Western Railroad Discussion > Western Vacation Day 8 - MRL

I awakened to a bright, sunny day in Laurel, MT. As I headed west there was plenty of action on the MRL. Three trains were parked in the West Laurel Yard. The old highway 10 parallels the railroad in places. In others, you must stay on I-90 as the old highway gets squeezed because of the Yellowstone River and terrain. BTW this is a very scenic section of the interstate. I passed an eastbound at Columbus. He was going at least 50 and I was going 80. I don't think I could have caught him until Laurel and I would have been shooting into the sun. So I continued west. I caught up with a westbound loaded coal train at Quebec and ran ahead to pick a good location for a photo. To my delight I found an eastbound grainer in the siding at Greycliff with a crossing right there.

It didn't take long for the BNSF 5209 west to arrive at speed. I am still learning proper rail fanning so I did not get the number of the eastbound grainer as I was charging ahead to catch the coal train at Big Timber. I actually got way ahead as the 5209 got a restricted signal approaching Big Timber. As he held the main, an eastbound vehicle train entered the siding (behind the coal train). Unfortunately I wasn't positioned to shoot the meet of the head ends. But that will come in the days ahead.

Then it was on to Livingston. There was a westbound manifest picking up helpers to attack Bozeman Pass. At my pit stop there, I noticed that I had a tail light out. So I went to the NAPA store, got the part, and replaced it before proceeding westward. That was a "God thing". That 20-minute delay allowed me to meet an eastbound just west of Livingston. Here came the BNSF 8251 east with a manifest off the Pass. Before starting my journey, catching a loaded Boeing train on the MRL was on my bucket list. That didn't work out BUT at least I caught some empties returning to Wichita. This train included the BNSF test cars "Kootenai River" and "Canyon Diablo", which I had seen on an earlier TO post when they traveled to Seattle on a loaded Boeing train. This was certainly the highlight of the day. If I hadn't been delayed with the light bulb replacement, I would have probably missed this train in the tunnel.

After Bozeman the railroad was quiet as there were work windows in place. Also the clouds moved in and by Townsend I was in moderate rain. That rain n turned into moderate snow on McDonald Pass west of Helena and then back to moderate rain west of Mullan Pass. There was a westbound parked on the main west of Avon but with the rain and dark clouds I chose not to stop. At Garrison there was an eastbound holding. But the rain was really coming down there so wimpy me decided not to get out and photograph.

As I traveled west on I-90 the rain eventually stopped but the dark clouds remained. One of the things that always fascinated me about this route was the parallel Milwaukee and ex-NP lines to Missoula. In spite of the gray clouds I did stop and photograph some remnants of the Milwaukee right-of-way.

The radio was quiet around Missoula. As I climbed Evaro, heading north towards Kalispell, I only passed one train - a vehicle train going east, right at the junction of US-93 and Montana 200. I decided not to u-turn and chase because of restricted highway speeds and my desire not to get a ticket from the Indian police. So onto Whitefish and looking forward to my personal tour or the BNSF Hi Line conducted by "misty1".

More to come

BB

1. The BNSF 5209 west meets an eastbound grainer in the hole at East Greycliff
2. I got artsy with this photo of the 5209 west passing through Big Timber with a classic Montana grain elevator and snow-capped mountains in the distance
3. The eastbound vehicle train is going into the siding at West Big Timber.

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4. The BNSF 8251 glides into West Livingston with a manifest
5. The consist included the "Kootenai River" and "canyon Diablo" test cars and.....
6. Several Boeing empties returning to Wichita

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7-9. East of Missoula are some remnants of the former Milwaukee Road to the Pacific Northwest including an electric substation

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10. At Townsend, MT the BNSF 7460 and 6286 wait for track work ahead to be completed. To me this is somewhat unusual that the DS would tie-up both tracks. He/she must have been very confident that an eastbound would not show up. ;>)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/18 11:31 by bmarti7.

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The substation is Ravenna. You also passed standing substations off the highway at Gold Creek and Primrose.

Thanks for the write up. This is a trip on my bucket list, and I now have some ideas to work with.