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D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E
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S P R I N G 2 0 2 5
These sheds, eleven in all, are strung
along the Burlington Northern's line adja-
cent to Glacier Park. They require contin-
ual repairs. In the business of shed design
there are compression anchors (downhill)
and tension anchors (uphill) that pin the
structure to steep hillsides. All need care-
ful attention and maintenance with spe-
cialized and trained Burlington Northern
crews assigned to the task.
The mammoth anchor wall of shed num-
ber 10, for instance, is 115 years old, con-
structed the same year Glacier Park was es-
tablished in 1910—before the Titanic went
down and before World War I. Its centurion concrete face has
seen a whole evolution of locomotive designs and rolling stock
concepts: steam to diesel, boxcars to container cars, wealthy
tourists to rank and file Amtrak travelers.
To look at it in the summer, it's hard to imagine there is any
snow hazard here. Uphill, a thick stand of brush and mature
trees grace the slope, hardly the look of a gouged-out avalanche
chute. Truth is, there probably isn't a need for shed number 10
anymore. Like a river that will often rechannel its flow, avalanch-
es have created other gullies and chutes to slough snow from the
heights. Then, too, snow depths have diminished in the last sev-
eral decades leaving the need for track protection to the distant
past.
Still, there it is, hulking and functional and ready for another
hundred years.
B R I N G I N G T H E F R E S H
A N D A U T H E N T I C F L A V O R
O F T H A I L A N D T O
M O N T A N A S I N C E 2 0 1 2
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