Nostalgia & History > Montana Monday: Hi-nose posing in the Bitterroot

In 1979 my own immaturity pretty much squelched the one chance I would have to enter engine service for my beloved Santa Fe. I didn’t understand at the time that my lackadaisical attitude was akin to thumbing my nose at an important career decision. By the early 1980s that lesson sank in with a vengeance after reaganomics changed everything. But a decade later Montana Rail Link gave me a second chance. In the fall of 1989 I went into MRL’s engineer training program, and took promotion in May of 1990. And I sometimes wonder if I didn’t get the better break. Although it didn’t seem so back in 1982, give or take.

I was promoted to locomotive engineer at the age of 34 + 11 months. I was 12 years into a train service career that would last another 20. And I was slipping inexorably away from full time railfan photography. By the latter part of the 1990s I had quit carrying my camera on road trips. Imagine that: a railfan NOT having a camera available while working trains in the Rocky Mountains of Montana! But there were times when I would dust off the cobwebs and go shoot some special occasion.

One day in February of 1991, while I was still intimate with my Canon A-1 I set up a railfan shoot that I wouldn’t have dared to try with the Santa Fe. Off the engineer’s extra board I caught a local that was to work down the Bitterroot valley south of Missoula. With my camera in tow, I decided I would stop my 3-car train in some scenic spot and shoot a few slides. The spot I had in mind was just north of Corvallis, and it worked out great. My easy going partner, conductor Leon Blevins was completely cool with the idea. I remember submitting an extra slide of the shoot to MRL’s ‘PR department’. Perhaps ‘monaddave’ can conform or negate this, but I seen to remember MRL actually using it for some now forgotten purpose.

With all that said, consider this: As a Santa Fe/BNSF engineer could I have stopped & spotted some hot Z train down in the middle of the Kansas Flint Hills, hiked up on some hillside and done a photo shoot? (Ha ha ha ha, oh ho ho ho, hee hee hee hee hee… ;^)

1. MRL 110, a high-nosed 1st generation GP9 is my subject engine pulling local train #45880. Southbound about 2 miles north of Corvallis, MT on February 19, 1991.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/22 05:03 by santafe199.

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Ya done good son. That is a great photo Lance.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Yes, very nice! My favorite branchline.

Posted from iPhone

Great photo, are you sure about the location, kinda looks like south of Hamilton about a mile south of the Bitterroot River bridge along hiway 93. I live about a two miles from there, and it looks real fimilar  Like seeing photos of the Bitterroot branch.

Larry

Great capture Lance.  I wouldn't have suspected it was a 'staged' shot from looking at it.

Rich

That's a nice one. On the attitude note, working for Santa Fe in Los Angeles in early 1979 as a young brakeman, I was cut off the Brakemans extra board and onto the yardmans extra board. Every one was "cut off" (layed off) on the roster up to me. I was the bottom man working on the Los Angeles roster, which turned out to actually be bad. Many BEHIND me in seniority cut off were being called in "emergency" to work road and local jobs more than me showing up each day. That's just the way things worked. As mentioned on this forum before, LA had an unusual YARD extra board, you had to show up at the yard office to see IF you were going to work. It was a twenty mile one way drive. Since I very seldom worked any day except the weekend I seriously thought of laying off MON-THURS and only marking up on the days I had the best chance of working. Someone in the know told me since I had a request to go into engine service it might be better to NOT lay off at all to make me look better. Santa Fe's policy was you had to be in TRAIN service a year before you could be accepted into engine service. I hired out on 5-8-78 and was accepted into engine service on 5-7-79. Did my staying marked up have anything to do with this? I don't know. As for stopping for Koday moments, I did it often on branch lines, in the yard and also on the main line, although not on the hot shots unless stopped at a red signal. Even asked CERTAIN DS's if I could stop, and they knew why. Santa Fe out in Los Angeles was GREAT to work for and I never heard anything about my Kodak moments except from an occasional grumpy conductor.
JB

LarryIngold Wrote: > ...  are you sure about the location ...

Not 100%. BUT... I spent over an hour one afternoon in Google Maps scouring up & down the Bitterroot. Just north of Corvallis is the only place I could match the flat S-curve in the track to the curvature of the adjacent roadway (hwy 269, aka 'Eastside Hwy'). And the RR track passing by east of the Corvallis Fire Station is in just enough of a depression to allow me to get my slightly down-on shot. But if you can pinpoint a better spot then please do. Keep in mind my shot was taken 28 years ago... :^)

Lance/199

Raw logs going to Darby or Hamilton?  Never saw that under BN operations. 

Hi Lance,

This is a photo of what I think is the location taken about an hour ago.  Would be about MP 52.  The tree looks the same, and the house off to the left is still there.  If you are looking on google earth would be 1/2 a mile or so south of Roaring Lion Road and # 93.   Hope this helps identify the location.

Larry

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Excellent photo, and great story to go with it. Think those stories make the photos even better.

Posted from iPhone

LarryIngold Wrote: > ... 1/2 a mile or so south of Roaring Lion Road and #93 ...

Thanks, Larry! I might be able to look at it tonight from an as-yet-unknown motel room. I will always welcome any corrections on locations, etc

Unfortunately right now I'm en route to Pennsylvania, having just left Manhattan this morning. It seems there is a rather large contingent of Santa Fe fans in the Philly area. And they I have made me a very kind offer (one I "couldn't refuse") to have me come to PA and give them 3 image presentations this coming weekend...

Posted from Android
(sitting in a Dillon's parking lot in Lawrence KS)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/19 10:49 by santafe199.

I think there is no doubt about the same locations, spot on. Have a safe journey Lance, and enjoy the "Steel City".
JB

3rdswitch Wrote: > ... I think there is no doubt about the same location ...

Yeah, looks like a dead ringer. I'll look tonight, but I'm not sure I can still access Google Maps from my laptop...

Posted from Android
(just bagged an NS westbound at Camden MO)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/19 14:19 by santafe199.

Really NICE shot and narrative Lance!!

Larry

Sorry the is no help from the Missoula crew, Monad is south sniffing 4014 fumes and I am in Spokane Falls waiting for "Chicks With Hits" to light up. Don't miss them if they come through your area.

LarryIngold Wrote: > ...  1/2 a mile or so south of Roaring Lion Road ...

I can still get Google Maps on my laptop. Unfortunately I can't drop the little 'street view' man on the RR, only on US hwy 93. But I will defer to your photo and alter my location ID. Thanks for your help, and for going out to get that pic. Keep an eye on me! I have more images from the Bitterroot to post. Including several more from my down & up chase of the 1989 'MT Centennial Special...

Lance/199