Caught a fast moving short eastbound freight on Sat the 11th. I was heading back to Glendive and saw this train coming up Fryburg hill which is just east of Wibaux, MT. And then I saw this business/inspection train on the west end on Sunday evening....
OOOPS!! This was sitting on a storage track with some others and they swapped it out to send them elsewhere, but there was a small issue.....
Haven't driven by to look yet, but I assume it is all back to normal. They usually don't like to leave such an obvious ooops alone for very long.
Haven't seen it around, so I would guess it is in shop. Did get a couple of happenstance trains last week. This one while getting gas in the work rig; And this one while working in Beach, ND;
Wow. Look at that shiny clean (9002) ACe. Seems to me it should be 2-3 years old. Yet it still looks quite decent. Amazing!
Had to go downtown yesterday and this guy was heading east through town. The load of wind generator parts was different because of the nacelles and hubs and blades made for an interesting mix. The heavy flats being used are neat! And the locos are in close number sequence, even though the lead is GE and second is EMD. And this set was sitting on the west end waiting, crewless. Still really like the gray, blue, yellow CSX scheme best!
This is a closer shot of that unit, and it sure does look like they are SD-60 trucks. Weirdness. Maybe some CSX nut can explain...???
And the only railroad stuff I am getting time for is either 'fanning' when it is convenient as I wander about for work, or whatever I get done here. Saw this Manifest heading east out of Glendive on the 13th, It was neat seeing it work through the switches on it's way out of the yard, and the second unit's very faded pastel orange! And found some other locos here n there... And I like this one!
This is the beginning of the Redwater branch. The gravel pit up the line is quite active, and there were two trains sitting all weekend empty and waiting for Monday. This one had to be split for a farm/fishing access crossing behind the John Deere dealer.
Is that pit the only active shipper on the branch? Are they still storing any cars further up the line? Do the farmers all truck into Glendive these days? Or elsewhere?
There are multiple shippers up the branch between the pit and town. From town first is a pipeyard for oilfield pipe. Next is a tank farm for oil and such. Then is a new chem plant for fracking chemicals and such. They just upgraded the track to them alongside the pipeyard. I put up a few pics earlier of the gravel side dumps working. The new 'Main' is to the one side so they did a model railroader thing and installed a left hand switch at an angle for the siding so that the main has a jog in it! This saved them pennies in not having to upgrade the rail on the old main that is now a siding. They still occasionally store cars up the line for a couple of miles. Farmers in Circle have to truck their grain elsewhere, usually to Wolf Point, or wherever they get the best price.
Sad. Too bad they can't ship enough for the line to re-open. I can only think of two places that might still have elevators. Lindsay and Circle. I'd suppose those are long gone?
Lindsay's is still there and in use. Circles burned down right after the line was embargoed. They have built a new one of sorts. BNSF told them to build a super elevator and they would keep running trains. They didn't. The line was shut down. Their old elevator burnt. They have a new sorta one. Richey still has huge elevators and their tracks are all pulled up and gone!
