Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
General Discussion
»
Raifan Information on the Powder River Basin

Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
I was just out there last June. There are all kinds of spots to sit down and watch trains go past you, especialy around and south of the Converse Jct. area. Hwy 59 is right with the line once it goes under it around I think about milepost 35 until it goes over it about 5 miles north of Bill. This whole section, from a little north of Shawnee Jct to south of the lead to North Rochelle Mine, is completly triple track. Once you get away from the line north of Bill going up the back side of Logan Hill, you might want to find Stekley Road ?? it has a good view at the top of Logan Hill. Farther north you want to find Antelope Road. It will take you back to the railroad and past the southern-most mines. Good views on it include a bridge over the 4 track lead to Antelope Mine and eventually it gets around to the bridges over the creek at the bottom of the valley. Right there you can head back a ways next to the lead for 2 other mines. There isn't much back there so unless you like bugs, I'd say don't bother except for the east side of the bridges. Up the far side you get to a public view point of the pit operations of Antelope Mine. It's cool. Across the road from it is the main down in a cut. The road continues north, crosses the line at grade and eventually T's into the road that heads back to North Rochelle. That road takes you west to Hilight Road which gets you back to the main. The next mines north are Black Thunder and Jacobs Ranch (Reno Jct). These mines are back a few miles from the main along a state highway. There are good views of Black Thunder and a little ways farther down the road is on a bridge over a mining road which the mining dump trucks drive down right under the road. North from Reno Jct Hilight Road stays with the line for quite a ways but eventualy goes away. Traffic starts to thin out from here. From here on no roads stay with the line. You'll have to take other roads back to the mines but there are company signs leading to the mines. The road back to the Cabello and Belle Ayr Mines area will take to a good spot to watch the Belle Ayr helper tack onto the back of trains and also it meets a road that will take you south a mile, back under the line and up a hill that you see a lot of good pictures from. Another road farther north take you back to the point where the Belle Ayr helper cuts of on the fly. At the far north end is Donkey Creek which is a good spot to sit down for a little while and watch some BNSF action. A note: many of these roads go through active blasting areas and are subject to temporary closure or permenent because of pit expansion so some or these roads many be closed now. While we were out in the area we were never bothered by police, and the crews were extremly friendly as long as you weren't trespassing. The bugiest people are the mine people. Just stay off their property. I'll look up the names of those last two roads. Hope you have fun. It's a great area. <br /> <br />Jon H
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag