Amplifying on what Larry said:
The coal mines are now just supporting the power plant at Colstrip and thus little or no traffic on the branch, so the track is available for storage.
1. Because the track is available on which to store the cars.
2. Because the price is right.
Those cars are probably stored either because they simply aren't needed right now, or because they've reached the end of their useful life and haven't found their new life (or the scrapper) yet.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
We were on a months vacation to 6 states in August. We drove from Gillitte, Wy to Forsyth,Mt. On that route we drove through Colstrip, Mt. There is a single track from Colstrip to Forsyth. North of Colstrip, the first set of about 110 cars was oil tank cars, and the next was autorack cars. I stopped counting after 300 cars and then counting by miles. I think there was about 20 to 30 MILES of autorack cars before we got to Forsyth. Every so often there was a split because of a crossing.
Does anyone have an idea why there are so many being stored there when there is no car mfg. plants any where near there?
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