Back in February 2024 I had written about a trip I made through Miles City, MT on my way to Glendive.  I was actually on my way to Mandan/Bismarck, ND to get photos of the former NP Missouri River bridge.  It took me a few days to get there from Billings, MT but there was a LOT to see and places I wanted to stop and visit.

One of those places was Shirley, MT..  Shirley is mentioned in the 1964 Northern Pacific Railway record album In the song “Shake Hands with the eastern crowd” so naturally the place meant something to the NP to get its name mentioned in a song.  There really is not much to see at Shirley, MT.  Pretty much just a railroad siding.

But first some info on Shirley.  Located on NP’s Yellowstone Division, on the Third Subdivision between Forsyth and Glendive, MT

Note that Shirley is Milepost 59 (59.7 miles west of Glendive) while Forsyth is MP 123.  And in the NP Place Names Eng Dept files:

Shirley [Ainslie, Tilly], Custer County, Montana

The station was originally named Tilly. It was established in 1882. Prior to May, 1883, the name was changed to Ainslie. This name being in honor of Samuel K. Ainslie, who was superintendent of the Yellowstone Division of the Northern Pacific in 1892. The name was changed to Shirley on November 1, 1891. The new name being in honor of Mr. Ainslie’s daughter. It is also said to be from the name of the daughter of a rancher, a Mr. Beffell who lives near Benz. The agent at [Billings has?] information that the station was named after an officer, under General Miles or [General] Custer who was stationed near here for some time. However, [] of the Montana Historical Society writes that no officer named Shirley is listed in the Army Register from 1876 to 1903, which indicates there was no officers of that name in the vicinity during these years. Corresp.

There is pretty much nothing on Shirley, MT on the internet.

While there isn’t much to see or do in Shirley I have stopped by there a few times, including August 4, 2019.

New East Shirley, MT siding switch and BNSF bungalow.  The siding here had been extended further east.

The new east switch at Shirley.

Bridge 57.9 just east of the east switch.

Stormy skies and an old highway bridge east of Shirley.

More stormy skies off in the distance.

BNSF 6547 West at East switch Shirley with a train of  empty flatcars.

Flatcars passing by and the rear of the westbound train.

Another look at the new east switch and signals at Shirley at Milepost 58.0.

I thought this was interesting, a mix of wood and concrete ties.

And finally new and old propane tanks at the east end of Shirley.  The old rusty tank sure looks like it’s been there awhile.

With that it was back to the car and time to continue east headed towards Glendive for the night.  (with a few more stops before arriving there).

BNSF 8258 West with units 8258/9260/9255 make the turn from the former Northern Pacific main line at Sarpy Jct, MT heading to the mine for reloading on 7-11-06.  Curious about the two mines along the former Northern Pacific between here and Forsyth, MT I asked for information on the Montana Railfans group on Facebook and got this great reply from Mark Meyers which answers a lot of questions:.

The Colstrip branch (from Nichols, west of Forsyth) was built by the NP originally to tap coal reserves to power steam locomotives. The Sarpy branch from Sarpy Jct. extends 36 miles south to the Absaloka mine (railroad station name: Kuehn). The mine opened in 1974, and the track was built about the same time. Now owned by Westmoreland coal, the mine shipped its last car of coal in April of this year although the mine is not officially shut down. Originally, the switch at Sarpy Jct. only opened east, but in 2013 a west leg of the wye was constructed to allow loaded coal trains to operate west (to export at Roberts Bank, BC). This business was short-lived, and now the line faces abandonment because the Absaloka mine was its raison d’etre. On the other hand, the track might not immediately be pulled up – the Colstrip branch, for instance, has only been used for intermittent car storage for years – no coal train business. All the coal mined at Colstrip goes to the nearby power plants.

More info from Mark below:

From another source: The Sarpy Creek line was built in 1973, in anticipation of the mine opening in 1974 and didn’t appear in a timetable until the 09/15/1974 Billings Region. One quirky bit of trivia was that the Sarpy Line (the 14th subdivision of the Yellowstone Division) had one intermediate siding between Sarpy Jct. and Kuehn, named “Bob.” Between Sarpy Jct. and Bob, there was an industry track at station “Mike,” and between Bob and Kuehn, an industry track at station “Walt.” Both Mike and Walt had a capacity of only 7 cars (obviously for setting out bad orders), while Bob was a 7,400-foot siding. I can’t remember who these guys were, but I believe they were all BN company officers at the time the line was constructed. Today, the line is BNSF’s Sarpy Line subdivision, and Bob is no longer with us, but Mike and Walt still show as industry tracks. And of course Walt is not to be confused with Walter, a siding installed on the Laurel subdivision near Broadview (north of Laurel) to accommodate coal traffic and from the Signal Peak coal mine. Walter is named for Walter Breuning, who was world’s oldest man. Breuning worked for the Great Northern Railway for 49 years until age 66 and actually saw James J. Hill and is probably one of the few railroaders to get more out of Railroad Retirement than paid in. He was just short of his 113th birthday when the siding was commemorated in 2009, and he passed away in 2011 at age 114, the oldest man in the world, and third oldest person (two women were older).

In September 1983 I made a trip to Kentucky to check out Seaboard System and search for former L&N U25B’s.  During that trip I would basically stumble onto Chessie System power on transfers ariiving and departing the Decoirsey, KY SBD yard which was former L&N.

On my arrival 9-17-83 my first photo was of a loaded coal train at Covington, KY headed towards Decoursey wearing Family Lines painted power up front.  As it slowed to a stop a set of lite Chessie power came up alongside it.  The two units were C&O 3027/C&O 8232

The lead unit was built as C&O GP30 3027in August of 1963 in C&O blue and yellow paint later getting the Chessie paint.seen here.

Second was C&O B30-7 8292 from the series 8235-8298 built in 1981.

The 8292 was later repainted as CSX 5574  First just blue and gray:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4671957

And then the standard CSX blue and gray with a yellow nose.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2109479

At Decoursey yard I found a number of off road cabooses in different paint scheme including B&O bay window caboose 903942

B&O 903942 was five years old being built in 1978 and delivered in this paint scheme.  This was the extent of finding Chessie System at the beginning of the trip.

On my return to Cincinnatti for my flight home I stopped once again at Decoursey and found a Chessie System cab hop departing the yard behind B&O GP9 6669 anc C&O caboose 903295.

B&O GP9 6669 was built in 1956 as Chesapeake & Ohio GP9 6120.  Same blue and yellow as Baltimore and Ohio but with C&O lettering.

The caboose was built as C&O 903295 in 1968 and first wore C&O blue and yellow before the Chessie System paint..

After these photos I then made my way to Cincinnati and the airport for my flight home to Seattle.  I was not expecting to photograph any Chessie this trip but of course now I wish I had spent more time with the railroad that had a “sleeping cat” as it’s mascot.

Back in February 1995 I planned a trip flying into Phoenix, AZ with plans to spend around a week near Flagstaff on the Santa Fe, El Paso, TX on the Southern Pacific and finally a day at Hayden, AZ on the Copper Basin.  Easy to understand the first two but why Hayden you ask?  My goal there was to try and find a GP9, a former Northern Pacific GP9.  The Copper Basin had a GP9 numbered 204 that was ex-BN 1704, built as NP 204.  The 204 was purchased to work the joint NP/UP Camas Prairie lines in Idaho.  Nice CBRY renumbered it back to its original NP number!

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This is a continuation of a post I made way back on 4-22-21 of a trip  to the ex-NP in Montana east of Billings in August 2019.  Three parts from Billings as far as Hathaway have already been posted so here is a continuation of that story.

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It seems that I do not make November trips out of Washington state that often.  Perhaps to Montana but that is pretty much it.  Bad weather and shorter daylight probably has a lot to do with that.

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From my home in Yakima, WA it a little over two hours to drive to Pendleton, OR.  My cousin Michelle was born there so that’s my tie to Pendleton but I never really stopped long enough in all my trips to the Blue Mountains to take a look at the town on my way there.  On 6-21-23 I finally made a trip to Oregon, however not to the Blue Mountains but to Pendleton to take a look at what I had skipped for so many years.

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Straying just a bit from the USA Railfanning theme here to mention the passing of legendary Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023) who passed away at age 84 in Toronto, Ontario Canada this past Monday May 1, 2023.

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Back in February of 1995 I made a trip to Arizona and photographed both the SP and Santa Fe.

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I always thought this photo cried out “Halloween” Continue reading →