America 2011

Day 24: Missoula, MT to Essex, MT

Woke up to another lovely gray day here in Missoula. Fantastic… and all the snow was melting too, so a pretty bad combination for any kind of photography. Tried to hit the road fairly promptly to see if the Day Gas Local was around. Went down to the yards and saw endless white tank wagons in the yard and at the Exxon facility being emptied, so concluded that the local had already been and gone. Oh well. The remote shunter was doing a bit of work though, moving around some of those gas tanks…

… you can see how depressing the weather was!

I sat and waited for a bit while a massive earthworm slowly moved around the yard and then followed it when it took off. Caught it and barely missed it a few times, and then had to do some frustrating doubling back when it had to stop for a work train.

At Frenchtown I caught the two passing:

...

Day 23: Missoula MT railfanning

Woke up to a thin layer of snow all over Missoula, about a couple of inches. Brushed off the car and went off to see what there was to see in Missoula. Unfortunately the temperature had already climbed above freezing so Missoula was very soggy and the snow was rapidly melting.

Had a cruise around and found, surprise surprise…

… although this one was a bit different as in addition to the usual pigeon wildlife, people live here! It appears to have been turned into a gallery / studio / apartments type affair, and looks pretty interesting.

I drove on a bit and found the railway yards, but there was a whole lot of nothing happening. I spied some amazing birds nests in the lighting tower though, and about a million birds lined up on a power line; I guess they know where the best train watching spots are.

  ...

Day 22: Helena, MT to Missoula, MT

My railfan tour along the MRL continues. Another night in a Motel 6, and another vague "never again" promise. Down at the Helena yard it was pretty quiet, although I noticed a 6-pack of classic EMD power sitting waiting. The MRL staff here are very used to suspicious looking cars sitting at the crossing for hours at a time, in fact most times I visited there was someone or other sitting in their car watching the happenings. I think I was a bit unusual in that I, you know, got out of my car.

By my count there were three SD45s and three SD40s. Not a bad lash up at all! They sat around for a bit and then after half an hour coupled onto their train and they were off. I'm trying to work out how I can smuggle one of these SD45s out of the country.

I tried to chase them up the hill but with so many horses on the front it was an impossible task and he easi...

Day 21: Helena, MT railfanning

When one wakes up in a Motel 6, you feel like you're waking up in some poorly scripted crime-thriller plot line. Romantic is one thing it most certainly isn't! So I escaped fairly quickly and was on my way down to the railway yard again. I soon struck the jackpot with a

Yes, those are airplane fuselages being railed across the MRL! 737s I believe, there were 3 shells and each was a different length. The get railed from one factory to another for (I guess) final assembly. Behind each shell there is an enclosed compartment for additional components, and then a few specialty enclosed wagons behind them with more components.

Support wagons; notice how they dwarf the diggers next to them!

I raced on up the hill to try and follow this guy over the pass, but obviously lost him somewhere because after much delay the train that actually got the helpers and...

Day 20: Livingston MT to Helena MT

Decided to drive to Helena today, over Bozeman Pass of course. Started off and soon caught a train; downhill, but I'm not going to say no to a photo-op, and especially not a pair of warbonnets in the snow!

Continued on up the hill and set up a stakeout at the "Cowboy Cookout". 40 minutes later and I got my wish; a nice big BNSF earthworm.

And then a few minutes along came the midtrain helpers; a 5-pack of SD40s, always a pleasant sight.

I was just about to leave but just ten minutes later another earthworm came crawling up the hill, again with a 5-pack of SD40 mid train helpers. Wow, just 10 minutes apart! Try that in NZ.

 

A trusty and surprisingly clean dash-9 brought up the rear.

I raced up the hill and int...