Western Railroad Discussion > MRL is well underway with their Bradley Siding construction.

The train is loaded with dirt at Blossburg from when the tunnel there was shortened several years ago.
With normal rail traffic and MOW chores, they try to get the train loaded and dumped at the new siding site twice a day.
MRL aims to have a working siding by the end of the year. The shorter 6100 foot siding just to the east at Avon, hampered by two road crossings, will be removed. The new Bradley siding should be close to 10,000 feet.
Photo number three shows the completed roadbed at MP 41.
Also another new CTC siding, former electric lock siding, is being lengthened to nearly 16,000 feet and signaled at Phosphate, directly west of Garrison. These improvements will help the dispatcher handle more rail traffic which the future is promising.
 

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Thanks for the update. The extension at Phosphate should be relatively easy since it used to be double track.

Posted from iPhone

So the new Bradley siding is between the historical location of Bradley Siding and Avon. The current Avon siding is pretty limited. Glad to see there is a company that doesn't run and hide from improvement projects every time traffic takes a little downturn.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

funnelfan Wrote:
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> So the new Bradley siding is between the
> historical location of Bradley Siding and Avon.
> The current Avon siding is pretty limited. Glad to
> see there is a company that doesn't run and hide
> from improvement projects every time traffic takes
> a little downturn.
We used to have a gentleman on UP who would take advantage of the traffic downturn to get his major projects done.
Less interruption to traffic and projects get done quicker.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Saw this when I passed through the area a couple of weeks ago.  Caught the train at east end of Avon siding, impressive!  Didn't know what project was.  Now I do!

Thank you,

Rob

funnelfan Wrote:
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> So the new Bradley siding is between the
> historical location of Bradley Siding and Avon.

That is correct. The old Bradley siding was removed along with the sidings of Lombard, Birdseye, Weed, and Skyline
after the Frisco merged with the BN and the powers that be were considering to de-emphisize the ex NP main line west of Laurel due to the mountain grades at Bozeman and Helena.
At one time, they were planning to remove the CTC signals from the NP line and re-install them on the Laurel - Great Falls line,
making the ex-NP main west of Laurel a lightly used branch.  

Tom

 

Thanks for the updates, Tom. I wondered how far west they were going. You've answered a lot of questions. Please feel free to keep us posted on progress.

Dano
Helena