Monday, April 18, 2011

Railfanning the Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway Company

Well, I see that all of the photos I posted earlier have disappeared.

Hopefully, these won't disappear.  Someday, I might be able to resurrect the missing photos, but that won't happen for a while.

So, on to the the WI&M.

Conceived in 1903 to haul raw timber and finished lumber for its owner, the Potlatch Lumber Co., the WI&M provided essential transportation for the entire region. The railroad exchanged freight and passengers with three other railroads; the Northern Pacific and Great Northern at Palouse, Wa, and the Milwaukee Road at Bovill, Id.

The WI&M is still operating as the W&I, having given up its' pretensions to connect in Montana.

We'll start in Palouse, WA, at the site of the old W, I&M station.


The old station was built about where the travel trailer and truck are located.




























Another look here.  Note that the trailer is still there, but the truck is gone.  The bulkhead flatcars are in the same location, as well.




























Next, we will look south along the route of the Great Northern RR.  The trestle is gone, but the concrete pillar is still there.




























 Looking north from down below.




























Looking down from the automobile bridge in the above photo, we see the site of the GN depot, gone since 1970 when the Burlington Northern was formed.  The station was located at the top end of the old roadbed, it the wide spot.  If you look hard, you can see the concrete pillar discussed above.





































Still standing on the bridge, but now looking north, we can see where the GN wye was located.  Locomotives, or even short trains could have their direction of travel reversed, here.




























One of the interesting things about the WI&M is the street running in Palouse.

Looking east...


























And, looking west...




























More, later...

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