“Are you done foaming?” My boss yelled as I snuck back into my office on a recent Friday afternoon.
Although I thought I had been inconspicuous when I casually walked out of the newsroom with a camera slung over my shoulder, I guess it was pretty obvious what I was doing. The fact that I suddenly left after hearing a locomotive horn down the street and then returned 25 minutes later, only two or three minutes after that same horn halted traffic in front of our building again, might have been the giveaway.
Now I don’t jump up from my desk every time a train blows by my office in downtown Kalispell, Mont. In fact, on most days – if I’m on the phone, buried under a pile of work or the weather just isn’t that good – I won’t give a passing freight train a second thought. But I’m trying to care a little more these days. You see it won’t be long before a passing freight train will be all but a memory in Kalispell.
For the last 125 years, the Great Northern (now the Mission Mountain Railroad) has threaded its way right through downtown. For the first decade or so, Kalispell was a division point on the GN’s main line but it was later moved to Whitefish, making the route between Columbia Falls and Kalispell a branch line. A few years ago, city leaders hatched a plan to build a rail park just east of town where the few remaining downtown industries – a grain elevator and a drywall warehouse – could relocate. When the industries are finally moved, the tracks will be ripped up, freeing up more than 300 acres of land for redevelopment in the heart of the community.
By almost every measure, the construction of a new rail park and redevelopment of hundreds of acres of land in the one of the state’s fastest growing communities is a great idea. For the community, it means more room to grow. For the railroad, it means a few less miles of track to maintain and the possibility of new business. However, it will mean the end of some unique – and often overlooked – photo opportunities. While the end is still a few years away, I’m trying to shoot the Mission Mountain in downtown Kalispell as often as I can before it’s too late and you never know when the end might sneak up on you.
Just a few weeks ago, I was talking to a good friend from Massachusetts about his weekend plans. The Providence & Worcester was running an excursion that weekend and I inquired if he was going to chase it. He said the weather was going to be less than ideal and that he figured he’d wait until the P&W’s holiday excursions in December to shoot the railroad one more time before it was officially taken over by the Genesee & Wyoming. But not even 48 hours after that conversation, the sale was finalized and the independent P&W was no more. Luckily for my friend, he has an extensive collection of great P&W images but the incident serves as a reminder to keep shooting, even if the weather isn’t great.
With that in mind, I may try and sneak out of the office a little more in the coming months, regardless of how many clouds are up above.
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