Happy First Day Of Autumn to all ~ this past Sunday I crammed a lot of train fun into a few hours.
I headed out at 5:30AM traveling west. I met with friend and fellow modeler Darren in Butte, MT, and had a great conversation regarding the world of trains. After some breakfast, I headed northwest and viewed a static outdoor railroad equipment display in Deer Lodge, MT. The equipment has been cosmetically restored, and consists of all Milwaukee Road equipment: a bay window caboose, an E-9 diesel locomotive, and a Little Joe electric locomotive. The electrified Milwaukee Road line used to travel through Deer Lodge, beginning further east in Harlowton.
Leaving Deer Lodge, I continued northwest. I attended a train show in Missoula, MT. I sold the 5 pieces of equipment that I brought, and purchased a Lionel PW 6464-125 NYC boxcar from Jim Caras, and a K-Line K742-8025 Kingan's ham/bacon reefer from Bob Peterson. About 60 tables were set up, 5 of which included O gauge trains. There were lots of kids, HO trains, and railroad artifacts. There were also two or three small, functional layouts.
After the train show I visited the restored Northern Pacific depot in Missoula and photographed NP 4-6-0 steam locomotive #1356 on static display. Then I viewed the "City of Spokane" passenger train parked in the Missoula MRL yard. The train was made up of 18 or so historic, road-worthy passenger cars from throughout the country, generally traveling from Denver to Spokane. I've seen several of these cars parked in Billings at various times, but it was neat to see them all together.
On my return trip I photographed the ruins of a Milwaukee Road electrical substation along I-90 east of Missoula. Then I explored the abandoned BNSF tracks in Homestake, MT right along the Continental Divide east of Butte, MT. I found a loose piece of a switch mechanism to add to my railroadania collection.
All in all a great day of trains and 10 hours of driving in Montana! Keep those rails shiny ~
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| Deer Lodge MT: Little Joe E70, my Yukon, and E9 36A |
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| Sunlight through the E9's cab |
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| Missoula train show |
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| NP Ten-wheeler 1356 in Missoula |
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| The City of Spokane parked in Missoula |
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| Abandoned Milwaukee Road substation along I-90 |
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| Forgotten rails atop the Continental Divide |
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| Unused rails at Homestake at the end of summer |
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| Switch equipment with a loose part |
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