The Bonner Local - Spring 2008

The Last Spring: MRL's Bonner Local Serving the Stimson Lumber Co. April 2008

Photos and Story By Justin Franz

Railroads Illustrated Magazine, Montana Rail Link News, June 2008.

"On Tuesday, March 18, officials of Stimson Lumber Co. notified employees at its Bonner mill they had 60-Days left before a shutdown that is feared to be its last. The mill had been shutdown earlier this year but was reopened in early March. Over a 100-employees will be laid-off when the mill closes in May, concluding Bonner’s history as a mill town that stretches back to the 1880’s. Montana Rail Link dispatches a local from Missoula to Bonner five-days a week and Stimson is the predominant customer, yet in recent years traffic from the mill has dropped dramatically. Whether the Bonner Local will continue to run after the shut down is unknown."

I wrote that small story that led off the RRI News Column over a year ago now. If I remember right it was just a few days before Spring Break in March of 2008 that the headline of the Missoulian read "Stimson To Shut Down." It was a shock to the area, that such a major employer was to go under and it was a shock to railfans that Montana Rail Link would not serve the Mill anymore, just as the railroad had done since its start up in 1987, and the Burlington Northern and Milwaukee Road before that. All the sudden my Spring Break plans became quite simple - Shoot that local .

The following Monday I headed east with the local to Bonner and shot it switch the mill, unfortunately by the time they departed the sun was behind a cloud for "the shot" of them leaving. On two other occasions I would try with no success to get the shot in sun, until late April that the combination of sun and shot came to be. The results can be seen at the top of the post.

However it wasn't that shot that would end up being my favorite.

60 Days Notice: An old switch lock secures the gate to the Bonner, Montana lumber mill owned by Stimson Lumber Co. and servered by Montana Rail Link. Last week, Stimson gave its employees 60 days notice of what will likely be a final shut down for the mill, ending years of rail service by the Milwaukee Road, Burlington Northern and todays Montana Rail Link.

After the local had left on that first day I stuck around and shot this and that. For some reason the lock on the gate caught my eye. With the tracks leading into the distance to an empty log yard it seemed to tell the whole story. My Photo-J teacher at the time here at the University of Montana agreed and I got an A for the assignment.

In the end the mill would hold on until Summer, after I had returned home at the end of the semester. However the story still had to be told and it was....

Railroads Illistrated Magazine, Montana Rail Link News, October 2008.

"Done. Montana Rail Link GP35 403 powered what will likely be one of the last locals to serve the Stimson Lumber Company on the afternoon of July 29, 2008. With only two cars, BNSF 564146 and 564152 billed for a Home Depot in Dayton, New Jersey, the train left the mill and ended over a century long relationship between the railroad and lumber industry in Bonner. Stimson has put the mill and land up for sale at $16-million, yet if a buyer is not found for everything before September 30th, all mill equipment will be placed up for auction, leaving only the land."