Western Railroad Discussion > Busy BNSF Montana branch line

BNSF's northwest Montana branch line between Columbia Falls and Kalispell runs with a predictable schedule, has a strong customer base and is generally operated with a couple of the railway's four-axle EMDs. Fun to chase if things are slow on the Glacier Subdivision over Marias Pass. The job is based in Whitefish.

1. Two units of Santa Fe heritage lead the Kalispell job as it works the Weyerhaeuser MDF plant (medium density fibreboard) at Columbia Falls, Montana, May 16, 2022. This job usually works this big customer around 7am weekdays, then heads south to Kalispell. 

2. Kalispell local trundles south at Ls Salle, Montana, adjacent to US2 and just north of the Glacier Park International Airport, May 16, 2022. This was the original Great Northern Railway main line across northwest Montana that was bypassed almost 120 years ago when GN built west from Columbia Falls, establishing the division point of Whitefish and bypassing the nasty grades and operating challenges of Haskell Pass, west of Kalispell. For a time BNSF leased the Kalispell branch to WATCO operatung as the Mission Mountain Railroad. BNSF took back the line several years ago about the time local interests constructed a modern transloading facility north of Kalispell. 

3. Matched four-axle EMDs are a nice break from the parade of GE six-axle power seen on the Glacier Subdivision mainline over Marias Pass. In the background you can see steel beams of the airport expansion project at Glacier Park International. When completed, the new terminal will have northwest Montana's first escalators. For many years this airport was the smallest one on the Delta system with full-size jet service...no control tower, no jetways and a generally cool place. No more.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/22 20:15 by Alco251.

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I recently noticed the LaSalle station sign still stands at the north (TT east) end of the siding. You'll have to layer in a few tele-shots with that, eh?
Dave in Polson

PS - Thanks for the post card

Does the train run daily? I hope to make it up there someday. Thanks for the pictures and information.

Posted from iPhone

Got the sign last year, northbound.

Posted from iPhone

Excellent bunch, really like that 2nd shot! Thanks for posting...

JG

monaddave Wrote:
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> I recently noticed the LaSalle station sign still
> stands at the north (TT east) end of the siding.
> You'll have to layer in a few tele-shots with
> that, eh?


March, 2021...
 

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cbk Wrote:
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> Does the train run daily? I hope to make it up
> there someday. Thanks for the pictures and
> information.
>
> Posted from iPhone

M-F.

What were the challenges of Haskell Pass?  Its grades weren't too bad and it was a more direct route.  I've only seen one picture of a train on it, and it looked a lot like NP's tough Homestake Pass.  Perhaps that picture tells the story.

Nasty westbound grade past Marion and a tunnel. Lots of snow. I’ll know more when I drive the route this summer.

Posted from iPhone

Alco251 Wrote:
<< Nasty westbound grade past Marion and a tunnel. Lots of snow. I’ll know more when I drive the route this summer.>>

Road is suitable for RVs driven slowly (so you can go camping at Tamerack), but can be a little bumpy and narrow north of Island Lake. 

Thanks for the northbound LaSalle view.
Dave in Polson

Thanks.  I asked GN/BN great Bob Downing at a GN Railway Historical Society convention in Seattle years ago why BN didn't just go back over Haskell Pass when Libby Dam and the resulting Flathead Tunnel were built, but we didn't have for a detailed discussion.  He said only that Haskell was never considered because it was never a good rail route.  Its easy west approach, though, did become part of the route to and from Flathead Tunnel.

NPRocky Wrote:
<< did become part of the route to and from Flathead Tunnel.<<

The part of the Libby Dam relocation between Tamarack on west to Riverview uses some of the original GN. If you go back in there from the Riverview end of things, you can find the original RofW that does the old style of wandering, with minimal grading and bridge work.

The Haskell Tunnel (mainly east portal) area was fraught with rock screes and unstable.
Dave in Msla



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/22 07:38 by monaddave.

Thanks again to all.

monaddave Wrote:

>
> The Haskell Tunnel (mainly east portal) area was
> fraught with rock screes and unstable.
> Dave in Msla

The new line eliminated a westbound Haskell Pass helper operation at Kalispell in favor of a relatively easy route thru Whitefish and Eureka, then a water-level route along the Kootenay River to Bonners Ferry. As you know, this lasted until the Libby Dam line relocation known by some as the "Flathead Cutoff" opened just after the BN merger in 1970.

I was told by a BNSF engineering intern at Whitefish a couple years ago that a recent study was done to increase capacity west of Whitefish and each alternative carried a price tag of around $750million dollars. Plan 1 included a parallel bore of the Flathead Tunnel and double-track over much of the Flathead Cutoff; plan 2 was a beefing up of the Stryker-Eureka branch all the way to Eureka and a single-track line snaking along the shores of Lake Koocanusa with lots of bridges, fills and a tunnel or two down to the Libby area; plan 3 was a new line heading west from about Lupfer and roughly following Haskell Pass route to Fisher River area with megga-cuts and fills to keep gradient low. Plan 3 was actually seen as viable because of the unpopulated nature of the area and mostly USFS land.

Interesting pipe dreams. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/22 22:23 by Alco251.

If I'm not mistaken, does the local usually arrive and leave Kalispell in the mid- morning hours M-F?

Yes.

Posted from iPhone

I like Pic 2!!