ttps://www.flickr.com/photos/highplainsdrifter/51732427641/in/feed-12187669-1638941613-1-72157719988895077 (caption below reposted) "Here is a mystery, a western Montana narrow gauge one. This is a postcard postmarked at Nimrod, MT (an obscure post) on May 17, 1909. The photo is from R.M. McKay, Missoula,MT. Where is this at and what about the train? It looks like this is across from a steam road RR bridge and its hauling ore or gravel fill. It is hard to read what is on the cab. Looks like WI---ON? BROS & DEAR... Can any body out there can provide an identification of this excellent looking little train? Postcard from my collection." Any ideas where this is? Could this be east of Missoula where the NP and MILW were in close proximity near Bonner and the dam? Could this be the MILW's construction? The final spike at Gold Creek, MT was a mere 3 days earlier than the postmark! The train could very well be finishing construction, as in those days, the ROW was hardly finished when the mainline opened. Nimrod Tunnel #15 was near mile 1,612 just east of Ravenna, and Missoula was at MP 1641. If the postmark is not the capture date, and it is the MILW under construction, the Bonner area is very plausible as the MILW crossed the same creeks/rivers in close proximity to the NP, more elevated than the Nimrod area.
Cabside name says "Wilson Bros & Deep something" #2, never heard of it. The bridge in the background though looks like Milw type, as the NP was much earlier construction and different type. Hmmm....
Nimrod is about 28 miles east of the Missoula passenger station. Still should be a siding there today, on the MRL/ex-NP side of the world. That town is itself long gone. Post office there 1903-1910, 1915 to 1952. The little lokey is a contractor's engine. They were used in numerous places, all along the construction of Lines West. Hauling muck from tunneling. Excavated materials from cuts to fills and such projects. This type of work continued after Lines West was put into operation. Widening cuts, ditching, filing in around temporary trestle work and line realignments. A number of photos exist of these efforts.
I think the locomotive is Winston Bros' construction, based in Minnesota. I couldn't find much online, but this WorldCAT website has related search terms at the bottom, and look at which one is in bold: http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no91-2647/ This photo is nowhere near Nimrod, Montana, but it shows the Winston Brothers Construction company building a dam: https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/ww-swps/id/238. It also mentions the company owning a number of locomotives, one of which could have been here at whatever earthmoving project was going on at Nimrod.
It could very well be the new MILW bridge. There were many places along the way the MILW diverted streams and their channels. I have seen blueprints and this was one of those areas. Another instance of their doing this was through Deer Lodge itself.
Here is the H.K. Porter order book of locomotives up to 1902: https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt:31735047450121/viewer#page/40/mode/2up On Page 34, Winston Bros & Dear has two orders of locomotives. They have multiple locations, one in Hibbard, Minnesota and the other in Ames, Iowa. I'm not sure how those locomotives made it up to Montana though. Winston Bros appears other times in the book without the '& Dear' part, so I'm not sure if they are separate companies or not.
Through their construction front companies, the MILW paid the NP to haul equipment and supplies to various nearby points along the planned route. This would also be a very likely scenario for how the contractors got their machinery there.
Call me crazy, but is this Milltown, MT, looking at the old NP bridge? The height of the bridge over the Clark Fork seems to indicate west of Nimrod. I'm thinking it's here: https://goo.gl/maps/PJaopqUv8eYdjA8i6 This Ron Nixon shot seems to be the same bridge (look closely at the pier and griders elevating the trestle itself), listed as Bonner, MT, nearby to the Milltown site. https://arc.lib.montana.edu/mor/rvndb/rvn_location_jpeg_rec.php?objno=RVN10289
Good possibility. If this is the bridge west of Milltown, then the MILW built a tunnel, essentially behind the photographer. Trying to think of it's number. I believe 16&1/2.
Dumb Q: if the MILW mainline was finished after the Milltown dam was built, why was Tunnel 16-1/2 built after the mainline was?
After completing their transcontinental line, there were many instances of line relocations. Some eased curvatures- at least a couple of these changes brought on by ugly derailments. Some eased grades. There was one done in the mid-1950's which eliminated a helper district. At least one tunnel was daylighted, which I can recall. I do not remember if Tunnel 16&1/2 was due to curvature, or if there was another issue. One would think since the dam was there, it would not be a water level/flood/washout problem. I have that information, somewhere.
