dormant, and the line east of town was severed by a 2006 trestle fire. No trip to Colfax would be complete without visiting a a very unusual artifact of local railroad history. The Harpole Bridge, a covered wooden Howe truss, still stands over the Palouse River northwest of town and is the only example of its kind remaining in Washington. It was built in the early 1900s by the Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad Company (S&IE), which connected Colfax to Spokane with an electric interurban line. To see the bridge, follow Green Hollow Road north from town to Manning Road, then head west for a mile to view it from above a bend in the river. The bridge now serves as a driveway, so please be respectful of private property. The PV Sub is without doubt the
scenic highlight of the PCC. The railroad follows the Palouse River for a few miles north of Winona before turning up the valley of Downing Creek, with plenty of photo opportunities along the way. Eleven miles from Winona is Willada, which the post office confusingly calls Lancaster, where a large WhitGro elevator complex is a regular customer. After a few more miles of running up the center of the valley alongside Lancaster Road, the railroad’s character abruptly changes. Recall that this line was built to
OPPOSITE TOP: On October 5, 2007, a ragged GP40-2LW still wore its Canadian National paint job, clearly applied long, long ago. The eastbound train was passing through Endicott on the way to Mockonema. OPPOSITE: WAMX 5012 drags empties out of Pleasant Valley above St. John Golf Course on September 16, 2013. The house in front of the train is the same one visible on page 28.
TOP: With loads from Sunset, St. John and Willada in tow, WAMX 5012 and 4043 turn the corner off the 1889 Pleasant Valley bypass onto the 1884 Colfax mainline at Winona on August 31, 2010. Visible at the corner of the wye are foundations from the steam-era water tank that once fed thirsty locomotives. ABOVE: The old Spokane & Inland Empire wood covered bridge still stands at Harpole, spanning the Palouse River northwest of Colfax.
bypass the big grade at Colfax. While the OR&N’s engineers did their best to follow watercourses, there’s simply no way to travel any distance in the Palouse without crossing a ridge line, and in the next 15 miles the PV Sub goes up and over goes up and over three of them with ruling grades of 1.0 percent southbound and 1.6 percent northbound. The first offers entry to the line’s namesake, Pleasant Valley, across which the railroad drapes like a giant horseshoe. At the apex of this shape sits the town of St. John, home to elevators operated by both WhitGro and Inland Empire Milling Co. After climbing right back out of the Pleasant Valley, the railroad descends to Cottonwood Creek and follows it upstream to Sunset, location of another WhitGro elevator. Leaving Sunset, the track immediately begins climbing, gaining nearly 250 feet of elevation to
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