Day 10 - Helena MT to Missoula MT

My lucky run of sunny weather has come to an end it seems. I woke up to gray overcast skies. I debated heading back to the east side of Mullan but after yesterday decided not to and hit the hightway for Missoula. I remembered the "MT Marijuana" building on the way out of town from last year, but was surprised to see it is now just a discount clothing store. Searching online, there has been a bit of a law change recently which has made things a bit more stringent, although I don't know what exactly happened to the place I'd seen.

I got to the bottom of the vehicular Mullan Pass and turned onto the Austin Mullan Pass Rd to see if there was any rail activity on the western side of the Blossburg tunnel. I'd only got halfway down the road when an SD70MAC came roaring round a curve towards me. Spun around and chased back down the road to get some shots.

The lighting was very uncooperative, and it was tough work keeping up with him on the snowy road. He had helpers in his midst too, so I followed him around the corner to Elliston where they cut out the helpers.

I didn't do a very good job and ended up on the wrong side of the highway while they were cutting the helpers out.

The train was a long coal train, with 2 locos on the front, 4 helpers in the middle, and either one or two DPUs (Distributed Power Units, akak remote controlled locos) on the rear. The stopped where they would only foul up one crossing and near some points, and in a very efficient manner, split the train in front of the helpers, pulled that half forward, uncoupled the rear half of the train from the helpers, ran the helpers forward over the crossing, then back onto a siding, then rolled the front half back down, coupled up their train, and off they went.

I zoomed off to find a nice photo spot, only to see a headlight in the distance.

So once again, a U turn and back up the highway I went, chasing the three GEs singing their hearts out as they roared up the grade.

Off up the hill we went towards the tunnel.

I got caught out on the wrong side of the crossing and so had to wait for the entire train to pass, which meant I missed getting into position for a tunnel shot. That said I still for the rear of the train entering the tunnel.

So I went back down the snowy Austin Mullan Pass Rd again for the second time, and back onto US12 to continue my jounrey. However I hadn't got very far when I saw an illuminated signal. Could there be a train nearby? I rounded the corner and, yep, headlights ahead!

Even better, an SD45 leading. Drool.

So, back down the Austin Mullan Pass Rd again. I was getting pretty good at knowing which corners would try and make me slide, and where the slushy bits were.

This time I ended up on the right side of the crossings and got to the tunnel before he did.

Not that it mattered cos he promptly went into the loop and stopped. As you can see I was blessed with bright skies, thick clouds, and a back lit scene!

I figured he was either waiting for the previous train to clear the line, or someone to come out of the tunnel. It seemed up likely that a west bounder would be coming up the tunnel as it takes a long time to get up the pass and the previous train and helpers would still be on their way down. I wanted a shot of him heading into the tunnel so sat tight with my book and pile of croissants.

A short while later I was rewarded for my wait when a BNSF earth worm came panting out of the tunnel.

I watched him pull through, heard the mid train helpers come out and throttle down, and then finally the DPU emerged and went into dynamic.

I let him go knowing I would probably be able to catch him up at Elliston while he cut the helpers out. I got the video camera out and was rewarded with some beautiful EMD sounds as the pair of SDs slowly, and with a little hesitation, managed to get their load moving on the slight grade and off into the tunnel.

Back down the snowy road for the, oh, 6th time today.

At Elliston they had already chopped the train in half, cut out the helpers, and were slowly rejoining the train.

And then, we were off.

I think another train roared past while I was waiting for this one too, I can't remember, it was just so busy! And so off we went.

Another meeting at the junction with I90, this time it was earth worm meets earth worm.

At one spot this guy was soaring in the breeze.

Off down the highway we went.

I had a brilliant plan to catch him on a bridge and when speeding into a huge mud pit, got there just in time, set up the scene, only to find it was a road bridge! I hit reverse and skidded back out and off to the crossing just in the nick of time.

And then caught him disappearing through a tunnel too.

I continued on and landed in Missoula where I checked into the Thunderbird Motel.

I had a nice room with a huge bed and from my window I could see the line into town. With that the earthworm came into town. I wonder if I can hear them? I thought, and with that he sat on the horn. Yep.

I had just opened up my laptop with the scanner crackled into life. "Mandatory track warrant number blah blah blah to MRL 4312 on the 10th sub blah blah blah". 10th sub? 10th sub???? This is the line that so eluded me last year, in fact I spent a whole day chasing trains on that line last year and didn't once see a single sign of a train! So I was not going to let this opportunity go to waste! I had a sneaky feeling that a 5pm departure of an MRL train could mean only one thing, and that is the night gas train.

I jumped in the car and tried not to get too annoyed at all the slow drivers and red lights. I hit I90 and roared onto MT200 and headed up the hill. Off to my right I spied a white snake of tank cars, and a couple of splashes of blue at the front. Hello night gas local!

I pulled into the top of the hill and set up. He came roaring up the hill working hard on the 2.2% grade, but still making good speed. I dashed off to find another spot and pulled down a named road, only to find a bunch of NO TRESSPASSING, PRIVATE PROPERTY signs, etc. It was too narrow to turn around so I pulled in next to the crossing and was just scoping it out when an angry hairy local came storming out, yelling about how "you can't read too well can you". I asked nicely if it was ok if I took a quick photo of the train and he just kept insulting me, asking "can't you read' etc. I sighed and said sorry, no worries, I'll do a U turn and be on my way. "Yeah, I should think so too" he helpfully added. Gosh! Itwas a named road though, on my GPS and everything, and there were multiple houses down there, but I guess this local got off on yelling at people cos I had no sooner got out of the car than he was coming out of his trailer after me! I suspect he would've happily thrown punches too if I'd said the wrong thing. I bet he also complains about the noise the trains make, haha.

Anyway , I went on and found another crossing up the road quite a ways.

I left my gas local to it and headed back into town, then did battle with their pesky one way system in downtown Missoula and eventually found the right combination of one ways to get me to the MacKenzie River Pizza Company, where I had a buffalo wing pizza which was very yummy, consiting of buffalo sauce, chicken, celery, mozzarella, and blue cheese. Mmm.

Then it was back to the motel and time to do battle with the washing machine, then into bed to debate whether I wanted to get up at 5am to chase the day gas local. Decided that no, 5am was too early, and it wouldn't even be sunny then anyway so what was the point? Plus I like sleep!