The Regulars and The Local

by Steve Eshom

As I’ve mentioned in my two previous posts there are two regular trains on the Laurel Sub. Last night the sky was clear which made for great sun and allowed me to get some nicely lit photos of the M-LAUSWE from Judith Gap up to Stanford. The daily M-SWELAU didn’t arrive in Stanford until after dark (sort of) however.

Depending on where you stand in the Judith Basin you can see for miles. In this first photo from Moccasin, MT the Big Snowy Mountains providing the backdrop are around 18 miles away! The town of Moore, MT is just out of the photo to the left and is 20 miles away by rail (via Sipple). What a view!

Moccasin and the Big Snowys

In this photo taken at 10pm shows the M-SWELAU rolling through Stanford. I know it doesn’t get dark very early in Vancouver in the summer, but here in Big Sky Country it seems twilight lasts for hours. It was still light enough out that I could work the camera without any additional light.

Montana Elevator Co. - Stanford

That covers the regulars, now to the local. Today the ‘local’ was a Moore turn out of Great Falls. The train consisted of 5 geeps and 52 empty grain cars for the elevator at Moore. Moore is located on the Lewistown sub about 7 miles east of the junction at Sipple, MT. For all of you history buffs, here’s a question. Who was the original owner of the line segment BNSF calls the Lewistown Sub? BN doesn’t count because it is too obvious. If you know, post a comment.

In this photo of the local the southbound local is crossing the Judith River at Hobson with the Little Belt Mountains providing the backdrop. The scenery never stops here!

Moore Turn at The Judith River

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 4:28 pm and is filed under trip reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.