Took a quick trip two weekends ago over to Eastern Washington to catch some action on the shortline Eastern Washington Gateway. Joel Hawthorn from Shelton accompanied me over and we met up with Ted Curphey and Dan Bolyard on Saturday.

1. The Eastern Washington Gateway runs the former NP's CW line from Cheney, WA out to Coulee City, WA. The operation for that Saturday was to grab the two tied down tunnel motors at Govan, WA, about 80 miles west of Cheney and head east, making stops at Wilbur and Creston, WA to pick up cars loaded with Barley. The first shot is of the former DRGW tunnel motor switching in Wilbur, WA making up its train.


Thanks for looking and for any comments.

Robert W. Scott
Rochester, WA


2. A 10mm shot shows the long lines of the former SSW snoot tunnel motor.


3. Right out of Wilbur the grade stiffens to 1.2%, and with a 10mph speed restriction in the town of Wilbur, its a hard climb to get up to Creston, the next location. The light is fading fast as the train is a few miles east of town but the speedometer has only risen 3 mph since leaving town.


4. After dodging snow flurries during the Creston pick-up, I moved further east to the old site of Telford while snapping a 30 second exposure with the Barley train approaching in the distance.