A train ride on the other side of the mountains

Chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo.

The train began to roll out of the Ione, Wash., station on a beautiful October day on a short trip to Metaline Falls.

Through the rolling countryside and next to the Pend Oreille River, the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad train chugged.

Glimpses of the river could be seen through the trees beginning to show their brilliant shades of autumn.

A brief stop on the Box Canyon trestle bridge showed the full width of the Pend Oreille River. On the upstream side, nature’s forces had carved the steep walls of Box Canyon. On the downstream side, Box Canyon Dam captures the water’s power to create electricity.

As the train chugged onward, the forest closed in around the railroad until closer to Metaline Falls where the forest gave way to pastures and homesteads. Two tunnels shortened the route for workers building the railroad in 1910.

At Metaline Falls, the engine reconnected to the rear end of the train and pulled it back to Ione. The 90-minute, 20-mile round trip was a novelty for the riders awed by the beauty of the Pend Oreille Valley but for the original riders and railroad engineers, the railroad was a necessity--a means of transportation of people and goods. Apple trees along the route are a reminder of the apple cores railroad workers and passengers discarded along the tracks.