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The 1% grades of the NP near Spokane ARE an issue, and present a different challenge than the grades further south. BNSF runs some heavy stacks and manifests eastbound from Pasco, but for both BNSF and UP, the real tonnage in this area is westbound/southbound: grain, coal, potash. For these tonnage trains, it's almost all downhill or level across most of eastern Washington with two notable exceptions. BNSF westbounds climb something like 0.6% from Lind up to Providence, and UP southbounds climb about 0.7% from Juniper up to Cold Springs. Back near Spokane, the NP route heading west of the city would force tonnage trains to descend a couple miles on 1% to the Hangman Creek bridge then immediately dig their wheels into several miles of climbing that maxes out at 1.14% to Marshall. Not an impossible train handling task, but it requires more motive power than these trains are currently assigned. South of Marshall, these tonnage trains already deal with a short stretch of 1% between Lakeside Jct. and Cheney, but they get a pretty good run at it coming off the former SP&S.
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