Nostalgia & History > Northern Pacific at Austin, Montana, 1964 (plus a "where is it?")

A few years back, I inherited hundred of slides from a family friend who worked on the B&O with my grandfather (and I finally finished scanning them).  He traveled all over the country, and by and large he was pretty good about writing down where and when he took them (and am I jealous of the cab rides he made on other roads!)  The first three here are at the west end of the siding at Austin, Montana



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/17 15:14 by BaltimoreOhio.

---

---

---

No.4 is also from the siding, waiting on an eastbound.  The bridge in No.5 is further up Mullan Pass from where the first 4 shots were taken.  No.6 is the mystery-  it was in with the others, but there was nothing written on the slide itself.  Does anyone recognize the location?  Thanks in advance!

---

---

---

Well, those are definitely gems!

Thanks for taking the time to go through your collection and do the scans, etc.

-- Greg

One possibility for image #6 would a mile or so east of Garrison, MT along US hwy 12. That looks like an eastbound train (going to the left) with a 2-unit helper behind a caboose, with Mullan Pass ahead. After looking at Google Maps (and considering the half-century difference in time) the distance from the highway to the track looks sorta right, and the foothills/mountains in the background kinda-sorta look right...

Lance/199

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/17 15:59 by santafe199.

THANKS for these pictures from Austin!  Fantastic!  They bring back so many memories for me.  My dad and I spent a week there back in 1968.  Just about every structure in the pictures were gone by then, but the train watching was great!

Picture 6 is taken looking from the head end of the train a little over two miles railroad west of Austin, at the top of the two horseshoe curves, just east of a siding called Weed.  The helper locomotives are shoving the caboose of the train the photographer is on.  Austin siding is at the base of the mountains in the distance.  Westbound trains would head from left to right along Austin siding, then wind around a sharp 10 degree curve and travel from right to left along the track where the helper locomotives shoving the caboose is seen.  The train then wound around a mountain, and I believe in 1964 still went through a tunnel (which was daylighted shortly thereafter) before arriving at the location the photo was shot from.  I remember from when I was up there watching trains that the end of the train would be in about that position when the head end arrived at that location.

I look forward to more of your photos!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/17 17:04 by czephyr17.

I concur with CZ17. At East Weed looking back across the upper horseshoe.

monaddave Wrote: > ... I concur with CZ17...

Count me in as well. The upper horseshoe before Weed makes perfect sense with the in-cab shot on Greenhorn Creek trestle. I wasn't really comfortable with my "east of Garrison" assessment. But I just couldn't seem to place the scene anywhere else. I last worked that mountain pass in 1991 so it's been a looong time since I've been intimate with the scenery...

Lance



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/17 11:58 by santafe199.

Thanks for the feedback (and the kind words).  That's all the NP slides he had, but I'll be posting from other places he visited.  And there are still some shoeboxes full of snapshots I still have to go through, who knows what I'll find in there!