Nostalgia & History > Kettle Falls WA. in 1979

The Great Northern once had a network of rail lines in northern Washington State and southern British Columbia, built initially to transport silver and copper.  The GN served much of this network from Marcus, Washington but the building of the Grand Coulee Dam in 1942 resulted in relocation of the base of operations to Kettle Falls WA.

​Passing by Kettle Falls in the summer of 1979 on Highway 395, smoke from a nearby forest fire caused hazy conditions , which messed up my exposures.  I've converted them to black and white.

​The images show the BN station and yard at Kettle Falls, a southbound freight at Addy WA. , en route to Spokane from Kettle Falls, and the San Poil local arriving from the west.

Today, this is an Omnitrax operation, the Kettle Falls International Railway.

The 1418 little loco in the 2 photo must be working very hard ..loll
For it would take 2 SD.70ac now to handle this type load...loll