Judging from the scenery, I’d say the Black Hills of S.D. But, you’d point out that you’ve never been there, and neither has Amtrak.[:o)]
Could be only one of three routes, either the transcon thru the sierra’s or the starlight route or the old NP Empire Builder route in Washington?
Hmmmm…FP40… not many of them around, BN green machine on the nose…has to be somewhere on the Empire Builder route… So that could be Washinton Montana or Idaho… Hmmmmmm
Inside Gateway near Gilchrist. Coast Starlight rerout or that one of the RR club run Specials out of Eugene to Chemult, to Bend and then to Portland.
It’s a regular train on a normal route.
Bellemont. 
Or Maine.
The only places that I know of that have that kind of soil, vegatation and topography and a regularly schedueled AMTK train are between Kirk and Willamette Pass and over Grass Lake. But why would those locations have a BN unit helping out when those are (now UP) SP routes? If not the Inside Gateway, then the choices are between that area between O’dell and Crescent Lakes and just north of Grass Lake.
I think I would choose the latter.
Eric, It’s not in Oregon.
Silicon212, I have stated here earlier that I have never been back east and these are all my pictures. That’s why I call this WESTERN where is it. So for future referance it will be a western state (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, California, and Arizona)
The Black Hills are in WESTERN S.D.[:-,] Does that count?
Sorry, never been to the Dakotas. Livingston,Mt. is about as close as I have been to SD.
Sorry, Chad, Bellemont and Maine are both west of Flagstaff on the BNSF transcon.
Sorry, My bad, I didn’t know that. It’s not Arizona.
Well, if it’s not Oregon, it needs to be downwind of a volcanic area, perhaps … …
perhaps between Sandpoint and Spokane on the old NP line?
Eric, You got it. It’s a few miles west of Sandpoint on the Funnel. Good job. But why do you say this is down wind of a volcano?
Volcanic soil.
St. Helens, Rainer, Baker, and Adams, all active volcanos, are up wind for starters. Entire Columbia Plateau is lava layers several thousand feet thick. Yellowstone, if the wind is blowing out of the south (which it does a fair bit is close by, and that soil is volcanic ash based. Knowledge that sorta comes from living in the “area” (Pacific Northwest in Idaho, Oregon and Washington) for about 50 or 60 years. Little things.[:D][:-^]
Hmm… was about to guess Idaho…bit late now…
Eric,
So you’re saying that you could tell by the ash content in the dirt? Good eye. Where abouts do you live? I lived in Stevenson,Wa. for about 4 years.