Memorial Day Weekend Ride (Sunday) 5-30-10

I took a nice ride on the Line between Douglas and Withrow on my bike and it was surprisingly easy going. It was an overcast Sunday afternoon of Memorial Weekend. The following pictures below are from that ride.

Looking on the upgrade across bridge #40 just south of Douglas

Large cast culvert pipe just a mile or so SW of Supplee

Supplee

AC 440 tractor used to push box cars back in the day

Withrow

Station sign poles (old wood station sign)

What remains of bridge #41

I came across a large pile of galvanized flashing. I assumed it came from bridge #41

McCue in the early 1980's

Train coming around bend on the downgrade nearing the old McCue Siding

Locomotives starting to cross bridge #10 which spans creeks that comes from McCue Spring in Pegg Canyon.




Tail end of train crossing bridge #10



BN EMD GP-9 Locomotives #1804 & #1767 on drowngrade leaving McCue and headed for the tunnel down by the falls.




Caboose having just passed through McCue



Up ahead the front end of the train ready to cross bridge #9 and enter the tunnel

Pictures taken by Alan Loebsack

Withrow, Wa

1984 photo

A difference of 24 years

Photo locations at the Kelly Davis Crossing about 1.75 miles south of Alstown, Wa. Upper photo showns GP-9 #1804 and #1805 crossing bridge #33 on the downgrade.  Lower photo shows only pilings remaining.

1984 photo (Taken by Alan Loebsack)

2008 photo

Douglas, WA

GP9 #1804 crossing Highway 2 at Douglas in the late winter of 1984. Picture taken by Alan Loebsack

Not ready for the torch just yet

Class E-13 Baldwin Locomotive built in 1896 for the Spokane Falls & Northern Railway as their #10. Acquired by Great Northern Railway, renumbered as #949 in June 1908, put out of service in 1932 and scheduled for the scrap yard in 1934. It sat in the Spokane’s Hillyard yard dead for 2 years before the Waterville Railway Co. purchased it in 1934 and saved it from the torch. The WRY Co. placed it into service for the next 13 years and in May 1947 it was eventually scrapped. This locomotive was replaced by a small diesel locomotive. One year later the WRY Co. Line would be washed out and never rebuilt. Top photo shows the locomovtive in 1932 covered in snow at the Hillyard yard and the bottom photo shows the locomotive in service in 1936 on the Waterville Line.

Great Northern AFE's

Info compiled from Great Northern Railway Historical Society Archives


Appledale

1912 Install standard mail crane one mile north of Appledale
1913 Place car body for depot
1936 Place riprap and straighten stream @ bridge #3 two miles north on main line ($145.00)
1938 Remove mail crane ($1.00)
1940 Remove 1785’ of side track ($320.00)

Palisades
1911 Install 4975’ of right of way fence ¼ mile west of Palisades
1911 Install wooden mail crane
1926 Between Palisades and Alstown, furnish and place 20,000 S.H. Tie Plates, replacing
Glendon Tie Plates on curves. ($3,390.00)

McCue
1935 Replace 5,000 No.G-58 Tie Plates with S.H. 5-58 plates on curves between McCue and Alstown ($724.00)
1963 Relay main line track with S.H. 112# rail ($30,900.00)

Alstown
1912 Install a private crossing ½ mile south of Alstown
1968 Renew bridge #37.5

Douglas
1910 Construct 48’ x 48’ one-pen stockyard ($200.00)
1912 Construct public highway 1,090’ long ($360.00)
Withrow
1915 Move water tank and 400 gallon gas tank to Bainville, Montana ($230.00)

Mansfield
1911 Place private crossing one mile southwest of Mansfield
1914 Place a portable incline unloading platform ($65.00)

Misc. AFE’s along line
1911 Install telephone in baggage car on Mansfield Branch Line ($23.00)
1928 Columbia River Siding to Mansfield, furnish and place 5,000 S.H. 5-58 Tie Plates on curves ($850.00)
1938 Columbia River Siding to Mansfield, place 6,309 S.H. Rail Anchors ($330.00)



Great Northern Railway AFE’s on the Waterville Railway Co.

Waterville
1909 Construct additional ten miles of telegraph line on the Waterville Extension
1910 Change four public road crossings on the Waterville Line as ordered by the State Railroad commission ($703.00)
1910 Place riprap, pipe culverts and build bridge trestles ($4,815.00)
1912 Install 15’ mail compartment in baggage car #1012 ($356.00)

Tunnel

1986 photo of the north tunnel portal entrance on the MB line at the Doulgas Creek Falls. This photo was taken a year after the line was offically abandoned by Burlington Northern. A couple of months after this photo was taken, the rails were torn up and shipped to Korea to be melted down.

Palisades, WA

Great Northern Railway maintenance flat car, #X4125 resting on the Palisades Siding next to a fruit warehouse. This car was probably getting ready for use, since the line needed many repairs during the spring months. Photo taken by Mac McCulloch on March 18, 1968. Photo provided by Bob Kelly.


Great Northern Railway Wedge Plow, #X1584 parked at the Palisades Siding on March 18, 1968. This plow was probably assigned to the line to clear large snow drifts up on the plateau in late winter and early spring. Photo was taken by Mac McCulloch when he was just a kid. Photo provided by Bob Kelly.

Waterville Railway Co. Locomotive 949