The company reorganized under the Spokane and British Columbia Railway name in 1905 which operated service on the line through 1919 and was officially stricken from the active corporation listing in 1925.

On March 18, 1901, Morris obtained the needed permits from the Secretary of the Interior to build a Grand Forks to Republic rail line across the northern portion of the Colville Indian Reservation.

[2] The money needed to start building was advanced from Toronto by Stratton, Coffee, F. Holland, and an additional backer named Kleopher, all of the Dominion Permanent Trust.

A check for the damages amounting to US$5,548.05 (equivalent to about $203,200 in 2023) was transmitted by Coffee, then vice president of the Republic & Kettle Valley Railway company to the Crow, Flathead Commission.

The final maps were transmitted to the commission on August 13, 1901, and review showed the proposed route paralleled closely, crossed, and in some sections used the same bed as the Republic and Kettle Valley railway.

However the commission ruled in favor of the W&GN company for the initial mapping and granted permission for them to resume building, while forcing the R&KV to survey an updated route north.

[6] Full operation began in 1902, with a Grand Forks band travelling to Republic to celebrate the increased ease of commerce between the towns.

Upon review of the proposed route, submitted 24 November 1905, the Secretary of the Interior noted it to cross, re-cross, and at times use the same exact bed as that which had already been mapped by the Spokane and British Columbia Railway.

[1] On 4 June 1898 permission was granted by the Secretary of the Interior to the Washington Improvement and Development Company for a right of way running from the mouth of the San Poil river on the Columbia north to the international boarder.

One of the provisions in the original 4 June 1898 permission was that within six months of a route filing, the company was to begin grading on the approved section or the grant would be void.

After a trail without jury, the case was decided 5 February 1907 by Judge J. Carey who agreed with the Spokane and British Columbia Railways assertion of ownership of the route.

[11] Two years later, in 1912, the United States congress passed an act granting both railways rights to lay rail right-of-ways through the Sanpoil Valley and across the Colville Reservation.

The commission held a hearing on January 20, 1921, to ascertain if there was any objection to the filed request or if any hardship would result on the region serviced by the rail line.

It was concluded that the Great Northern was providing the needed service in the area and a final order by the hearing commission was made on February 2, 1921, by that the application should be granted.

The S&BC registered only two passenger-freight combination coaches in service, while having a fleet of four boxcars, ten ore dump cars and thirteen flatcars.