Day 9 - Mullan Pass

After seeing the Austin Trestle yesterday I decided that I wanted to go back and see it again, this time from some more impressive angles. So I packed up all my gear and headed for Birdseye Road. Threaded my way down the icy snowy road and parked where I wouldn't be in any of my photos. Noticed fresh tracks up the hillside… and not human tracks either. Could've been a deer. Or something more carniverous!

I made my way up to the top of the hillside and scoped out a few positions. I was annoyed to find that it was very very windy up here and not nearly as peacceful as it had been yesterday. It also meant I couldn't hear the trains coming.

Around 12 I had my first visitor:

I went and explored a few more positions and ended up high on a bluff looking over the trestle. Without knowing if I was shooting east or west bound trains it was hard to choose a location.

The next train was an east bound BNSF manifest, luckily I was in a good spot to catch him.

Then a mere 10 minutes later another train burst onto the scene, this time a BNSF earth worm (so named because the train is long and brown like a worm, it's actually a grain train)

Something then went wrong with the train in front and a line side defect detector went off, so the earth worm stopped next to me for a while. Soon it was sorted though and the continued down the hill.

Next up was a BNSF wind turnbine train, full of blades for wind turbines. A rather odd load. Only got video of this one, no photos.

Then there was a very long wait. I read my book, then finished my book. I had managed to find a comfortable rock to snuggle up into, but it was still very windy, and the temperature was below freezing. I eventually gave up and clambered down. About 10 minutes later another east bound came through, so I drove out and caught him at the bottom of the hill. The sun was rapidly fading though and so what had been a nice shot ended up very plain.

I drove out and tried a few different spots but couldn't find any that worked, so gave up and did a crossing shot.

Unfortunately I lost him on the way out, getting caught on the wrong side of the crossing, so I had to settle for a trainless shot instead.

Went down to Helena and saw another train coming in. Helena is a bit difficult to get anywhere near the railway, so had to settle for a far away shot.

Went and got dinner, then back to the motel and into bed. Was a bit annoyed that I'd spent all day up on a hillside trying to stay warm and hadn't got the shots I wanted, or any really killer video. I guess that's the way it goes sometimes though with these trains; they're very unpredictable sometimes!