New Trains, New Track — and Three Railroads Circling Priest Lake

Bonners Ferry Local Will Be Restored Monday.

For the past two weeks superintendents of all divisions of the Great Northern Railroad have been at the head offices in St. Paul arranging a new time card for the road. The new schedule will go into effect at midnight on Sunday, Oct. 31.

The new card shows the following time at Newport: Westbound — No. 1, 4:55 a.m.; No. 43, 7:13 a.m.; No. 265, 8:30 a.m.; No. 27, 4:18 p.m.; No. 3, 6:37 p.m. Eastbound — No. 2, 9:36 a.m.; No. 44, 1:42 p.m.; No. 28, 4:46 p.m.; No. 264, 7:25 p.m.; No. 4, 12:35 a.m.

The new fast mail train is marked on the schedule as Nos. 27 and 28. They carry no passengers.

The change of most importance to this section is the restoration of the Bonners Ferry local, which was pulled off last spring. The local will arrive at Newport westbound at 8:30 and at Spokane at 10:15 a.m. Eastbound it will leave Spokane at 5:45 p.m. and arrive at Newport at 7:25 p.m.

With the restoration of the local, Nos. 3 and 43, westbound, are relieved of the necessity of making the stops at the smaller stations and will be enabled to make better time.

Operation of the Idaho & Washington Northern passenger trains on the new schedule has been postponed until Nov. 8, owing to the fact that wet weather has delayed the laying and ballasting of the track into Ione. However, tickets through to Ione will be sold after Nov. 1, the passenger tariff becoming effective on that date, and transfers made to the boat at Jared as heretofore. Ione will be reached by the steel gang this week. The first local freight to reach Tiger was run today.

Some difficulty with the cuts a few miles north of town has been experienced by the I. & W. N. during the wet weather of last week. A force of men has been kept busy shoveling out slides and cutting back the sides of the cuts.

Train No. 104, due here at 1:08 Wednesday on the I. & W. N., ran into a drove of cattle near Spirit Lake and killed six of the cattle, but without damage or delay to the train.

Engine No. 31, the big new passenger engine for the I. & W. N., arrived at Spirit Lake today and will soon be in the service. Manager Blackwell states that 31 is claimed by the Baldwin Locomotive Works to be the best engine of its type ever turned out by the company. Contracts have been given to the Baldwin company for the construction of two more big freight engines, to be delivered to the road in the spring. They will be larger than the 21 type now in use.

Priest Lake Road Attracts Attention.

According to a story in the Sunday Spokesman-Review, three transcontinental railroads are anxious to obtain control of the projected railroad from Priest River into the Priest Lake country. It is said that the lines seeking control of the project are the Great Northern, Spokane International and the Milwaukee. A new Spokane corporation, known as the Idaho Central Railroad, has recently acquired the right-of-way and terminal sites formerly owned by the Panhandle Electric Railroad Power Co.

What the Milwaukee or the Spokane International Railroad would want with a road of that kind, remote from their lines, passes understanding, and the article as it appeared in the Review does not seem worthy of much credence. The Panhandle Company has always been under the suspicion of being pretty much of a hot air bunch. What seems most likely is that the Great Northern will build the road. In fact, Great Northern officials have stated that their road would do the work within the next few years. The road will run up the west side of the lake and be extended at least as far as the Continental mine, north of Priest Lake.

The nearest point to Priest River that the S. I. touches is across the river from LaClede. The Milwaukee will be at least 100 miles from Priest River, unless it acquires the Blackwell road, of which move there are persistent rumors, to which the recent visit to this section of President Earling and other officials of the road give some color of truth.