Just west of Miles City between Ulmer and Horton sidings, approx. MP 89, traffic is halted due to the hill deciding to go for a dip in the Yellowstone! https://billingsgazette.com/news/st...cle_55c20049-9237-556d-8c99-f2bb9379fc80.html
They have slide detectors - so this happening is not a unknown occurrence. Some time you just have to realize that Mother Nature is going to throw issues at you from time to time. This is one of those times.
The fact that it was a near vertical cliff of sandstone and silty clay, and we had a super wet fall last year, and our subsoil is a lot of clay and silt, it makes for an unstable situation. The subsoil moisture is really high also, due to recievng almost double our normal average last year, and a quick freeze locked it in. I still have a client with a flooded septic field, making it useless. I suppose there will be more this year. It was a constant headache for the NP and BN. We still have two trains sitting in the yard, power off and to the roundhouse, waiting. And no through traffic at all. Diversion traffic should be busy up on the highline!
Too bad the line between Pacific Junction and Great Falls was severed years ago. They could have a way to run around the problem. A mite longer in time, but probably better than having customers waiting for trains just sitting. But I am sure they are simply invoking Force Majeure. Which is CYA, but still does nothing for the waiting happy (not) customers....
