Welcome to the weekend! It's hot as blazes, so let's cool it off with some February shots in Minot, ND. Shuffling the deck in the CP yard: This S-curve is usually obscured by other cars set out in the foreground yard tracks:
Well, since it's mid July, super hot, and WalMart has their Christmas decorations out, it does feel like a good time for snow pics. Here's my contribution to the fun. Somewhere in the Pocono mountains east of Scranton PA, either late 2000 or early 2001.
In contrast to your cold threats I give you Cajon Ca after a fire. Sullivan's Curve/Canyon Siding looking south, August 2016. From about the same spot looking north.
I like this week's theme! As such, from 01/21/1978 at Knoxville, TN is C-420 1308. The L&N rostered quite a collection of C-420s at the time, gathered up from family members, SAL, P&N, Monon, TC, plus their own. The 1308 was original L&N, delivered in 1964. How did I ever graduate from school with Alcos in abundance? It's a good thing I didn't own a car.
Since we are chilling... I have to share an all time favorite, again. This was the last winter form the MILW's west end. Mother nature decided to aid in making those final weeks difficult, by having several blizzards. This view alone made paying for a nice 4x4 worth while! Here is the first of the hard snows, at Cedar Falls, Washington, in the Cascade Mountains foothills:
Yeah, tough last Winter for the old Milw for sure-even had to bust out a rotary to clear the line over Snoqualmie, wow! Great pic, glad you got it, wouldn't recognize the place now. Atleast the depot was saved, now a residence in Covington.
Yep, a fine and moody shot! This must be very remote country. I found Cedar Falls, WA on Bing and Google maps, but there's no street view on either website. At least Bing Maps still shows where the tracks were. My (reproduction) 1928 Rand-McNally map shows that the MILW had a branchline that connected there. It went north and connected with an NP branch at Northbend 8 miles distant, then went on to Carnation and a connection with the GN main at Monroe. Wow. Question: Between Ellensburg, WA and Easton, WA (37 miles), did the MILW and NP have separate lines or did they share one? Rand McNally maps sometimes show parallel lines as one line with both carriers listed.
I hear you, friend. I had the same situation in first and second years of high school. The Ste-Thérèse station was five minutes walk (two minutes run) away, and CP used MLW RS18's almost exclusively in this region. The sound of an idling 12-cylinder 251 contentedly gurgling along was the music to many a lunch hour. I still get all warm and fuzzy inside when I hear That Sound. Lots of happy memories... ... which were interrupted when I saw the time and ran back to school before classes started again.
It was incredibly swiftly re-claimed by nature. Which says something... I had an interesting role in Fred acquiring the depot. Also, spent a fair amount of time visiting with him, as he dismantled it. That was really an interesting process! When he was taking the roof off, I took some pictures of the BN local coming by, standing up in the joists. Some day I will get my website updated and a view from that day will be included.
Nope! That's just how close the two lines were together, parts of Montana as well, you'd think it was a double mainline in places!
That branch was originally known as their "Everett Line". This was before they went to numbering subdivisions. They got a LOT of forest products business from it, as well as early on, agricultural (cattle), and farming. (Hops, crops.) What was at the time the largest Weyerhaeuser mill in that company was located on that branch line. These are my old home stomping grounds. I know it very well. Have done a LOT of research on that branch line. Saw it in operation. Great memories. Also saw the NP branch in operation, almost daily. It passed by not just my grade school, but both junior high and senior high! Early on, there was an interchange track where they crossed the NP. But that was removed. Decades later, after the BN merger, BN got some trackage rights and installed a connection track from the MILW to the former NP, at that location, which was named "Tanner". (There was also a sawmill there.) I later owned a house not one fourth mile away. Could see the BN trains coming by, through the trees to my east. Originally, the MILW had their own line between Monroe and Everett. However, in the 1930's, flooding destroyed part of it. So they obtained trackage rights between Monroe (Monroe Junction), and to near Everett at Lowell, where they got back on their own tracks. Decades back, the city of Everett swallowed the unincorporated Lowell vicinity, so it is now within their limits. Also, GN once had their own branch from Monroe, to Carnations. (Then known as "Tolt".) There is a lot of interesting railroad history in both the "upper" and "lower" Snoqualmie Valley. On the east end, the Milw crossed over the NP at a site named Woldale, via bridge EE-384B. Neat photo site. From there, to west of Easton, the two railroads were actually on opposite banks of the Yakima River. Very scenic. At Easton, there was an interchange track. NP and BN did use it, to run trains over the MILW, when they had issues on Stampede Pass. (Most commonly, flooding and washouts.Stampede could see some harsh winters.) Amtrak also used that interchange for such an incident, late 1977 into early 1978. I have train orders in my collection about this operation. If things work out for my vacation, I hope to head over there and chase a BNSF train or two along that line. IF.....
Very interesting details on that line. My "1928" Rand-McNally atlas shows some of the joint operation on the branch, but your explanation makes it a whole lot clearer. I hope you get a chance to railfan in the area on your vacation!
Cool. Nature tends to force these things I suppose. The LV (at left) and CNJ (at right) ran side by side through portions of the Lehigh Gorge.
