The beautiful scenery just kept up at
the same pace. Burlington Northern Santa Fe is installing a few
new
signal masts along this section.
Mr. Gunn picked up the radio channels
card and started reading off the railroad names, many of which are
fallen flags. They are names which only exist in memory and on
lots of railroad cars around the country. Chessie, Denver and Rio
Grande, Louisville and Nashville, Missouri Pacific, Southern, Southern
Pacific. He stated that they found this card while cleaning the
interior of Beech Grove. Then of course, the Empire Builder is
put into the hole and lo and behold, we meet a BNSF freight with all
green and black BN locomotives.
What do we have here? It is just an old GP-7, marked Rarus
Railway, maybe used for switching at the grain elevator.
Eventually, I ran out of battery
power for the digital camera, and
while going to take care of replacements, made my way to pay for that
beer from lunch. I apologized to Paul and said I hoped that I had
not caused any paperwork problems for him. He said that was not a
problem. We sat and chattted again for about 15 minutes.
We were getting close to Havre,
Montana, site of yet another ceremony for the Empire Builder.
BNSF has a yard there with refueling capability, which the Empire
Builder did utilize, and diesel shops. I spotted yard power and
even a large crane.
The two stops in Havre were separated by about one-quarter mile.
First was fuel, and second was the Havre Station stop with more
speeches. Shown below, left to right, Mr. Gunn speaking, Havre
Mayor Bob Rice behind Mr. Gunn, Montana Lt. Governor Karl Ohs with red
tie, and Mark Simonich, Director, Montana State Department of Commerce.
Below left, Havre Mayor Bob
Rice; Center, Barbara Keller from U.S. Montana Senator Max
Baucus' office; Right, Sarah Converse from U.S. Montana Senator Conrad
Burns' office.
Below left, Mark Simonich, Director,
Montana State Department of Commerce; below right, National Park
Service Ranger and Rails & Trails volunteers pose with Mr. Gunn.
Below left and center, another local
state
official and wife with Mr. Gunn; below right, local citizen with Mr.
Gunn.
