Meet me at Moran (Jct.)
The crew of the waiting empty gets ready to provide a roll-by for the loaded train coming off the Big Horn Sub. Although the loads are on the wye, the two tracks run parallel for the better part of a mile before the connection splits off and makes the turn that will redirect the train roughly 170 degrees to go east on the Forsyth Sub.
Like many trains bound for points east on the old NP, this is the westernmost point of their journey. In the halcyon days of boom coal there was an effort to build the "Tongue River Railroad" between branchline endpoints of Decker and Colstrip and shave many miles off such trips. Such a shortcut would have rendered the Jones Jct. connection pretty quiet, perhaps even rusty and idle? Ultimately, the Tongue River line never got off the drawing board and coal's peak ebbed rendering it a historical footnote. September 7, 2023.
Meet me at Moran (Jct.)
The crew of the waiting empty gets ready to provide a roll-by for the loaded train coming off the Big Horn Sub. Although the loads are on the wye, the two tracks run parallel for the better part of a mile before the connection splits off and makes the turn that will redirect the train roughly 170 degrees to go east on the Forsyth Sub.
Like many trains bound for points east on the old NP, this is the westernmost point of their journey. In the halcyon days of boom coal there was an effort to build the "Tongue River Railroad" between branchline endpoints of Decker and Colstrip and shave many miles off such trips. Such a shortcut would have rendered the Jones Jct. connection pretty quiet, perhaps even rusty and idle? Ultimately, the Tongue River line never got off the drawing board and coal's peak ebbed rendering it a historical footnote. September 7, 2023.