An eastbound BNSF train on the Montana Rail Link rolls through a moonlit Lombard, Montana.
I'll be sharing at least 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! In my previous blog, I showed a time-exposure of a westbound BNSF train in Lombard Canyon. I was fairly happy with the way it turned out, but I wanted another go at it. Time exposures are something that you need to practice, and since we were camping close by, this was a great opportunity to try more. All that we would have to do is let the trains come to us. Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise, but when you have strong moonlight and a fading sunset, lighting conditions at night change quite a bit. One of the many things I love about shooting digital is that I can do test exposures to see what camera settings are working the best. After the last westbound passed, I went back to doing what seems natural when I'm camping in Montana. For me, that would be popping open a bottle of my second-favorite brew: Moose Drool. Moose Drool is a brown ale brewed in Montana by Big Sky Brewing Co. Moose Drool was first brewed in 1995, and I can remember vividly when I sampled it for the first time. Shortly after the beer was introduced, a couple of friends from Utah and I meandered over to a local watering hole in St. Regis, Mont., after chasing the MRL for the day. After checking out the selection, we decided the give the beer with the funny name a try. I've been enjoying an occasional Drool ever since. I'm sure part of the reason I enjoy Moose Drool so much is the fact that it is from Montana, and the experiences I have out here tend to lodge into my memory. Since those days in the mid-1990s, Big Sky has grown, and now they brew my favorite beer as well (I'll divulge my No. 1 later). Big Sky has grown big enough that I can find Moose Drool even back here in Wisconsin. I could go on and on about beer, but in reality, we are here for the trains. Just 25 minutes after the last westbound passed, the searchlight signal at the east end of Lombard came to life. The green indicated that we had an eastbound. Once again I set up on the abutment of Milwaukee's Missouri River bridge. Little did I know at the time that I was standing very near to where an interesting (at least to me)apparatus once stood. Like I mentioned in a previous blog, Lombard was once a fairly vibrant little town. Both Milwaukee Road and Northern Pacific had depots here, and I would guess that at times, passengers on the Milwaukee and NP transferred from one railroad's passenger trains to the other. Since Milwaukee's main crossed over the Missouri and the NP on a bridge, the Milwaukee's depot was on a higher level than the NP depot. Because of this, an interesting structure stood on the west edge of the Missouri River bridge abutment. I've done research on Lombard before, but I never noticed the structure until recently when a friend sent a picture taken in 1953 of what was probably Milwaukee Road's Olympian crossing the Missouri. What was the structure exactly? I did some more research and found a mention of Lombard in the October 1940, issue of Railroad magazine.Luckily for me, we have a great library at Kalmbach that includes many railroad books and magazines, including the bound volumes of ancient Railroad magazines. The October 1940 issue has a few photos of the Lombard area, presumably taken just prior to 1940. Two of which I found particularly interesting. One photo showed exactly what the structure was to the west of the abutment. The caption for the photo states that it is a large mail and baggage elevator, and that it was carefully counterbalanced so the weight of the cargo is sufficient to lower the platform. Apparently, a small gas engine was used to hoist the platform. They actually had an elevator to raise and lower baggage and mail from one railroad to another in Lombard! The second photo was of Northern Pacific's depot. I have seen pictures of the depot before, but this one showed gas lamps mounted on white posts along the depot platform. The caption stated that even though the Milwaukee Road was electrified, the power was not brought down for use for electric lighting in town. It was only after Toston Dam was built just downriver in 1940, that electricity (other then for the electrics on the Milwaukee) came to town. I was standing within feet of where these two photos were taken, but you would have never guessed all of that existed 70 years ago. After setting up for the train and firing off some test frames, I thought I was ready. But even with the moonlight, it was still difficult to focus on anything. The headlight of the eastbound came around a distant curve and lit up the cliffs to the east of us. It looked great. After the locomotives had passed through most of the frame, I closed the shutter. I then took a look at the results. Unfortunately, my concerns about focusing in the dark were warranted. The photo turned out just a little out of focus. Note to self: next time, bring a good flashlight. So I quickly tried to refocus to photograph the train going away with the blinking FRED on the rear. This time, the focus was good. I wish I did better on the first photo, but this one turned out pretty well. I really like how the moon illuminated the cliffs in the distance. You can even see shadows! Well, it's time to get some sleep. We have a plan for the next day to photograph a Montana Rail Link line that I have never done before.
Tom's Montana Protest Facebook Gallery
Tom's Montana Protest Flickr Set
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.