The Spokane International Railroad was a

short line 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 oper ...

between

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 ...

, and the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...

(CP) at

Kingsgate, British Columbia Kingsgate is a port of entry in southeastern British Columbia, just north of the Canada–US border at Eastport, Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small ...

. The line became an important one for the CP with its connections to the

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 Pac ...

and

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...

. The line, originally named the Spokane International Railway, was built by local businessman and railroader

Daniel Chase Corbin Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength ...

following an agreement between him and the CP, with CP agreeing to fund much of the line's construction and to secure the loan by holding the new line's bonds. Especially significant was that the CP controlled the

Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (MStP&SSM) was a Class I railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Midwestern United States. Commonly known since its opening in 1884 as the Soo Line after the phonetic sp ...

(Soo Line) and its connections to

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...

, Minnesota,

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center ...

, and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, Illinois. Completion of the Spokane International now meant that the CP could compete with the

Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, w ...

and Great Northern Railway lines for transportation between the Midwest and the

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected m ...

area (in conjunction with the Union Pacific Railroad subsidiary

Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company (OR&N) was a railroad that operated a rail network of running east from Portland, Oregon, United States, to northeastern Oregon, northeastern Washington, and northern Idaho. It operated from 1896 as a ...

west of Spokane). Express passenger service was soon introduced on the line via the '' Soo-Spokane Train De Luxe''. Two Ohio Match Company locomotives were sold to the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

in 1940 to construct a spur off the Spokane International in order to construct the Farragut Naval Base in

Farragut, Idaho Farragut State Park is a public recreation area located at the southern tip of Lake Pend Oreille in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains of the Idaho Panhandle in the northwest United States. The state park is east of Athol in Kootenai County, about ...

, and were scrapped by the

in 1944 for war materials. Spokane International RW 1906

The SI was reorganized October 1, 1941, following financial difficulties and receivership during the Great Depression. The line was renamed the Spokane International Railroad as part of the restructuring agreement until the 1950s. On October 6, 1958, the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) took control of Spokane International Railroad. In 1962 UP leased SI's 11

ALCO RS-1 The ALCO RS-1 was a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by Alco-GE between 1941 and 1953 and the American Locomotive Company from 1953 to 1960. ALCO subsidiary Montreal Locomotive Works built an additional three RS-1s in 1954. This model ha ...

locomotives for operation. The locomotives were later repainted to UP's yellow and gray paint scheme, but retained their SI lettering. Also in 1962, UP sold four of its older steel

caboose A caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in switching and shunting, keeping a lookout for load shifting, dama ...

s to SI. These were also painted in UP's yellow scheme, but received SI lettering and numbers. After UP's 1958 control of SI, Union Pacific continued to lease SI for operation. On December 31, 1987, Union Pacific formally merged SI into its corporate structure. At the end of 1960 SI operated of road on of track; that year it reported 141 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and zero passengers. The line remains in operation as the Union Pacific's Spokane Subdivision, an important connection between southern British Columbia and the northwest United States.

References

External links

Brief history of the SIRoster of SI diesel locomotivesRoster listing of SI wooden and steel cabooses

See also

References

External links

Further reading