This location on the MRL (Montana Rail Link) is Kootenai at MP 116.9 in the 4th Sub.
All five of our layover days, Oct 11 and 21 in Sandpoint, and Oct 15,16,17 in Billings, included Operation Lifesaver presentations to local schoolchildren. Bob Vanderbeck, PRPA crew member and certified OL presenter, estimated that our presentations reached 410 children, ranging in age from 5 to 16, in Sandpoint and 380 children and 25 adults at Billings.
Following the OL presentation, each group was then escorted over to the locomotive and given an explanation of the locomotive and time to ask questions. After 4 full days of this, Bob's voice was giving out and he enlisted Don Matlock to be the explainer on the 21st.
The above information on this page was excerpted from an article
written by Bob Vanderbeck
in the Feb 2003 issue of the PRPA newsletter "Whistle Up the Columbia".
Besides Ray Jackson of Rathdrum, Idaho who did the OL presentations
at Sandpoint, Bob thanked in his article the following:
Everett Cutter, Oregon OL Coordinator
Rick Flink, Montana OL Coordinator
Joe Pierce, Billings area OL Coordinator, Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office.
Roy Harper, BNSF, Wyoming Director of Grade Crossing Safety
Rod Freid, MRL, Laurel