Western Railroad Discussion > Montana Monday: Coram

Eastbound BNSF freight crossing the Flathead, just west of Glacier a couple  years ago.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/17 09:04 by march_hare.

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It looks like this is an eastbound grain empty crossing the North Fork of the
Flathead River near Coram.

Yup, will correct the location

I believe this is the Middle Fork of the Flathead. The North Fork comes down from Polebridge on the west side of Glacier NP and joins near Columbia Falls. The South Fork comes through Hungry Horse dam and joins the Middle Fork just west of the Coram bridge in the photo at the east end of Bad Rock Canyon.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/17 11:36 by fbe.

Well, now that we are thoroughly confused, I got out my USGS map.  According to the map, the North Fork Flathead River and Middle Fork Flathead River join at a point railroad east of the Coram bridge, about half way between Belton (West Glacier) and Coram.  At that point, the river becomes the Flathead River, which is what we see flowing under the bridge.  As fbe noted, the South Fork joins the Flathead River further west, just east of Bad Rock Canyon.

Thanks for the photo!  I love that part of the country.

My bad. I forgot about that canyon in the background of the photo. That is inexcusable on my part since the Milwaukee Rd surveyed the North Fork Flathead as their route from Clearwater Jct on the Bonner line east out of Missoula, MT. This line would follow the Swan River drainage north. The tracks would cross the GN at Coram, MT then follow the North Fork To the Canadian border and a CP connection. The MILW just could not stay financially viable long enough to make this happen.

That would have been interesting, the MILW as a third competitor for Crowsnest and Elk Valley coal.

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Darren Boes
Lethbridge, AB
Southern Alberta Railfan

You are right, that would have been a most interesting route.

You can look at the county GIS site and still see the Milwaukee right of way easement in some areas from Coram up to north of Blankenship Rd.

Interesting route for sure. The route was through miles and miles of uncut timber and not yet served by any other railroad. None was burned in the 1910 fires. The MILW did not have Canadian connections coming west through the Dakotas and MT like the GN and NP did. This line would make the connection without crossing any steep mountain grades on a line with timber and mineral revenue potential.