We chose to stay around the Livingston area on our next day and photography a couple of places we’d seen the previous day. Sadly we awoke to less than desirable weather so our morning photographs were shot in a high overcast. No matter we were chasing trains and that is better than being at work any day of the week!
While we ate an enjoyable lunch at the Northern Pacific Beanery in Livingston the sun returned so we headed out to find an eastbound empty grain train. It didn’t take long for us to run in to it near West End. After a few photos there we moved down the pass and photographed it again just before Livingston. It seems this year the grain trains were hard to find on MRL so this is one of the few we saw on our trip.
As the afternoon wore on the trains disappeared. For fun we ended up wandering around Livingston photographing the town. In the end we happened into a bar for an afternoon refreshment and some football. Around 5:30 the Laurel Pasco showed up in town and had quite the conversation with the helper crew about the train’s need for extra power. The helper crew thought they could solo but the head end crew wasn’t so sure. In the end they decided to tack the helpers on the rear.
By the time the train reached Muir it was clear to me the helpers were necessary. They were down to between 10-15mph. The dispatcher set up a meet at Muir with an eastbound Pipestone ballast train which made us all wonder what would happen if the Laurel Pasco had to stop. Fortunately it was a good meet and neither train stopped. At 6:30 PM the glint light was just right on the Laurel Pasco as it crept into Muir at full throttle.
With sunset light on our side we hustled down to East Bozeman. When we arrived the ML was in the hole with an SD45, SD70ACe, and a GP-9. Let’s see here, 1950s, 1970s, and 2000s all represented in one engine consist! After photographing the meet we paced the train out of the siding and used Mike’s recorder to capture the roar of 645 and 710 (the Geep was offline) prime movers. What a wonderful sound!
After a few more photos at Muir we were off to Livingston to photograph the many neon signs in town. For a Sunday night after Labor Day Livingston had quite a bit of activity. This is definitely a thriving town despite the fact the railroad no longer has a large presence there.
