A family tradition of mine has been to go the Summit of Marias Pass every 10 years to document the change. This started in 1959, when my grandfather and father went to document the Great Northern.
Here, the eastbound Empire Builder crests Marias Pass. It will be handed off to the CB&Q in the Twin Cities.
The idea was to photograph one passenger train and one freight train each trip.
Above: A westbound GN freight wins over the pass with a trio of GP9s leading. Below: A GN caboose brings up the markers in a classic scene.
By 1969, the year of the next trip, I was old enough to come along. The biggest change is the previous decade was the 1967 debut of the "Big Sky Blue" paint scheme on the railroad's stock.
Lead by three "Big Sky Blue" and one Pullman Green and Omaha Orange F7s, the eastbound Empire Builder begins its decent toward Essex.
Other than that, not much else had changed.
Above: An eastbound reefer train slowly crests the grade. The long train had a GP9 and F7 pushing on the rear (below).
By 1979, I was old enough to replace my grandfather as the second photographer. Lots of change had happened in the last year. Not even a year after the 1969 visit, the GN had become one fourth of the Burlington Northern. Barely a year after that, Amtrak had been formed and it had finally landed on a reliable locomotive for its services. Lastly, BN had built a line into the Powder River Basin, and was lugging coal all over the system.
Six engines lead a coal train from the new Powder River Basin line (above). Pushing on the back were for new Dash locomotives with a fuel tender in the middle (below).
Our system became that I would stand at the eastend of the summit, with my father at the west. Here's his perspective of the coal train and its helpers:
Due to the slow running coal train, Amtrak's westbound Empire Builder crests Marias Pass (above). Minutes later, it begins its decent (below).
From the general freight side, trains had generally become solid lash ups of Cascade Green locomotives, but one could still find GN locos popping up now and again.
An eastbound manifest grinds to the top of the grade. A "Big Sky Blue" F7 can be seen tucked away at the back of the five locomotive lash up (above). The train soon began its decent of the east slope (below).
GP9s shove the train to the top of the mountain (above), then help with the braking as the train descends (below).
1989 saw less dramatic change, but still some. Amtrak was firmly planted in the Phase III era, BN had adopted the "White Face" scheme in an effort to reduce grade crossing collisions, as the green locomotives tended to blend in with the mountain scenery, and SD45s and F45s had become the preferred locomotives for helper duties. Intermodal also began in the 1980s, though it would not be widely embraced by BN until the 1990s.
The eastbound Empire Builder leaves the west slope behind (above) and begins its run to Cut Bank (below).
A White Face SD40-2 and two sisters crests the summit of Marias Pass (above), and begins the descent to Essex, where the helpers will cut off (below).
Two BN F45s begin there final duty with this train: Helping with the braking on the 1.8% grade to Essex (above). Even 19 years after the merger, a GN reefer could still be found on this train (below).
1999, of course, would see another round of change. The biggest? The 1995 BNSF merger. Soon, engines of the former Santa Fe could be seen lugging tonnage across the North. This era also saw the rise of Three Phase A.C. traction, which would manifest itself in BNSF's eventual large fleet of SD70MAC locomotives, something it would keep from BN. It would keep Santa Fe's philosophy of high-horsepower GE's for general freight service. This decade also saw the introduction of GE GENESIS locomotives on Amtrak trains, as well as the Phase IV liveries on the coaches and Phase V on the locos. By now, my own daughter came along to watch the train with us.
With two F40PH's and one Genesis leading, the eastbound Empire Builder cuts through the fog as it summits Marias Pass (above) and begins its decent (below).
BNSF would cement Marias Pass as a grain corridor, as evidenced by a westbound grain train led by a lash up featuring locos from Santa Fe, BN, and BNSF passing the Marias Pass sign at Summit (above) and begining its decent toward Whitefish (below).
The helper set also featured an eclectic mix of engine, seen here at the top (above), and beginning their decent (below).
Our last trip, in 2009, saw my daughter become our third photographer, allowing my father to persue some more experimental shots. Beyond that, BNSF had begun amassing its large roster of GEVO's. BNSF had also given up helper operations in favor of distributed power. Lastly, Amtrak was firmly planted in the Phase V era.
The westbound Empire Builder rolls to the Summit of Marias Pass (above), and begins its decent (below).
A zoomed in shot of an eastbound stack train my father took.
An eastbound stack train crests the top of the grade, led a pair of GEVO's and a Dash 9 (above), and starts the descent, bound for the Heartland (below).
My father's shot of the DPUs.
The trains DPU's push the stack train over the summit (above) and begin to help ease the train down the east slope (below).
And that is really it. It's another four years to go before we head back. I can't wait to see what it all will look like in 2019!
Thanks for reading guys. Again, leave a suggestion if you'd like to see this kind of thing on other routes, and I'll see you next time or on the Workshop. Keep on 'fannin'!
Announcements:
If any of you live in the Midwest, you know it has been pretty humid around here lately. However, the humidity finally broke the other day. Coinciding with this fact, I saw on heritageunits.com (I encourage anyone in North America to at least follow it) that SP 177, one of several Sothern Pacific AC4400CW's that have yet to be repainted, was heading east toward me. I headed out soon after. I had to wait an hour and half, but I got it! Here's the photo:
It's currently the picture of SP177 on Heritage Units.
One other thing: if any of you have played my "Track 3 Geeps" scenario on the Workshop, I'm planning on doing a sequel of sorts. It may already be out by the time you read this, but keep an eye out.
That's it, see you next time! - agsieg