BN SD40-2 7259Belmont Tunnel NE Belmont Tunnel

With dynamic brakes howling, BN 7259 and four GE motors work their way down through the sharp curves of Crawford Hill when it was still single track. Even at this time, grading was being done to create a double track route through a short but tough mountain obstacle to the movement of Wyoming coal. On this day, it was hot, dry and dusty, and the brakeman on 7259 had his cab door open to catch some sort of a breeze on the way down the hill. This train delivered its load to Cajun Electric Power in Louisiana and is headed back to one of the many coal mines in the Powder River Basin of eastern Wyoming for another load.