Western Railroad Discussion > Headed for the house

Taking the P-KCMSSE power to Laurel pit 11/30/01. It is 11:45am and I've been up since 0250. Yawn. I hear the bunk calling me.

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I'm a dedicated Capitalist. Locomotives don't make any money standing still. Seeing millions of dollars of capital equipment sit unused in the cold is not a pleasant site.

They gotta be serviced sometime, and there's only so many hours in a day.

Nice shot and more power than I've seen the few times I've been by there in the past months.

It looks like the 4th through 7th units from the right are the GP50s that usually work the local manifests between Laurel-Great Falls-Shelby. But, what are the units straight down the track you are on in the yellow and black?

Paul Birkholz
<a href="http://www.mtnwestrail.com&quot; target="_blank">Mountain West Rail</a>

Yellow and black units? If you are talking about the one on 4 track (straight ahead at switch around the curve I am on) that is an ATSF blue bonnet SD40-2 I think. I enlarged a portion of the original and it definately is a blue & yellow SF nose. The yellow further to the right was a U.P. C44 I think. There was also a yellow & green C&NW Operation Lifesaver unit & a yellow etc U.P. SD90 on the oil track off the left side of the picture I couldn't get in the shot.

As for the capitalist getting hot pockets over the millions of $$$ sitting idle...the BNSF schedules many trains into Laurel all at once within a few hours. That is because there are 5 routes into Laurel and most trains exchange cars. The units are serviced then sit an hour or 2 or 3 while the trains are re-blocked. Then the rhse will be mostly empty again until the next "fleet" comes in.

Yes the GP50s are the Great Falls power. See below.

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Actually this amount of power there insn't really all that unusual. It is somewhat more unusual that it is all there in the daylight though. I have seen 56 units there at once. I have also seen it with only the 2 or 3 that I just brought in.

The Billings coal power, 3 units from SD40-2s to SD70MACs, usually stays att he Laurel Rhse while the train is being unloaded. They have been unloading the train in about 24 hours lately. (It is 75 cars which MRL yard engines take 25 cars at a time from the Billings westward auxillary track to the plant). The Great Falls power usually comes in about 5-7am and is there until the crew is rested and the train ready to go back about 5-7pm.

Good photos, AAK, I'm glad you replaced your camera.

But maybe you can answer a question for a California boy about all that white stuff on the ground. It's not HazMat, is it?

Ah the memories! My great uncle worked for the Northern Pacific out of Laurel (In fact my great aunt still lives due south of the locomotive servicing facility across the field). One day way back in 1973, I was invited to spend the day in and around the roundhouse. The newest power seen that day was a pair of Big Sky Blue U33C's. There were alot of F9's in and around the roundhouse. I was given the oppertunity to operate a SD45 that day. It was fun, and it brought a lifetime of memories.

Bill Morrison
MorrisonRailfan@aol.com