The Washington and Idaho Railway was a

shortline railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

that operated in the area south of

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Cana ...

, connecting the BNSF Railway at

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

Palouse, Washington Palouse is a city in Whitman County, Washington, United States. The population was 998 at the 2010 census. History Palouse was first settled in 1869 by William Ewing. The townsite was founded in 1875 by W.P. Breeding. Palouse is named for t ...

Harvard, Idaho Harvard is an unincorporated community in the northwest United States, on the Palouse of north central Idaho in Latah County. Located on the Palouse River, east of Potlatch on State Highway 6, Harvard has a post office with ZIP code 83834. T ...

, and Moscow, Idaho. It began operations in 2006 on ex- Northern Pacific Railway and

Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway The Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway is a short-line railroad in the northwest United States, described as "a single-track standard gauge steam railroad" that runs between Bovill, Idaho and Palouse, Washington. Construction began in May&nbs ...

trackage formerly operated by the

Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad The Palouse ( ) is a distinct geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of north central Idaho, southeastern Washington, and, by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. It is a major agricultural area, primar ...

, which had acquired it from the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1996. The railroad ceased operations in 2019 as a new operator gained control of the line.

History

The Spokane and Palouse Railway, a predecessor of the Northern Pacific Railway (NP), completed a line from the NP's main line at Marshall south to Genesee, Idaho in 1888, and a branch from Pullman to

Juliaetta, Idaho Juliaetta is a city in Latah County, Idaho, United States. The population was 579 at the 2010 census. History The area was originally called Schupferville for Rupert Schupfer, an original homesteader in the area. The town was named in 1882 by t ...

in 1891 (extended to Lewiston by the NP in 1898). The

(WI&M) finished its line in 1907, extending east from Palouse to Purdue, Idaho. The

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experience ...

(Milwaukee Road) gained control of the WI&M in 1962, and sold the property to the Burlington Northern Railroad (BN), successor to the NP, in 1980. The BN sold the lines from Marshall to Arrow, Idaho and Palouse to Bovill, Idaho to the newly created

(PCC), which began operations in September 1996. It subsequently abandoned the ends from Harvard to Bovill and Moscow to Arrow, and in September 2006 the Washington and Idaho Railway began operating the remainder under contract. The

Washington State Department of Transportation The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT or WashDOT, both ) is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure in the U.S. state of Washington. Established in 1905, it is ...

bought the trackage within that state in June 2007, and kept the Washington and Idaho Railway as the operator. It also has access to an ex-

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

line west from Pullman to Risbeck (also formerly owned by the PCC) for railcar storage.

Palouse River and Coulee City RR – Acquisition and Rehabilitation – Project Map
accessed February 2009 In mid 2019, the WIR ceased operations as the contract was up for the state owned lines. A new operator took over in August 2019 and is called the Spokane, Spangle & Palouse Railway (SSP).

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington Idaho Railway Washington (state) railroads Defunct Idaho railroads Idaho railroads Railway companies established in 2006