Western Railroad Discussion > My Montana "Misadventure" Days 7 & 8

I finally found some time to catch up on the backlog of photos from my trip to the MRL so here we go...

1. Day 7 begins with MRL 290 resting with a short work train at Garrison.
2. East of Garrison we catch the 290 again rolling east with a short ballast train.
3. We encounter a band of snow going over MacDonald Pass that stretched east past Louisville where we catch this KCKSPO heading for Helena.

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4. The snow continues back in Helena as a coal load and a helper set await fresh crews.
5. Day 8 brings sunny skies with fresh snow from the day before still on the ground. As we head out of Helena westbound we hear a coal load in the siding at Austin having "issues". As we get up to the east switch we see that they ended up getting a wrong end drawbar two cars west of the main road crossing. While waiting for the coal load to clear the crossing, we ran back east to catch a Centralia empty rolling downgrade through Weed.
6. And again above Austin with the head end running the other direction.

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7. Finally the head end rolls by our location at East Austin.
8. By this time the crew on the helper set has pulled their portion of the train past the switch to the house track allowing us to continue up on the road over Mullan. We get up to Skyline Trestle in time to catch this MOW train heading east to Laurel.
9. Right behind the MOW train a four unit helper set has picked up another helper set at Elliston and bring both over the mountain and back to Helena.

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10. After the helper set clears the block, the 3rd District DS gives the MRL 290 time to dump a little ballast on the trestle.
11. Relocating to Greenhorn Trestle, the "coal load from hell" finally gets out of Austin after getting a knuckle 10 cars ahead of the DP after they put their train back together following the original drawbar incident.
12. The required shot of the four unit helper set over Greenhorn Trestle.

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13. The eight unit helper set we caught earlier tacked on to the rear end at Austin and assisted the train over the mountain.
14. Rolling back east to Helena we run into a H KCKSPO at Austin with two foreign units on the head end.
15. The 290 heads back west long hood forward with one car and a caboose just east of Austin.

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16. BNSF 9255 pulls its train up to Head Lane just west of Helena where a helper set with attached at Helena Jct.
17. The 9255 again roaring west through Tobin.
18. And one more of the 9255 as it pulls west just east of Austin.

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19. BNSF 927 eases east into Austin with an empty grain train.
20. We catch the 9255 again easing out of Mullan Tunnel and starting down the grade to Elliston.

Thanks for looking and there's still more to come!

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What an Outstanding series, all of these shots are just Brilliant. I can't believe the 9 unit rear helper!

A+ all the way! Nice catch with the 290, also. Back in '89 I bagged a few shots of the unit on a psgr special celebrating Montana's Centennial. One of these days I gotta scan those slides...

Lance

:) with an O

Posted from Android

What an amazing group of shots! Seeing all the MRL coverage on here lately has certainly had me reevaluate my future trip plans, even if the 45's leave!

Wow, really sick series.

Thanks for sharing all these great photos during your sojourn out there~!

Outstanding bunch!
JB

GREAT stuff...!!! Thanks for sharing.

Another awesome series of photos.

Ronda Thomas

These are fantastic images.... Commendations abound..

The Yeti might have to go to Montana to check things out. If for nothing more than to provide diversity to the gene pool.

In a cave, under a glacier...

Yukon Yeti

Great pictures and catches! Glad to see the 290. It was leased to the Wheeling and Lake Erie in the late 90s in Ohio.

Great series of pictures, really enjoyable. I'm planning a trip up next spring or summer, l miss this place.

MrOGDEN

Really enjoyed the MRL tour, sharp pictures!

Larry