling cars up a steep hills on the Camas Prairie Railroad they got in the merger. Those trestles on the hill are where they are going.

The mid 1980s BN got into the business of leasing 100 LMX locos from GE. They also leased a similar amount from EMD in the form of SD60s lettered for Oakway. I have not seen either one in years.

The wide nosed F45s were a favorite of mine as they seemed to have lots of muscle and character. They are all gone as well. This one just entered the Marshall Canyon heading west.

Six Boeing aircraft fly low to the ground!

Driving down Trent Avenue sometimes pays dividends. Today I found this train loaded with aircraft bodies and support containers.

 

 I got up on the Havana bridge to record it at this new  train spotting sight.

 

 Check the serial numbers so maybe someday you will be flying on one of these planes. They build them back east and assemble them in Everett, WA.

 

One train was heading east and had all these containers on board. When did they name a container company after our train club?

 

A wind devil made an appearance to Yardley today and really kicked up a lot of dust. Does this qualify us for a Federal Disaster Loan?

 

I remember Spokane especially the Great Northern

We lived in Spokane for almost 2 years before the cold winter of 1968-69 arrived and did I think twice about the wisdom of moving here! On this day in January 1969 the weather was minus 20 degrees and looking at the water to the east of the Great Northern station you can see the "heat" coming off the water in relation to the air temps.

Big Sky Blue was about to be bumped from the railroad as the BN merger is about to take over. This is a view of Hillyard looking northeast from the Francis Ave bridge. Western Fruit Express is in the background. Now this scene has but 2 tracks passing through to Colville, Washington.

One of my all time favorite places to take photos was at the Great Northern station where you could cross the tracks at Howard Street, park the car next to the tracks and take pictures without anybody stopping you or even question you and your intent. The Empire Builder came in late to Spokane and handed over cars to the SP&S for the Portland, Oregon train. The tower is the only thing remaining in this photo.

The Western Star was my favorite train to photograph on the GN as it arrived in Spokane around 2:30 pm and departed at 3 pm. Check out the clock.

The 1968 NRHS convention in Spokane gave us access to Hillyard where major repairs were made to GN equipment. It was a huge facility that fell out of favor with the BN officials who looked for ways to economize on their property. It employed over 500 people at one time and now Hillyard is long gone. Check out that crazy company car on the bottom.