An eastbound BNSF Q-train snakes around the cliffs along the Missouri River at Lombard, Montana, on the morning of July 2, 2017. The train is passing Milwaukee Road’s Pacific Extension bridge over the river that once also passed over MRL’s main line. It is also the location of the ghost town of Lombard, where at one time both Milwaukee and Northern Pacific had depots here, as well as an interchange track between the two. The isolated place had all the usual trappings of a normal town—a general store, a post office (closed in 1957), a school and a hotel, as well as plenty of dwellings for all the railroaders that once worked there. Now, all you hear are birds singing along Sixteen Mile Creek, occasional trains on the MRL and the silence of an abandoned railroad.
