Day 8 - Livingston MT to Helena MT

Off to Helena today, the state capital. I really wanted to chase a train there, but had a feeling we would be following the usual quiet-morning, busy-afternoon routine and there wouldn't be much to chase. On the off chance I drove east a wee bit to see if anything was coming, but it was all quiet. I pulled over and read my book for a while and watched the ice flow down the river.

Decided nothing was happening and went back to the road. After Bozeman things opened up and there were some big flat plains. At Townsend I fuelled up and watched a truck getting filled from a grain elevator. I was surprised at how fast the grain came out, it was like a firehose, but for grain.

I soon arrived in Helena and had a look around. All quiet at the station and MRL yard. Not quite as nice a setup as at Livingston, bit harder to get to. The helpers lay basking in the brief patch of sun.

I decided to go checkout Birdseye Rd and Austin Rd to see if anything was happening, and if the road was more drivable than last year. Turns out it was, and since there is so much less snow all the snow mobiles are gone, as is all the accompanying vehicular traffic.

I headed on down the road and carefully drove up to the the trestle. Geared up and scaled the hillside. Sat down and read my book for a while. The silence up here was stunning, and the valley forms a natural echo chamber. A couple of ravens took an interest in me and flapped around CAW CAWing. I was watching a little bird in a tree and concentrating hard on the silence when suddenly a raven right behind me let out a massive CAW CAW! I jumped about a foot in the air!

I heard a few other noises too, one sounded like a frog but that couldn't be right because frogs would freeze up here, unless they're ice-frogs which I think I just made up. I had visions of big mountain lions and pumas sneaking up on me, but I imagine they're more scared of me than I am of them.

After a while I started noticing that strange sound on the edge of my hearing… could it be? Yes… I soon heard a very distant toot. I didn't have a map so wasn't sure how far away the train was, but the line here is quite twisty and turny. About quarter of an hour later I saw a headlight come around the corner and was pleased to see an SD45, SD70ACe, and GP35, all in MRL paint, come onto the trestle.

Behind the locos on a flatcar appeared to be a Jordan spreader, not sure what the story there is. You can see where the snow line is on the trees too.

I waited for it to pass and headed back down to the car. Only moments after I'd started the car I heard another train which made no sense, but there was no denying what I saw on the trestle.

Seems the helpers were coming back down running on cautions, i.e. staying as close as the signals would allow to the previous train.

I didn't have much luck catching the manifest due to the placement of railroad crossings, but caught the helpers ok.

Back down in Helena I checked into my motel which took quite a while due to a farmer getting his very first lesson on how to use a credit card machine. Seems he'd never seen a touch screen before, or a keypad, or used the magnetic stripe on his card even.

The helpers meanwhile had got their next job and headed off to the get ready to cut into their train.

A while later the BNSF manifest got his rights and off he went too.

Look carefully and you can just see the moon rising above the ditch lights on the loco. And yes, it's as cold there as it looks!

For dinner I went to my usual mexican restaurant just around the corner and had a yummy mean of steak, beans, rice, tortillas, salad, corn chips, mushrooms, peppers, carrots, and sauce. Filling and just what I needed! Tomorrow I will see what the weather is doing, but I suspect I'll be reading my book a lot as I wait for trains.