Re: St. Maries River RR operations
Author: Bruce Kelly
Date: 05-09-2014 - 10:16
Trip to Plummer is normally M-W-F, though I believe they still work the St. Maries mills M-F. Departure for Plummer can be anywhere from late morning to mid afternoon. Call them, and depending on who answers and how you present yourself, they'll usually be happy to tell you when they're leaving. Show up early in the day and you can catch them making two round trips to the old Regulus mill east of town (one to pull loads, one to spot empties), giving you multiple photo opportunities with one of the SW1200s, including at the bridge over the St. Maries River. They usually switch the Potlatch mill mid to late morning, and by the time they're headed back to the yard, they'll call for one of the "apes" (their word) to fire up the Geeps. Despite whatever you may have read or heard elsewhere, the train to Plummer is still called The Switcher, even though it's using Geeps. They rarely do the interchange at the highway underpass east of Plummer anymore; it's more often a headlight meet with UP's Plummer Turn at Plummer Jct. STMA talks on 160.275. UP will call them on that freq to ask where they're at.