One of the things I enjoy doing is comparing the present day photos of a location with photos from back in the day. Such as this promo shot of a grain train on Red Coulee Trestle back in the 70's. ....and the picture Hemi took of a dilapidated trestle on Page 2 of this thread. If you look at the upper right on the old grain train picture, you can see the location of the trestle that Hemi is standing on when he took his picture. As Ken stated very early in this thread, that this area of was very unstable and the MILW spent a great amount of time and money trying to stabilize the soil. Was this a problem from Great Falls all the way to Lewistown? I know that the BN finally shut down operations into Lewistown because of a wash out (a convenient excuse) on the outskirts of town, and this was the exact same place the MILW had issues with when it was still around.
That train looks like the famous PR photo. What did they call that special run? "The Golden Train" or some such...? Boxcab E50
Too many years have now gone by. I'm starting to forget some of the wonderful memories. Events last winter didn't help.... Hard to believe that photo was taken over 30 years ago! It's proof that there was no profitable business up there... :tb-sad: Boxcab E50
Yes, I remember reading about how they pulled as much motive power as they could from Harlow and other areas in the fall and sent them up the Northern Montana Division to haul all of the grain from the "Golden Traingle". I believe I also read that a great majority of these trains went west to Seattle to off load onto ships bound for Asia.
Unfortunately our favorite correspondent is now located in Germany. So, unless he has more pix in his archives.... I may get over that way this summer. I want to do some in depth exploration around Choteau, looking for the ex-Milw depots. Supposedly they still exist, relocated..... Boxcab E50
This thread should be a sticky, along with the other "Ghost" threads at the top. But then again its not my forum..... :tb-biggrin:
The Milwaukee rising again? During the past several weeks several people asked me if the Milwaukee could rise again in Montana. The answer, founded in Montana law, is yes. In 1983 I was in the Montana Legislature. In 1983 the railroad unions asked the Legislature to buy the Milwuakee system in Montana (which was still intact at that time). The price was $35,000,000.00 The state did not have the money so the asnwer was no, but! The but remains in place today. While the right of way did eventually go to ajoining landowners, under Montana law railroads have the right of eminant domain. A railroad company (or a pipeline or utility company) can simply reclaim the right of way at any time. One of the reasons the Legislature did not purchase the Milwaukee assets was that trackage and ties needed to be torn up and replaced across Montana. It was better to have the bankrupcty estate clean up the mess than have the state do it. So what would make sense from a railroad standpoint? Simple. Reclaim the right of way from Miles City to Lombard. The Miles City connection would be made with the South Dakota state owned trackage which ends at Miles City to connect with Montana Rail Link at Lombard. The law also requires that railroad use gets first priority over any other use of the Milwaukee right of way and facilities.
Would be nie to see a RRrebuild from MC-Lombard, but I would reall like to see service thru the Bitterroots.
Monetary numbers are often bandied about. It all depends upon what you are doing. This would not be all new construction. In this instance, cost is immediately lessened as the right of way already exists. (Over the years, much of it was upgraded to some extent.) Most if not all the documentation, (surveys, etc,), still are available. You'll still need to put people in the field, to do all the re-locating work, levels, ties, and.... Before it goes to engineering. First get past advocacy groups, who will challenge and nitpick law, dragging it out and upping costs. Someone will attempt to stop, delay, alter or wrench concessions of some kind= Time and money added. No we don't want that noisy, dirty train line here. Bypass... We need fences along tracks at... Quiet zone equipment. We're losing our hike/bike trail, wah, wah, wah. Over/underpasses so nature can safely cross. And blah, blah, blah. Now, did you choose to do? What weight of rail? What kind of ties? Where will sidings be placed this time? Bridges kept, upgraded, replaced? Tunnel work? Some realignments? Signalling? Upgrading of or elimination of road crossings? Basically, it's an unknown, beyond guessitmates, until you get on the ground and can start preliminary work. Boxcab E50