Nostalgia & History > MRL location needed #1

I was on the horn yakking with good buddy & fellow former KS Gang hooligan Dave Franz (monaddave) the other day. We had an arrangement that I would burn & send him a CD of misc images I took in my Missoula years (’87 ~ ’91) working for MRL. These were to be images he can give me a location ID for. But then we figgered it would be more fun for me to just post them and let everybody see them as we go. They won’t all have trains in them. But they will surely be some doggone beautiful Big Sky scenery! I’ll supply whatever feeble info I can. But since it’s been close to 30 years ago all bets on accuracy are off…

1. MRL scene at or near _______, MT (fill in the blank). Photo taken October 18, 1988 from BN 6305(?) on train 01 091-14*, probably between Lothrop & Superior, MT.

Thanks for the help!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

*After multiple replies I have corrected train, date & Location info to: train 01 120-18 @ Belknap, MT on October 19, 1988.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/22 02:50 by santafe199.

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I want to put that a few miles east of Thompson Falls. But my time in Montana ended just as yours was starting so there’s lots of room for faulty memory. 

Lance,

I believe you are crossing the Clark Fork River westbound about five miles west of Thompson Falls, Montana, near a place called Belknap.  If memory serves correctly, this portion of line was constructed in the late 1950s to reroute the railroad around the Noxon Reservoir being built at that time.

A beautiful photo!

"Prelude to Winter"
Nice

It is indeed near Thompson Falls.

march hare writes... want to put that a few miles east of Thompson Falls.
CZ17 writes...believe you are crossing the Clark Fork River westbound about five miles west of Thompson Falls

Indeed, you guys are close, but Lance is on an eastbound crossing BR 36 between Belknap and Thompson Falls, MT. This is the same location as the original 1882 bridge. No real line change except at the approaches. The bridge is far enough up river from Noxon Rapids Dam that there was no need for a line change. At the west end of the bridge was a junction (I forget the name) for a few years for when NP still had the current alignment and the original 1882 line that went up the hill two miles west to White Pine, before descending into Trout Creek. 

Dave in Missoula

monaddave Wrote:
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> Indeed, you guys are close, but Lance is on an
> eastbound crossing BR 36 between Belknap and
> Thompson Falls, MT. 

Bridge 36 is the bridge I was talking about, except I was thinking westbound and you are saying eastbound.  Frankly the view looking either direction from that bridge is very similar (right hand curve off end of bridge, mountains in background, trees both sides of track, etc.), so I was basing my opinion that it was westbound on the train number that Lance said he was on, 01 091-14, which if correct would have been a westbound train.

czephyr17 Wrote: > ... Lance said he was on, 01 091-14 ...

Thanks, gang! As I stated in my text, the info I supply will have no guarantees for accuracy. I matched this slide in sequence against other slides in the same Kodak box that I positively identified through my RR time book notes. With the range to the left my instinct was to place the shot somewhere between Lothrop and Superior or possibly St Regis. I can easily adjust my train ID by checking my time book for the eastbound (return) leg entry. Which I'll do as soon as I get home.

Knowing there are multiple guys here on TO who have working knowledge of that territory is going to be fun. It looks like I'll have close to a dozen such images to post, looking for ID locations...

Posted from Android

monaddave Wrote: > ...  eastbound crossing BR 36 between Belknap and Thompson Falls ...

Got it! I checked in Google Maps and found that bridge is much closer to Belknap than T Falls, so that's the location I will go with. This also changes the date to the 19th, and means I was on eastbound train 01 120-18, most likely shooting from the cab of BN 7800. Cool! One down, "some more" to go... :^)

Bubba-loo #2



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/19 16:35 by santafe199.