Into Shadows and Purple Haze


It's a perfect summer day in 2004 as the Milwaukee's former mainline pushes west past Jefferson Island (MP 1474).  On this early summer day, the grasses are still mostly green, the sky a Kodachrome Blue, and the line-side poles still mark the way west along with remains of overhead catenary.  The Rockies await just a few miles beyond, shrouded in a purple haze that hides their splendor and size.  Beneath these big skies, even the Rockies seem small.

Only 15 miles separate these two photos.  The first, near Jefferson Island at MP 1474.  The second, near Vendome, MT at MP 1489.  The former path of the transcon is clear even in the shifting sands of years that have long passed by.  


The Milwaukee Road ventures into one of the rain shadows of its path West here.  On the east side of the Rockies and Pipestone Pass, the land is parched for much of the year.  The vast State of Montana resembles more of a high desert here than the rich and productive Golden Triangle where wheat grows miles to the northeast.  Today, BNSF moves 100 car unit grain trains out of those fields.  These are filled by enormous concrete silos housing the State's grain, but that's not the way it used to be.  Though the summer days are long in this part of the country, the years are short: Federal Yellow hoppers and Ribside boxcars used to be common sightings in the movement of wheat toward ports on the west coast.  In 1977, this traffic accounted for about 11% of the total tonnage moved west of Miles City [1]. 

Now, everything including the transcon itself just vanish into that consuming purple haze.

References:
1)  Sol, M.  "Cars and Tonnage West of Miles City"  http://milwaukeeroadarchives.com/EconomicStudies/EconomicStudies.htm

Comments

oamundsen@aol.com said…
Leland, you have not lost your touch! I love the "purple haze" as the ultimate destination of it all and having spent much time east of the Rockies, with the big sky, it does hint of eternity. Good to see your work once again. Thanks.
8/31/2017 05:54:00 AM
SDP45 said…
Are some of the poles knocked over in the first photo?

Dan
9/11/2017 08:31:00 PM
Anonymous said…
The drive up & around the loop to tunnel #10 is fantastic! Fish Creek trestle is gone but its a nice hike from Cedric to the footings.
10/13/2017 02:28:00 PM
Unknown said…
Those "Federal Yellow" Milwaukee Road covered hopper cars were iconic of that series. The former Pullman plant in Pennsylvania boasts an iconoic memory of freight car production there, a Milwaukee Road PS-2 covered hopper car. A work of art. "In 2011 the BTA (Butler Transit Auth) moved a covered hopper railcar to the bus terminal in recognition of the former Pullman-Standard plant. The car was built at the facility in 1974." https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6240/6338371167_2d37b2fafe_z.jpg

11/13/2017 07:15:00 PM
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