That's an amazing job you're doing and this brought back some memories.
In July 2012, I traveled between Miles City and Roundup, Montana with a storm-chasing group. Parallel to the highway US 12 is the ROW of the former Pacifica Northwest Extension. This end didn't have the catenary, but there were plenty of signs of old MILW railroad along the way.
We headed west on US12 at Forsythe, MT after eating some lunch and getting some fuel. There we saw the competing former Great Northern line still in operation with some BNSF coal trains waiting in the yard there. What's interesting is, and this was one of the quirky things about the MILW, is there was no interchange with the Great Northern line there at all even though the MILW was across the river. They had a small depot, but bypassed this thriving community a bit too far away.
Onward we traveled after going up hill and then on to the relatively flat upland area above the Yellowstone river. To the left was the ROW that paralleled the road for a good distance before dipping off away and returning sometime later. Still seen were big concrete bridges, telegraph poles - some still had insulators on them, some wooden bridges, and even some cattle stock pens where the railroad served these small hamlets and farmers. There's even a town that had a "modern" school building, but that was the only modern tall building the rest were small houses. After some research, I found this town grew up because of the railroad and when the line was abandoned, the town shrunk down.
We traveled along through the plains. There were very few trees except right along the Yellowstone River and next to the tracks that moved away from the road, but came back again off and on. In some places out there, were former signal relay boxes and occasional signal masts. Then we came to a bigger town that had a substantial yard at Melstone.
https://goo.gl/maps/jtfUZgh27ys3xZr48
Here's the overview.
https://goo.gl/maps/BJhZ7B2m3ziN12KG7
At Melstone, I could see a train order loop and other bits and pieces. The image above doesn't show that, but I see other things in there. There were also piles of ripped up ties still on the ground after 40 years!
We continued on our trip with other signs here and there and when we reached Roundup, we headed up towards Great Falls, MT, but in Roundup is a still in good condition Warren Truss bridge visible from the road.
As we were riding along, I pointed out these signs to other travelers. Most couldn't care since they weren't interested in railroads, but there was two other travelers who were with one being the driver. We ended up talking about this part of the trip afterwards and he and I said that it's a total waste seeing this railroad rotting away and going back to nature. After that I did some reading on the MILW and found out that it was an accounting error that forced the company to abandon the line. The Pacific Northwest Extension was the most profitable part of the system, and if it had continued operations today, would be a viable transportation link between Seattle and other points east. The MILW Pacific Extension was built to modern standards with a wide ROW and smooth eased curves. With a route built this way, fast container and intermodal freights could easily cover the route since this route was actually faster than the others used today. Thinking about this now, I get that sick pit in my stomach that we get when we're saddened by an event. Seeing this then did the same thing.
Anyway. I wish you well on your project and I look forward to seeing more of it as the route progresses. I would love to see modern trains, electric or diesel, plying the route once again. The MILW today could run some modern electrics, perhaps all the way from Miles City with both sections connected rather than separate. The alternative could be big Tier 4 diesels and maybe some GE Dash-somethings as well all painted in the famous black and orange we know the MILW for.
In July 2012, I traveled between Miles City and Roundup, Montana with a storm-chasing group. Parallel to the highway US 12 is the ROW of the former Pacifica Northwest Extension. This end didn't have the catenary, but there were plenty of signs of old MILW railroad along the way.
We headed west on US12 at Forsythe, MT after eating some lunch and getting some fuel. There we saw the competing former Great Northern line still in operation with some BNSF coal trains waiting in the yard there. What's interesting is, and this was one of the quirky things about the MILW, is there was no interchange with the Great Northern line there at all even though the MILW was across the river. They had a small depot, but bypassed this thriving community a bit too far away.
Onward we traveled after going up hill and then on to the relatively flat upland area above the Yellowstone river. To the left was the ROW that paralleled the road for a good distance before dipping off away and returning sometime later. Still seen were big concrete bridges, telegraph poles - some still had insulators on them, some wooden bridges, and even some cattle stock pens where the railroad served these small hamlets and farmers. There's even a town that had a "modern" school building, but that was the only modern tall building the rest were small houses. After some research, I found this town grew up because of the railroad and when the line was abandoned, the town shrunk down.
We traveled along through the plains. There were very few trees except right along the Yellowstone River and next to the tracks that moved away from the road, but came back again off and on. In some places out there, were former signal relay boxes and occasional signal masts. Then we came to a bigger town that had a substantial yard at Melstone.
https://goo.gl/maps/jtfUZgh27ys3xZr48
Here's the overview.
https://goo.gl/maps/BJhZ7B2m3ziN12KG7
At Melstone, I could see a train order loop and other bits and pieces. The image above doesn't show that, but I see other things in there. There were also piles of ripped up ties still on the ground after 40 years!
We continued on our trip with other signs here and there and when we reached Roundup, we headed up towards Great Falls, MT, but in Roundup is a still in good condition Warren Truss bridge visible from the road.
As we were riding along, I pointed out these signs to other travelers. Most couldn't care since they weren't interested in railroads, but there was two other travelers who were with one being the driver. We ended up talking about this part of the trip afterwards and he and I said that it's a total waste seeing this railroad rotting away and going back to nature. After that I did some reading on the MILW and found out that it was an accounting error that forced the company to abandon the line. The Pacific Northwest Extension was the most profitable part of the system, and if it had continued operations today, would be a viable transportation link between Seattle and other points east. The MILW Pacific Extension was built to modern standards with a wide ROW and smooth eased curves. With a route built this way, fast container and intermodal freights could easily cover the route since this route was actually faster than the others used today. Thinking about this now, I get that sick pit in my stomach that we get when we're saddened by an event. Seeing this then did the same thing.
Anyway. I wish you well on your project and I look forward to seeing more of it as the route progresses. I would love to see modern trains, electric or diesel, plying the route once again. The MILW today could run some modern electrics, perhaps all the way from Miles City with both sections connected rather than separate. The alternative could be big Tier 4 diesels and maybe some GE Dash-somethings as well all painted in the famous black and orange we know the MILW for.