MRL 28 April 2017

On my annual, mostly, trip to Livingston and Helena for the Railfair weekend, I got to stop at Laurel and see just what MTL might be up to. Turns out to be plenty! There were three mixed manifest freights stacked up just east of the yard that I could see as I traveled down the interstate, so no video. Obviously there must be some congestion in the yard! And upon arrival, there was a lot of activity! A switch crew was working both ends of the yard with an SD40-2/remote control caboose lashup, plus one other sitting on the east end. After geeking out for a bit here, the Laurel west yard staging tracks near Park City, had two trains waiting to head East! While this short Boeing train headed west to start making room. I had just seen it at the west end of the yard switching something I could not see out.

There are two more parts to this set.

 

And here's one of that short Boeing train,

 

Nice........guess this means I'll see you tomorrow.

 

Absolutely! Met up with Chet today, Mr. Montanan. CEO of the HO Logan Valley. Was a good time!

Here's some more MRL stuff from today,

 

Dang work! Helena was just as awesome today! Will put up vids of that later.

 

It was just after 6 this morning when I got down to the Helena depot to shoot these. Lots of Blue stacked up on the service track leads. Including the 109! Good old GP-9! And I just thought that this was really cool! The old Ten-Wheeler seems to be telling all these Blue n Orange things that she is going to outlast them!

 

And for the first time, I drove up to Mullan pass and Marent trestle. Saw some elk and chased this MRL with a large transformer load all the way to the trestle. Awesome!!

 

Thanks for some great video. The broad sweeping curve around the valley at the beginning is very impressive. It took a moment for me to realize I was seeing the locomotives under the near cars, but nearly a mile away.

The screaming around and on the trestle sounds like the track is out of gauge, narrow. Very rare to hear that kind of screaming out on the main line. Screaming usually is heard in yards, especially with tight radius curves.

 

The biggest part of the fun was getting up to the trestle. It's a dirt road, rutted. Only 5 miles from the curve at Austin, by road. The embankment was steep. Then shivering in the cold for 30 minutes while waiting for the train to get there! I did find some old cinders and clinkers laying on the embankment! Watched a couple of crows flying in and out of their nest ubder the far end of the trestle. It was quiet and peaceful, then a quick roar by of the train, back to quiet and peaceful!

 

Short train indeed.

Dom

 

MY BAD!! DUH! And I even spent time looking at the map and seeing Greenhorn Creek listed! OOOOPPPS!!!