Nostalgia & History > Montana Monday: Big Sky, BIG rain squall!

My MRL timebook for 1994 tells me I was “marked off” for the few days surrounding August 2. I don’t remember where I was headed, but it’s obvious I stopped to take a few shots of this rambunctious rain squall moving southeast (from right to left) over Livingston, Montana. To get this view I drove around to the north side of the yard which runs through Livingston from NE to SW. As I recall, when that nasty looking cloud formation covered the sun it was pretty dark! Then Mr Sol broke through and gave me a short window of direct light before dipping down below Bozeman Pass to the west, Unfortunately no train passed through right then, or you’d be seeing it instead of this line up of old engine carcasses.

In the early 1990s there was quite a string of decrepit C&NW engine bodies occupying virtually a whole track here. They sat inert for the longest time while LRC slowly picked through and completely rebuilt a small handful of them. It’s hardly ever been my “thing” to keep track of engine acquisition or rebuild or retirement dates for anything I’ve ever shot. Perhaps ‘monaddave’ can enlighten us as to when these Northwestern eyesores first arrived on, and finally disappeared from MRL property…

1. Looking about due south over the MRL yard at Livingston, MT on August 2, 1994. By this date that motley string of C&NW “carcasses” had dwindled down these few remaining specimens.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/22 01:31 by santafe199.

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Absolutely beautiful.
Bob

santafe199 Wrote:
<< Perhaps ‘monaddave’ can enlighten us as to when these Northwestern eyesores first arrived on, and finally disappeared from MRL property…>>

Perhaps, I'll try. But their acquisition is convoluted enough that we'd be here all day fleshing them out individually. Most of them arrived Livingston with the intention of Livingston Rebuild Center (LRC) doing something with them. Eventually most became MRL. A few were acquired in 1989 and the rest 1994-95. Of the eight ex-CNW's that ended up on MRL's roster (note in your photo there are 10 units), three are still working. So LRC rebuilt some and  they were sent elsewhere or parted out enough they became scrap. Of those eight CNWs, they were originally from M&StL, CGW, SL-SF, RI and QNSL. 
Dave

monaddave Wrote: > ... A few were acquired in 1989 and the rest 1994-95 ...

I remember that track being a near full of that C&NW junk when I moved down to Laurel in '91. A lot more than in my shot here. I also remember one day having to put up with a rebuilt geep fresh out of LRC. It was so new it was only in primer maroon and still carried the original C&NW eng # which I can't remember (43-something, maybe 4356??). My extra board switch-foreman had a great sense of humor, and over the radio called out "MRL rust-bucket 43-(whatever)" bring 'em ahead, that'll do, etc. But the engineer's seat in that slow-loading piece of crap extended too far away from the sidewall. And OF COURSE it retained that blankety-blank all-weather cab window extension complete with nearly 100% opaque side slit windows. As a result I had to lean waaaay out in a very unnatural position just to see hand signals from my guys on the ground. After the entire shift my back was hurting. Not quite out of place, just sore as hell. I complained to RFE Kim Kautzman. But MRL musta been real proud of that hunk-o-junk because he just took my complaint and laughed it off. I knew better than to fill out an official form...

Bubba-loo #2

santafe199 Wrote:
<<rebuilt geep fresh out of LRC. It was so new it was only in primer maroon>>

This sounds like what became MRL 130 (still on the roster; in blue). The crews in Missoula nicknamed it "The Dodge" during it's primer red days.

>>MRL musta been real proud of that hunk-o-junk because he just took my complaint and laughed it off.>>

Our old buddy Mark Simonson liked to tell the story he heard from MRL's Chief Mechanical Officer Mel Dinus about "we love our Gee-Pee Nines..."
Loo-Loo 1



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/19 16:01 by monaddave.

Sheer drama in that shot my friend! Love it!!

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

Lance, I made a lot of MONEY$$$ on these fine pieces of scrap iron. Most had a RWP job, repaired with paint, I think the high horsepower got the old Dupont tune-up. KCRW287