Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF Western North Dakota question (former NP)

I'm considering visiting the former Northern Pacific mainline between Dickinson, North Dakota and Glendive, Montana. Anyone out there in the large Trainorders audience have knowledge of train frequency out there? I would appreciate it. Thank you all in advance!

Gary R Clark
Griffith, Indiana

Contax645 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm considering visiting the former Northern
> Pacific mainline between Dickinson, North Dakota
> and Glendive, Montana. Anyone out there in the
> large Trainorders audience have knowledge of train
> frequency out there? I would appreciate it. Thank
> you all in advance!
>
> Gary R Clark
> Griffith, Indiana

8-12 trains per day average. Mostly coal. W/B manifest: H-DILLAU; E/B H-LAUNTW and H-PASNTW; oil cans (loaded westward); bonus-BNSF has been running e/b monster trains 12,000-15,000 ft. Occasionally on Dickinson Sub. All eastbound come MRL-Glendive as there are no long sidings between terminals. Westbounds go via Hiline.

Very scenic areas but Dickinson-Glendive harder to follow as the highway only is occasionally in sight of the railroad. East of Dickinson, old highway 10 parallels about 70 miles.
Happy hunting and safe traveling 

Bismarck Bill 
 

Head for Sully Springs and Medora, both excellent spots.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

The BNSF Dickinson subdivision radio frequency is either 161.160 per Altamont Press Northwest Region Timetable or 161.415 per Sonrisa Publications Dakotas railroad maps.  Put both frequencies in you scanner and you will be just fine.  Along with the two spots to photo already mentioned other places to get good photos from are the bridge over the tracks at Belfield, ND, Beach, ND, and a little off the highway at Hodges, MT.  Also in the afternoon the curve just entering the down of Glendive, MT is great for westbound trains, for eastbounds in the morning there are the road crossing the tracks just east of the yard in Glendive and from the small bluffs just east of this road crossing are good places to photograph from.

From my experince photographing the BNSF in North Dakota over the past 15 years or so is there will either be lots of trains all at once or no trains for hours.  Don't afraid to chase a train going the direction you are traveling or for that matter not going the direction you are travveling.  The trains in this area do not move that fast.  And if you find yourself chasing trains until after dark and don't have a place to stay don't worry you will find a nice place for the night in one of the many towns along the highway.

If you want to travel further east into North Dakota following the BNSF tracks there are lots of good place to photograph like the bridge over tracks just east of Sanborn, ND where the BNSF train crosses a big lake.  You should stop at one of North Dakotas nice rest stops and pick up an excellent free map of North Dakota which shows both the highways and the railroad tracks.  There are a number of places in North Dakota where the roads follow the tracks for miles and this map will be a big help.  When I photograph this area this is the map I have used over the years and my results have been pretty good.

One last comment regarding BNSF radio frequencies when you are chasing BNSF trains in the northern part of BNSF from Washington to Minnesota speaking from experience load all of the BNSF road channels on your scanner and scan of all of them all the time.  This way when you move from one BNSF subdisvion to another and the frequency changes you will not miss anything on the radio.  This comment also goes from the MRL.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/20 15:06 by DGOLDE.

Be sure to check out the old wooden overpass at Dengate, ND.  A great and peaceful place to wait on a train.   The cut there, which was created by a line relocation the NP did in 1948, is wide open.