Western Railroad Discussion > MRL night gas local climbing Evaro Hill

This video shows MRL's night gas local climbing Evaro Hill in Montana, and then two scenes of it rolling by in the vicinity of Arlee, MT. Monaddave, fbe, and others were very helpful in providing information that made this possible. This was my first time in Montana and I had a narrow window of time to pull this off, but info I was provided about the operating patterns was spot-on.

I had a drone with me and the ideal plan was that after getting the train curving around Nagos on the grade, I could sprint up the road a bit, get the drone in the air, and capture it over Marent Trestle. But, the SD70ACe's had a short train and were making too quick work of the grade, and I couldn't pull that off. But, traffic wasn't bad and I was able to catch up to it farther along. In the last scene, I was surprised to see jointed rail looking so smooth. 

Once I get to editing it, I'll have another video of a local on the same day that took the 4th Sub.

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 Top notch video!

Is the 4403 one of the former Australian SD70ACe?

Posted from Android

Man, to think I used to ride over that very same rail 50 years ago on the NP Mainstreeter!

Thanks for sharing these videos.

No, 4403 is part of MRL's second ACe order. The gecko units from Australia are in the 4300 series above the first ACe order, 4316-4319. They were built in the same time frame as MRL'S 4300s and before the 4400s.



The-late-EMD Wrote:
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> Is the 4403 one of the former Australian SD70ACe?
>
> Posted from Android

Great video!

Starting at 1:10 for a few seconds, in the foreground is the original 1880s RoW that now bumps into the man made hillside at the grade crossing, before crossing what was O'Keefe Trestle. At 1:38 the train begins to cross that trestle's replacement, O'Keefe Creek Fill. The former siding of Nagos starts near the west end of the fill. Thanks for the look, inCHI.
Dave in Msla

Those are interesting historical details, I'll have to take a closer look.

I was also surprised that on the jointed rail in the last shot it was 4-bolt joint bars but everything seemed so smooth and well maintained.

inCHI Wrote:
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> I was also surprised that on the jointed rail in
> the last shot it was 4-bolt joint bars but
> everything seemed so smooth and well maintained.

It is 112# rail laid in 1942, a very common rail size seen on NP main lines in those years.  Due to the Evaro grades, this line was primarily used by NP for its passenger trains, local freights, and an occasional detour of freight traffic if there was a problem on the low line through St. Regis, which was 30 miles longer but river grade so saw the majority of through freights.  MRL uses the line basically the same way relative to freight traffic, plus the gas local which is a relatively small train.  So there has been little wear and batter on the rail joints over the years.  

That 1942 rolled rail may be a relay rail from the mainline by NP or BN. the ribbon rail on curves is generally MRL relay.