Day 7, Saturday, June 4, 2016
Gilllette, Wyo.– Forsyth, Mont.

Photos by Dave Ingles

Today constituted, first, 228 new miles of former CB&Q for many of us, including this writer and even Clark Johnson, from Gillette thru Sheridan, Wyo., to Moran Jct. east of Billings, Mont., near Huntley. From Moran Jct. we swung around a post-BN merger sharp-curve connection to the former NP main line at Jones Jct., thence into Forsyth making like Amtrak's North Coast Hiawatha in late afternoon, for a total of 315 miles. To me, especially in the morning, it was "wildlife day," and I don't mean those creatures in the main page's photo hiking thru weeds up to the adjacent highway to take pictures! Few trains, mostly coal of course, ply this segment, but it was an interesting ride. We begin by saying good-bye to Gillette, on the main and heading west at 7:50.

And here is "Dan the Chaser Man" following us northwest out of Gillette. At least this road is paved; several of them this day that he used were not.

In this stretch we saw, from the Caritas looking back, evidence of many line locations thru the years, and I suspect some of them were post-Powder River Basin coal blossoming. The old r-o-w curves in from the left in the first photo, around MP 611 (from Lincoln, Neb.) at 8:14, and soon from the right in the second shot, at MP 614, both between Oriva and Echeta passing sidings.

Soon the wildlife sightings began — prairie dogs, antelope, whitetails, and  yes, cattle (OK, they're not "wild"); this is a lonely but pretty stretch of railroad. You know, the "range," where the deer and the antelope play! Look close in the third, lower left, and you'll see three prairie dogs, 2 of 'em at attention. OK, I went close-up on cropping the next shot for you. In the next photo, you can count the dog's holes; I see only 1 at attention, left center. These are around Lariat siding (love that name!) MP 632, as are the cattle that follow.

So, it's trains and civilization you want? Well, there's a "lot of nothin'" in these parts, but here's a curve just east of Arvada (did the residents migrate from greater Denver?), and then two looks back at the town itself (population 43 in 1910!), at MP 641, after we crossed the Powder River at 8:50 (foreground in third photo) and curved to the right.

We are back in civilization at Sheridan, with 17,900 population the 6th-largest city in Wyoming. Gillette, thanks to coal, is 4th with 32,000. After passing the old passenger station / division HQ, where CB&Q 4-8-4 5631 and a caboose are displayed, we stopped at the modern yard office, MP 699.6, from 10:16 to 10:22 to change crews.

Ten minutes out of Sheridan we crossed the Tongue River at MP 707.7. Not as famous in railroading as the Powder River, the Tongue River nevertheless is the proposed name for a railroad long in the planning stage, and which may never get built owing to the coal slump, which would short-cut what we are doing this day, connecting this ex-CB&Q line with the ex-NP main line in Montana.

So, we are breezing along, me in the Caritas (and my slide camera in my roomette) when the word quickly spreads — photo runby! What? On a Class 1 main line (admittedly one with little traffic, and none nearby)? Seems the local BNSF trainmaster who boarded in Sheridan is a fan, and it's his idea, so we roll to a stop at East Aberdeen (siding), MP 730.8, just 3 miles inside Montana, and proceed to unload, with the "livestock," under the guidance of passenger and photo-run veteran Bart Jennings (orange vest) trooping through the ditch and weeds to the parallel highway (watch for ticks, we're too far north for chiggers, the word is). I no longer am confident to use a step box on a slant or to walk on ballast, and have no taste to go thru high weeds, so I sit this one out. You who are perusing this album who were on the Explorers may pick yourselves out of the highway line, I'm not going to try to i.d. anyone. The photo of 5 people, however, includes passenger Lance Erickson of Iowa 2nd from left, Amtrak conductor Mandy Hammelsmith in center, and Cimarron River attendant Rick Sprung 2nd from right. The runby consumed 29 minutes, from 11:04 to 11:33.

I rode the Caritas platform as we backed up a train-length or two around a slight curve and toward a private ranch road grade crossing that would've been a better spot for a photo line, and a better light angle, with Amtrak conductor Mandy calling the safety moves to the engineer. Mandy was with us two days; she's a Denver resident who regularly runs on trains 6 and 5, the California Zephyr, to Lincoln, Neb., and back; I took her picture with her permission, and she requested copies of this operation. The engines stopped about at the "path" thru the weeds on the runby.

This run past at Aberdeen MT was taken by Phil Gosney, who kindly sent it to me on my request.

At 12:15, we crossed the Little Big Horn River for the third time, at MP 768, and as we rolled down the valley, we eyeballed highway signs and the road to the site of the battle of that name, where on June 25-26, 1876, Gen. George Custer met his demise in his "last stand."

Our run up the old CB&Q ended at Moran Jct., MP 825, at 1:17 p.m., where we entered the 1.5-mile connection that BN built when Powder River coal began moving, so as to allow loaded trains to turn east on the former Northern Pacific main line. That point is called Jones Jct., MP 210 (from Glendive, Mont.), where we stopped from 1:21 to 1:34 to change crews.

By sheer luck, our vestibule stopped positioned to perfectly frame an eastbound manifest freight waiting to follow us east to Forsyth, with two units and one of BNSF's believed two LNG tank cars as part of a fuel experiment. Lead unit 6291 and rear unit 5815 bracket LNG tank car 933501. You'll forgive the "rural Montana homestead" in the foreground.

With the sun to our rear, I was in the dome, not on the back platform, as we followed the Yellowstone River downstream to the east. It's a 692-mile stream that rises near Yellowstone Park, is joined by the Little Big Horn, then the Tongue near Miles City, then by the Powder, and flows into the Missouri River just inside North Dakota. Surprisingly, the trainmaster called for another runby, purportedly to "show the river," at a terrible location near Myers, MP 156, which took from 2:30 to 2:49. You can see as we pulled past the photographers how they had to take up precarious positions near the bottom of the bluff.

We went on east, passing a few trains, and arrived in Forsyth at 3:40, tying up on a southerly yard track at 3:55. The LNG-fueled train came in after 4 p.m., changed crews, and went on east. Many folks eventually went into town before or after our on-board supper, but it was in the 80s and I was beat, so I stayed on board and called it a night, tho I shot Forsyth's county courthouse and the apparently-now-closed Howdy Hotel from the train.

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