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We started the year with our January banquet. Officers were installed. After a short business meeting we were pleased to watch a presentation on Northern Pacific branch lines in Idaho and Montana by NP author Bill Taylor from Missoula, Montana.

We had a busy year at our West Reardan site. We almost finished major earth moving thanks to the efforts of longtime member Warren Gardner. He moved his D-8H to the site in May. It is much larger at 30 plus tons and a more modern machine than our 1955 D-8 model. With 230 hp, a 14 ft wide U blade, rippers on the back and finger touch controls the dirt and rock did move! Warren is an operator with 60+ years experience in logging and road building. The roadbed for the standard gauge track is almost complete. Warren also leveled a large flat area for our shop building and built up a much larger area for the depot/museum building and our walk-thru display train.

Gene Hawk moved dozens of trailer loads of materials to West Reardan. Heavy loads were hauled with our 1949 GMC truck. We put down 2 switches and 300 feet of track on 430 cubic yards of 1-1/2 inch crushed rock. Some of the rock was donated, some purchased but all delivered by Copenhaver Construction. Enough ties are stockpiled for 3 more switches and 300 feet of track.

A second Northern Pacific tool house was built. It is quite a nice building with 3x12 treated Douglas fir floor planks, two sets of double doors, 1x12 cedar vertical siding and 1x4 battens painted NP cream on the upper walls and brown on the bottom third and topped with a metal roof. All material was salvaged by Gene Hawk. The total cost was about $100 for a complete 14x20 foot NP double toolhouse.

Our Spokane Falls and Northern 1898 wooden boxcar was moved by truck from the Fairgrounds and placed on a raised display pad in the SW corner of our 30 acres near where US Highway 2 and Washington State route 231 meet.

In September, our 28^th annual Spokane Interstate Fair kept 25 volunteers busy for the 10 days the fair was open plus several days of preparation/tear-down. We were able to purchase the entire souvenir stock of the Montana Rockies Rail Tour organization. They had operated tours from Sandpoint, Idaho across Montana for seven seasons and decided to stop operating this year. Through the efforts of Mike McMackin, Gene Hawk and other volunteers we sold several thousand dollars worth of this merchandise at swap meets and the fair.

Lee Tillotson had a 180 foot well drilled, and got septic tank / drain field permits, plans OK’d and permits paid for to build a 24x36 foot NP section house (caretaker house) in the NE corner of our 30 acres near Reardan. Warren started the basement excavation in October with his D-8 Cat and did remarkably well considering the hole is little more than twice as wide as the blade and twice as long as the machine. He did hit a ridge of solid rock on the south side. He tried ripping it. No luck, it was quite solid. Lee moved the hole 8 feet north with our Case backhoe and got the forms in and inspected by Nov 2^nd. Time was fast running out on his building permit. Five yards of ready mix concrete was poured on Nov 15th. Jerry Fey and Jennell Branson helped place the mud and we set the bottom layer of 8x8x16 blocks right away - they bond to the footings well this way.

The big fall project was moving 40 Northern Pacific Fairmont motor cars to West Reardan and the Spokane Fairgrounds. Frank Nonnemacher, Larry Parker and Gene Hawk helped haul them. Many trips were also made with our 1949 GMC truck to get the job done. The cars were donated by John Barrier, owner of the West Spokane Industrial Park in Airway Heights. He had them for almost 30 years. Some were in operating condition when the NP became part of the BN. Years of unprotected outside storage and vandalism have taken their toll. Some of the "modern" Onan powered cars are in our ex-Union Pacific streamlined baggage car #5651 where Gene Hawk is making 2 operational using parts from the other cars. This baggage car was purchased this summer from a scrapper at Hinkle, Oregon and made moveable to Spokane by Gene.

Jerry Fey and Bruce Juneau have been cataloging our library collections. President Bill Graedel, despite serious heart problems, has accomplished much, generating paperwork necessary to keep our projects moving forward. Sidetrack editor Dale Swant has produced four 8 page tabloid size issues keeping members and friends informed of our progress. Lee Tillotson produced our 31st calendar for 2006 with a color cover and 16 historic northwest railroad pictures.

The volunteer members who accomplished the hard work at West Reardan this year, all in their 60s, 70s and 80s except two, were Dennie Byram, Art Cowan, Jerry Fey, Warren Gardner, Gene Hawk, Al Hinkel, Frank Nonnemacher, Larry Parker, John Peterson, John Simanton, Lee Tillotson and Stan Troyer. We had 6 Reardan High School football players’ help us drive spikes one morning. That was appreciated too. 2005 was a very productive year.