A BNSF westbound windmill extra rolls west along the Missouri River near Lombard, Montana. (click to view larger)
I'll be sharing one photo of my trip every week until I head out to Montana once again. I guess I look at it like my way of holding a protest, or going on strike, until I get my way and I depart for Big Sky Country. Along the way, I will try to give everyone some information and other tidbits about each photograph. So come along and join me in my protest! After catching the two trains at milepost 189, we had some time to kill. We knew we had a westbound coming at us, but would it make it in time? We had a perfect spot to shoot the last westbound of the day. The problem was that shadows encroach on this location fairly early in the afternoon. We figured it would be shadowed in the canyon somewhere around 6:30 p.m. or so, and that was just about the time we thought the train would show up. We didn't have much else to do, so we got in to position and waited. As the sun fell, we crossed our fingers. I was getting worried that I needed more fingers. What we did know was that we were waiting for a unit train, and it was loaded with windmill or wind turbine parts. I've only photographed one windmill parts train before, and that was a Wisconsin & Southern version on the Canadian National within miles of my home. SeeSee http://www.flickr.com/photos/tdanneman/5883950243/in/photostreamThis time, however, I was in my own little version of heaven, about to photograph the unusual train in perfect light. As far as railfanning experiences go, it couldn't get much better than that. As pointed out in a comment from one of my previous blogs, railfanning the Montana Rail Link can be frustrating at times. But I go back to times like this one, and I'm reminded that on railroads like the MRL, the statement of the day should be that it's the quality, not the quantity. You can park me in a lawn chair (with a cold beverage, perhaps) overlooking this scene on any gorgeous day, and I'll be fine - train or no train. Heck! I wouldn't even need the lawn chair! As the shadows crept toward the tracks below, we heard the train entering Lombard Siding. Once again I fired off a gazillion test shots. I didn't want to mess this one up. Around a distant hillside came two BNSF Dash 9s (the leader was even clean). Trailing behind the locomotives were heavy-duty flatcars carrying two of what I believe are nacelles, which house the gearbox, drive train, and control electronics of a wind turbine. We figured these loads must be heavy, since each one had an idler car in between, and the train consisted of only 11 loads, yet it rated two 4,400 horsepower locomotives. For a telephoto view of this train, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/tdanneman/6280879703/in/photostreamWhat a great way to end our first day in Montana! Next up, camping near Lombard.
Galleries:
Tom's Montana Protest Facebook Gallery
Tom's Montana Protest Flickr Set
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