Whitefish, MT.

[funnelfan]

I passed through Whitefish today and found a few new things, but not much in the way of trains unfortunately.

1. As many know, the old GN depot has been restored by dedicated Museum members.

2. But they've added a gem of a find to the site, here is a clue.

3. I'm not sure how long this statue has been here, I never noticed it before myself.

4. Makes for a good photo-prop though. It's right near the tracks too, so I'll have to keep that in mind if any H1 painted units are leading.

[funnelfan]

5-7. The real find was this ex-GN bus that was located in a Great Falls Scrap Yard. As you can tell, it looks great and will prove to be a useful photo-prop as well.

8. A whitefish icon more people are familiar with.

[funnelfan]

Both UP and BNSF are getting a early start at the Thanksgiving shutdown, so train traffic was way off from normal. The crew of the H-CSXPAS was in near shock when they learned the dispatcher was going to roll out the green carpet with good signals all the way "from Whitefish through the Tunnel (Flathead Tunnel)". I caught the train at Lupfer and followed it back to Spokane. Snow covered the pass above the tunnel and made the single lane road up there a bit slick, but otherwise OK. The westbound had near rolling meets with the Z-SSECHC at Wolf Prairie and the Q-SSECHC at Tamarack. It then had a rolling meet with a M-PASDIL at Bonners Ferry on double track and meet a unknown train at Naples and a 7500' long S-TCBCHC at Elmira. I left it behind there.

[Facing West]

Pretty cool bus, a new addition since my last trip through there last year. Any reason for why the jacks are under the axles? I also seems the right duals are off the ground. Is the asphalt slab on a bad slope?

[trainkid]

great pics ted!

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Facing West

Pretty cool bus, a new addition since my last trip through there last year. Any reason for why the jacks are under the axles? I also seems the right duals are off the ground. Is the asphalt slab on a bad slope?

The jacks are common in car museums. It's not uncommon for tires to leak, especially older tires and/or older rims. By taking the load off of the tires by using the jacks, the tires can leak air without the vehicle tilting due to a flat tire.

(One year and one month later you get a reply. What is this, Microsoft tech support?)

[AC4400CW]

I recognize most of that from MSTS, lol!

[wigwagfan]

The Rocky statue used to be located on U.S. 93 near the MT 40 junction - at the south end of Whitefish - at a planned business park, named the "Great Northern Business Park". IIRC, when I lived there (2000-2003) the park was undeveloped.

Not sure what happened with the land (was it sold/redeveloped; I haven't been to Whitefish since 2004) but the statue has found a new and respectable home.