Today's Train of Thought- It's a Gas Gas Gas, Aug 24, 2011

Today's train of thought shows us what can be best described as a pipeline on wheels out in Big Sky Country.



Once upon a time, Conoco Philip's [NYSE: COP] Yellowstone pipeline carried gasoline all the way from Billings, MT to Spokanne, WA. However, after a 3000 barrel spill in 1993 on the Flathead Indian Reservation, the tribal council there revoked the pipeline easement. This left a 56-mile gap through the reservation and there was no talk of relocating that portion



Into the breech stepped Montana Rail Link, offering to have the gas offloaded from the pipeline in Missoula into tank cars for a 129-mile trek into Thompson Falls, MT where it is placed back into the western end of the Yellowstone pipeline to complete its westward journey to Spokane. At Thompson Falls, the locomotives, empty tank cars and spacer car on each end are turned around for the return trip. The outbound train is usually referred to as 'The Gas Local' while the returning cars are sometimes referred to as 'Gas Cans'.



Railpictures.net contributor Amy Miller caught an outbound Gas Local in August 2010 with SD45-2 #332 leading SD70ACE #4308 at Arlee, MT. The two locomotives represent two dramatically different epochs in EMD's manufacturing- the #332 started out life as an SDP45 for the Erie Lackawana nearly 40 years ago before the E-L became a part of Conrail. At some point in its career, #332 got into a wreck and her rear hood was rebuilt before being pressed into service as a leaser with Motive Power International and sold to the Montana Rail Link [Occasionally even older locomotives will hitch a ride with the Gas Local, as MRL's GP9s shuttle between their Paradise, MT assignment and Missoula- NANESB!].



By contrast, the #4308 was built new for the MRL in 2005 by EMD and has been in service since then in a variety of duties ever since.

Today's Train of Thought- At A Glacier's Pace; Feb 24, 2011

Today's rather snowy train of thought takes us back to Big Sky country before winter fully kicks in. The weather outside didn't look that frightful as railpictures.net contributor Rick Newton caught BNSF #7923 leading a quintet of BNSF SD40-2s as they grind to a halt just outside of Browning, in Glacier County Montana.

This stretch of the old Great Northern between Minneapolis-St Paul and Seattle was completed in 1893 and featured the Empire Builder as the premier passenger train (who's latest incarnation is being run by Amtrak). The stretch in northwestern Montana skirts the southern boundary of Glacier National Park as westbound trains begin their assault on the Rockies.

Here, the cascade green of Burlington Northern, Santa Fe 'Bluebonnet' and BNSF's Great Northern-inspired orange and Pullman green paint scheme are all represented on five SD40-2s handling an eastbound manifest freight as it grinds to a halt in a siding just outside of Browning, MT on a snowy October 6, 2007 day. The eastbound has just made its way through the difficult terrain and weather at the higher elevations and is entering a siding to let a westbound through.

Today's Train of Thought- Foliage Along the Main Street of Montana; Nov 26, 2010

Proving that the northeast doesn't have the monopoly on fall colors, today's Train of Thought comes to us from Big Sky Country as the aspens in the Rockies begin to turn to gold courtesy of railpictures.net contributor mtgteam2.

Here, a duo of new Montana Rail Link's new SD70ace's lead westbound manifest freight LM (Laurel, MT to Missoula) through Nimrod, MT with a few miles remaining before reaching its destination of Missoula. The SD70ace's were purchased new in 2005 and have begun gradually replacing the older SD40s and SD45s that were purchased secondhand, some of them dating as far back as the 1987 formation of the MRL.