Might as well start a thread for GN videos. Here's some priceless, unobtanium, unrepeatable footage of an RDC on the Helena-Butte line in the 1950s.
This outta' be "Great"! Wow, that's a real beauty of a find right there! Isn't this the old GN trackage that's torn up now?
It's been gone for decades. Best I can find was pulled up after the BN merger in 1972, but I'd love to find a solid source. In part, the BN merger made it redundant, and Butte area mines wanted to extract ore laying under the ROW.
It was a victim of the many irrationalizations made by BN. Only a short section between Helena and Montana City remains, to serve a cement plant.
Was there sufficient traffic to support operations after the BN merger? Did the merger add traffic? I don't see how such a circuitous line and 2.2% grades would have been viable for long. I found a map that traces the abandoned lines across the country--not sure how accurate it is, as it is crowdsourced, and subject to inaccuracies, especially where development and the interstate have wiped out the original ROWs. https://www.frrandp.com/p/the-map.html
From Trainorders.com: Big Sandy to Fort Benton abandoned 10/1/1983. East Helena to Montana City sold to MRL 10/30/1987. Montana City to Basin abandoned 8/15/1982. Basin to Butte abandoned 1/20/1972.
This is a different line segment from the Helena to Butte branch line discussion. It was part of their route between Great Falls and Havre. However it was a mistake. It took away a freight shortcut, and also prevents any resumption of passenger travel via Great Falls. I have heard and read mentions of those who'd wish to have a new "Western Star". This was it's route. Now any freight traffic coming out of Great Falls, to go eastward on the Hi-Line must go west to Shelby, before it can even start eastward. And vice-versa. Anyone wishing to catch Amtrak, from Great Falls, faces a convenient 170 mile round trip. Not that BNSF cares about passenger travel...
The few times my wife took Amtrak from GTF, it included an 89 mile drive to Shelby one way, so I understand the struggle. I do understand the subject segment is different, but I was tired and just copy/pasted the whole chunk of data...
The Lively World of Great Northern: Vol 1: Vol 2: A 4-vid series in the Washington Cascades, and aboard GN's name trains:
Call me old fashioned - the Big Sky Blue scheme for GN never 'did it' for me. The Orange and Green 'Empire Builder' scheme is GN and nothing else.
Saw plenty of it, and I never cared for it. On many engines and rolling stock, it weathered poorly. Quickly lost the gloss and turned to a oxidized appearance. Bleh. For me, it signaled the end of the classy post-WWII passenger era.
Any paint scheme that isn't 'maintained' will succumb to weathering. Slower for Northern roads than for Southern roads. The Southern Sun does more damage quicker than does the Northern Sun that gets obscured more often by clouds and other weather conditions that happen in the North more frequently than in the South. The ACL champion purple weathered quickly and badly.
I'll take the weathering of the 60s and 70s paint schemes any day and twice on Sunday compared to the thrashed neglect of today's...