Taco Time Wrote:
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> .... and the SP&S tunnel under a cemetary.

The SP&S tunnel under Greenwood Cemetery was a real pain for the westbound engine crews in the steam days. Its eastern portal was near MP 377, just around a left-hand curve from the Great Northern's Fort Wright interlocking plant which was located at the timetable western end of the Spokane River bridge. The problem was that the SP&S trains would get stopped by the order board at Ft. Wright when the flimsies weren't ready and when restarting had to immediately attack the over 20-mile 1% grade up to Mock which started at the junction. This was the ruling westbound grade for the SP&S trains between Hillyard and Portland and from what the old-timers told me the company wasn't known for wasting any HPT on this grade. My dad told me that the only way he and others kept from blistering in the tunnel was to make sure that all of their exposed skin was covered with waste for insulation. They carried a small piece of rubber hose in their grip that they would stick through the waste for use as a breathing tube.

On October 22, 1937 (my dad's 25th birthday) he just happened to be first out on the SP&S Hillyard fireman's pool and got called for the maiden run of the SP&S 900, the road's first 4-6-6-4. He recalled a verrrrry slow trip through the tunnel as someone was walking backwards on the ties ahead of the engine shining a flashlight on the tunnel ceiling and walls checking for clearances. Apparently the clearance chart indicated a tight situation and the railroad didn't want to take any chances of banging up a shiny new steamer which had just been set up in the NP Parkwater shop after being towed west from the factory in Schenectady. In an amazing coincidence, exactly 65 years to the day after my dad's maiden voyage on the 900, I found myself running the SP&S 700 between Spokane and Pasco and blowing a whistle which came from one of the SP&S 900s.