In the winter of 1980 The Chicago Milwaukee St Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) abandoned almost two thousand miles of track west of Miles City Montana.
The abandonment of the "Pacific Extension" was the largest single railroad abandonment in American history.
I was curious about the vehicle in this picture, so I did some investigation. I tried doing an image search, but Google kept coming back with strange results. I found a picture with a side view of the same truck and found out that it is a Bombardier Muskeg, a tracked vehicle that is probably from the 1960's. In the posted picture, there appears to be a hatch open above the windshield. Something I read said that a roof hatch was added so the driver could escape if the Muskeg were to break through ice and sink.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.smallfarmcanada.ca/columns/equipment/alternative-propulsion/
This picture is from a website detailing a trip that 2 men took on the abandoned Milwaukee Road tracks on a 1952 track speeder. There are pictures of hotels, stations, and other buildings along the tracks that they found and interesting scenery from Montana, Idaho and Washington. The caption for the posted picture says that linesmen were using the Bombardier.
http://newwww.weedroute.com/
This Flickr album shows the trip, with the pictures in reverse order.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124078743@N08/
thanks! It made no sense to me that they were using a tracked speedster, instead of a normal rail road wheeled put put speedster. I read a little of the story of the two guys out on a road trip on the rails to see that stretch of rail that was abandoned. Youth.. .. ah, the crazy stuff we did!
Delete" in early August 1980. Alan Freed was accompanied by Chuck Bothwell, a friend since high school. They both worked as Locomotive Firemen and Engineers on the Penn Central’s Chesapeake Division in the early and mid 1970’s.
DeleteA 1952 M-19 Fairmont Speeder was purchased for $400 from a scrap heap at the Maine Central Railroad Yard in Waterville, Maine, specifically to make this trip."
So, where does this tracked Bombardier come into the story, I don't know
Just looked through the Flikr album... I'll make a post later. They sure had an adventure
DeleteI think the Bombardier was being used by linesmen working along the tracks.
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