The Laurel sub doesn’t follow rivers like many railroads do. Instead it crosses them. There are some significant rivers it crosses like the Musselshell, Missouri, and Judith but there are many like Skull Creek, Sage Creek, and Hauk Coulee that are not as notable. Yesterday while chasing the M-SHMLAU with Haley I decided to photograph the train in a couple of these drainages.
Sage creek eventually turns into something more significant and forced the Milwaukee Road to construct a large structure to get across. The GN got a bit luckier because it is closer to the headwaters and was able to cross on a short trestle but in trade it had to climb out of the Sage Creek valley on both sides. Despite appearances the grade here isn’t over .5% and the SHMLAU is blasting up grade at nearly 40 mph. The track curves to the left just past the locomotives and reappears above the two red boxcars. The top of the elevator above the cement cars is up at Benchland and is at the top of the grade.
Between Hobson and Sipple is Hauk Coulee. Hauk Coulee itself isn’t that significant however it does join with the Judith River downstream from the BNSF. The Judith too forced the Milwaukee to build a large structure to get across but again the GN got off easy with a three span plate girder bridge and some culverts for tributaries. Today the Milwaukee is operated by the Central Montana but not as a through route. The GN is still in place with regular freight traffic. So who made the best decisions about crossing drainages?
