Nostalgia & History > Livingston, Montana in 1986

By the late 1980's, the town of Livingston, Montana was in transition. Soon the Burlington Northern would sell off it's former Northern Pacific mainline to the Montana Rail Link. Most of the intermodal type trains would move to the speedier Great Northern Steven's Pass mainline to the north and the decaying shop complex in town would see new life as the Livingston Rebuild Center.

In this photo from May 24, 1986, BN 6908 West rolls by the classic NP depot downtown. A large restaurant was built on the east wing of the depot with baggage handling space on the west end. Spelled out across the front of the structure in large type was "Original Entrance To Yellowstone National Park". The NP once ran passenger trains to the park on a branch that connected just west of the station...

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The major Northern Pacfic shop complex at Livingston was all but abandoned by the 1980's. In fact, the tracks were coming out one by one with the anticipated demolition of the huge facility. A lucky turn of events ensued, and the structure was saved to become the "Livingston Rebuild Center." This facility is apparently still in use...

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It was a real kick to observe such a well preserved Northern Pacific Railway shop complex at Livingston. Note the transfer table still in place with most all of the facility still intact at that time...

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Another goodie located in the BN yard at Livingston was this custom painted Burlington Northern Kenworth truck named the "5394 Track"...

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East of the town of Livingston, the mainline more or less runs parallel to the Yellowstone River. In this afternoon photo, the BN 6908 heads west along the famous river, approaching the siding at Elton, Montana...

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What a treat it was to catch a BN caboose on the tail end of our hot westbound intermodal "shooter" near Elton, Montana!

James

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What snow covered mountain range is that in the background in the shots of Livingston?

That is the Absaroka Range, as you go south out of Livingston toward Yellowstone Park on highway 89 the Absaroka Range is to the east and the Gallatin Range is to the west. The old NP line to Gardiner at the north end of the Park pretty well followed 89, if you look closely you can still pick out parts of the line. The Absaroka Range goes down into Wyoming and runs along the eastern boundary of Yellowstone Park. Have a good and safe day!

Good stuff................

Thanks for the memories of a very nice tour my wife and I had of the Livingston shops in the late 70’s. It was all quite by accident. While driving down Hwy 89 from Yellowstone to Livingston I happened to hear some local ham operators in Livingston discussing a technical subject on 2 meters. I joined the discussion, which led to an invitation to meet the local hams at the home of one of the hams. As it turned out most of those present worked in the Livingston shops, which led to an invitation to a personally guided tour of the facility. It was a most interesting and informative tour.

It's even more amazing that virtually all of this still exists today and is operable and in service. All the trackage has been restored, and some may have even been added. It's a cool place to visit, and that view of the transfer table with the mountain peak centered above it is right from a city street! If you hang around a while, you can see them move a unit, and sometimes there is a unit left parked on the transfer table. On a warm day, most of the shop doors are open, so you can see what they are working on inside. Thank you Livingston Rebuild Center for keeping the north side open, and thank you, MRL for keeping the south side open! - - - - - - - - - JLH

highgreengraphics Wrote:
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> It's even more amazing that virtually all of this
> still exists today and is operable and in service.
> All the trackage has been restored, and some may
> have even been added. It's a cool place to visit,
> and that view of the transfer table with the
> mountain peak centered above it is right from a
> city street! If you hang around a while, you can
> see them move a unit, and sometimes there is a
> unit left parked on the transfer table. On a warm
> day, most of the shop doors are open, so you can
> see what they are working on inside. Thank you
> Livingston Rebuild Center for keeping the north
> side open, and thank you, MRL for keeping the
> south side open! - - - - - - - - - JLH


Now call Talgo-LRC. this is their website:

http://www.talgolrc.com

They have some engines that lease with reporting marks LRCX.

Craig