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Day 8 - Livingston MT to Helena MT

Off to Helena today, the state capital. I really wanted to chase a train there, but had a feeling we would be following the usual quiet-morning, busy-afternoon routine and there wouldn't be much to chase. On the off chance I drove east a wee bit to see if anything was coming, but it was all quiet. I pulled over and read my book for a while and watched the ice flow down the river.

Decided nothing was happening and went back to the road. After Bozeman things opened up and there were some big flat plains. At Townsend I fuelled up and watched a truck getting filled from a grain elevator. I was surprised at how fast the grain came out, it was like a firehose, but for grain.

I soon arrived in Helena and had a look around. All quiet at the station and MRL yard. Not quite as nice a setup as at Livingston, bit harder to get to. The helpers lay basking in the brief patch of sun.

Day 7 - Bozeman Pass

Woke up to find it snowing! Not heavily mind you, just a very light dusting that fluttered around in the breeze.

I lay in bed keeping an eye on the yards seeing if anything was happening. A couple of downhill trains came through, including a "no grainer" (empty BNSF grain train). A while later I heard some noise and saw a pair of MRL GP35s heading off, and a few minutes later they started tugging a string of wagons out of the yard. I figured this might be a manifest heading up the hill so went out to watch it. Turns out it was just shuttling around the yard, so I sat and watched for a while. They radioed in and headed off up the wye and then didn't come back. Went off to investigate and found them nearly at the end of the wye "spotting" an industry siding.

I went and watched and got a friendly wave as the snow flakes fell.

The GP35s are quite handsome locos and look good in the M...

Day 6 - West Yellowstone to Livingston, MT

Nothing like starting the day at –19°C! I had a little sleep in and since the heater was working tonight, it was much easier to get up in the morning. Packed and drove off slowly to give the car time to warm up. Drove out to the north, passing through a nice river valley.

Things then opened up as I approached Four Corners. Soon I was passing through Bozeman and then onto familiar teritory as I zoomed along I90 over Bozemand Pass. I was shocked at how little snow there was here; last year it had been well and truely blanketed in the stuff. This year there were just little patches of surface snow in the shadows.

I arrived in Livingston and did the rounds. Montana Rail Link workshops were looking pretty bare, however I was pleased to see that there were still helper units sitting around.

It seems the 5 packs of SD40s have been replaced with SD70ACe-SD40-SD70ACe combos. A...

Day 5 - Yellowstone National Park

3:30am NZ time my alarm goes off, and it's well well well below freezing here in West Yellowstone National Park. I showered, shaved, got rugged up real warm, had a bite to eat and was almost done when I heard a big rumbling outside and mere seconds later a knock on my door. The snow coach had arrived!

I climbed in and we set off. Since I was first to be collected I got the front seat which was extra fun cos I was always first off and had the best view. We collected the rest of the group and set off at a blazing crawl for Yellowstone National Park. There was a thick fog out and it was somewhere in the region of –15 to -20°C!

Yellowstone is the world's first national park, and covers a large chunk of northwestern Wyoming (and a little bit of Montana and Idaho). It's geologically very active with numerous springs, geysers, warm patches and so forth. For some reason, despite not being near any plate boundaries, it is a...

Day 4 - Wells, NV to West Yellowstone, MT

Pewwww smelly motels. There used to be a time where I could tolerate them, but my patience has worn thin and now I die a little inside each time I spend a night in a smelly motel. This one was ok, however the bedding smelled musty and the pillows were positively gruesome, all limp and floppy and musty. Yum yum. So that coupled with the local that decided to warm up his pickup at 6am by revving it repeatedly for 5 minutes, meant I was up pretty early and on the road unfashionably early.

I had a quick snoop around some of my previous hunting spots but no trains were to be seen, which is a shame as the scenery was looking stunning!

I hopped on the road and was soon driving along an endless road towards the Idaho border. I passed some weird rocks there were big and round and just piled up all over the land scape. Looking back there were some stunning views of the ranges.

I stopped at...