I also got two videos of the meet! I'll post links once I get them uploaded. One video is over 26 min.! After watching the westbound work its way up the horseshoe curves, we quickly headed over to the Skyline trestle. We tried to catch it come out the tunnel but the road was still cover by snow. So we took the long way around to the east side of the tunnel in hopes of catching another train, but we saw nothing.
Since we realized it might be ahile before the helpers returned. We headed to Garrison. Were we found the helpers and more. Enjoy!
Excellent!!! I'm headed down on 3rd of June.... It looks like grant-sar and LA Diver are joining me as well.. Would make a neat meet! Hopefully the 'Drift' is gone by then!!
I wish I could go too, but I'll be back home in Houston working and helping my parents move back into our new rebuilt home.
I know there are two tunnels. One is the old Milw. which is no longer in use and the other the MRL uses. There's about two or three more tunnels on the way to Missuola. I haven't tried to get pictures because everytime I goto Missuola I don't have time. Hope that helps.
While in that area, at Deer Lodge- Milw depot. Little Joe #E-70 on display. Also, heading on west, a couple more MRL/NP tunnels at Nimrod, and Bonita. A Milw tunnel at Nimrod (#15.) Boxcab E50
What a trip!! The tally: Mullan Tunnel: check. Blossburg black fog: check. SD45's: check. SD45's in pure sets: check. F45's: check. F45's in helper service: check. SD70ACez: check. Little Joe: check. serious workout for the legs: check... And much more! Give me a few days to sort theu the 200 shots I ammassed today.. I'm tired! Bedtime!
Not quite, but it was nice most of the time. The wind reminded me of Wyoming.... It was strong at the tunnel! Weather reports threatened rain during the day, but the only rain I saw was as we crossed the Divide on Austin-Mullan Rd. The only way it could have been better was to have seen steam in action!:thumbs_up: :shade:
Teaser: Blossburg Black Fog: (it would have been blacker, but the wind was blowing nearly 40MPH most the afternoon) Any questions??
Yeah.........Have you managed to catch a coal train over the Hill yet?? That'll definately give you the imfamous "Black Fog of Blossburg"!! I'll be back up there some day!
Nope, unfortunately, but we did miss a grain load double--we caught it at Elliston cutting out ACe helpers... THAT would have been a smoke show, even with ACez at all the helper positions. There was a surprise on this train, you'll see later...:thumbs_up:
Trip Report! Bright and early, I was up, and driving to Helena on Saturday morning.. Forecast was rain and clouds all day... Ugh!! Well, the weather copperated more than the weatherman said, and MRL responded in kind. I met up with Grant Eastman and Rob Mills at the depot, and we headed for beans. After a bagel breakfast, we headed up to Austin. Turned out, there was a Marysville-Helena marathon race, and thousands of runners it seemed were clogging the roads... Many places we averaged 15-30 MPH in a 55 zone--I was a bit testy... Since we were going so slow, and a MRL ML was drifting downgrade (slowing, and I didn't know why--normally they fly thru here all the way to Helena) between Tobin and Birdseye, I simply shot out the window. There was little sun at that time, I expended little effort in this shot: Luckily, Austin-Mullan Rd was clear of runners, and we made good time downt hat old dirt road. There was a Boardman coal empty sitting clear of the crossing at Austin's lower loop. A chat witht he crew noted that MRL was stopping trains for this goofy marathon, for at least an hour! Crap! Well, we could explore around,a nd find new shots.... Here's the coal empty's power: And an Operation Lifesaver MRL unit in its consist: So, we took off east after piling all 3 of us in my truck, for Iron Ridge. Satellite photos I gleaned for the 'net showed roads up there--certainly there's a way in for here... The dirt road was rough in spots, Rob's little Focus would have had a bit of trouble, methinks. We wound around on this road for 5-6 miles before seeing Iron Ridge cut from across the valley. We drove on a bit more, and came out nearly on top of the cut! A short hike to the top of the cut would have yielded a ton of video for those shooting westbounds--you can see the tracks for several miles. We are looking out over the valley with Austin siding in the far background, the coal empty sitting on the middle part of the loops, and the cut leading to Greenhorn trestle and points west directly below me out of the picture:
Another view of the levels of track, this time looking at portion of the old alignment thru Iron Ridge tunnel, and all 3 levels of the loops: We hiked around, and discovered the tunnels had collapsed inside. While Rob and Grant hike into the tunnel, I capture the west portal: More soon....
Continued.. Back to the report! After shooting the west portal, we hiked thru the cut to the other side, and bagged what would be a nice shot (Iron Ridge east portal and cut) with earlier light, and an EB train: There's a lot of fine sand piled up at the east portal: Back in the truck, we headed for Skyline, and points west. We stopped at West Austin to grab Rob's car, too. Since we knew of nothing coming, we headed for the Pass. The road was open to the summit, but snow was still lingering on the side of the hill.... The last trip I made, I had to turn around almost at the summit... I realized, since the road was clear how close I really was! We made it to Blossburg, and I stopped to bag a shot of the wye in the distance, with the tunnel icebreaker and scaffold cars on the house track: And a closer shot of the cars: (note the NP lettering!)
We stopped near the section houses, and hiked around, grabbing jackets thanks to the cool breeze *for a former Wyomingite, anything under 50 MPH ain't wind!*... I shot the knuckle garden at one section shack: Broken knuckles are everywhere!!! Even a dynamited drawbar, complete with intact knuckle! They don't call this 'Drawbar Alley' for no reason, folks!
Since it was so nice out, discounting the wind, we awaited a WB we were sure was coming.... Grant and I hiked a small portion of the old 4% overhead line, built in 1883 to connect the west side of the Pass, while Mullan Tunnel was finished. I shot a few shots, but we thought we heard a train coming--so we booked it back for the tracks, nearly 1/2 mile away. The Overhead line tour will await another time... The train we heard was as it turned out, eastbound... We scrambled for shooting postions in the rocks, and waited. And waited. And waited some more.. And finally got tired of waiting in our perches. We drove down west towards Elliston, and saw the train we heard, an EB empty BNSF grain train, holding short of a crossing.. A hard u-turn quickly led us back to the tunnel, and we waited some more. Total of about 2 hours, before the grainer pulled to the end of Blossburg siding... Then the block signal went green over red... BNSF manifest doubled with an MRL Laurel-Spokane train, and headed WB... BNSF 7009, with odd, unmatched numberboards:
