The Curiosity Shop

The picture is active along the line of tick marks, and above, somewhat and below. I've made links to pictures taken from various locations. There are 10 now and I may add a few more later. Run mouse along tick marks in the map for links to photos. This is a work in progress.


I walked the track from the Sticky Road toward Highway 53. The scale is my paces, each pixel is 10 paces, tick marks every 100, a longer tick mark and digit every thousand. Vertical distances are pure guesswork. I did make notes of local high and low points. These are plain enough during the day but it is VERY hard to tell if you are walking up or down at night.

Walking in from Highway 53, along the track you will encounter:

1. Very quickly you will get to a rather short trestle. The mileage sign on its north east corner reads 429.6
2. A yellow track coupling. I suspect that it is when the train is closer to the highway than that the signals are activated.
3. The graveyard , off to the south (left). The graves are quite some ways back from the track, so don't get scared. The dirt access road on the opposite side of the tracks had a lot of litter and trash when we were there, including a couple of wooden pallets. Here's a picture of Linda, my wife, standing on the track at the graveyard entrance. Highway 53 is behind her to the east.
4. Trestle with mileage sign 429.8 on north east corner.
5. Trestle with mileage sign gone from north east corner. This is the last of the first set of 3 trestles. They are all relatively close together.
6. Metal mileage pole on north of tracks that says 430.
7. Wide trail perpendicular to tracks with orange bands pointed on some of the trees.
8. Big pile of grey sand between the tracks.
9. Big pile of grey sand between and on north side of tracks. This is close to the next trestle.
10. Trestle. You can hear the running water to the south of this one. Mileage plate is gone or under brush at south east corner. This is the first of another group of three trestles.
11. Trestle without mileage sign. No brush at ends.
12. Trestle with mileage sign 430.5 on its south east corner.
13. Deer blind on telephone pole-like post on north of track. You won't be likely to find this at night.
14. Patch of white and grey gravel among the ties.
15. Another patch of white and grey gravel among the ties. At the east end (that you get to first) the rock is only on the northern half. A 2-tire-track road crosses the track near the east end of the rock. This is the top of a hill. A little past this rock patch you will no longer be able to see the lights of vehicles on highway 53, behind you. This small hill will block your view. The gravel is noticable at night if you pay attention. For a picture taken in the daytime that shows the gravel look 2 items down.
16. Deer blind in tree on north of tracks. The tree is cut off at the top of the blind. The blind has square windows. You must go 350 to 400 ties east to see highway 53. You won't be likely to find this at night.
17. Trestle with mileage sign 431.5 on its north east corner. White and grey rock is among the ties to the east of this trestle, not to the west.
18. There is a wide swath cut through the trees on either side of the track. It has lines on wooden telephone or power poles running down the middle, off to both north and south.
19. Just past the lines is grey rock among the ties. Toward the west end of the grey rock is an eighth trestle with mileage sign 432.1 on the south east corner. At this point, and well before this point, you can see traffic on the interstate unless you are at too low a spot on the tracks. When I was there, May 8, 1999, this trestle, unlike the others, had large gaps between the ties. Without a light at night you could easily fall through and get pretty messy and probably get hurt.
20. About a mile west of the last trestle is the spot under Interstate 30 where the track crosses the Sticky Road. If you decide to walk in from this end, which I would not recommend, there is parking nearby at the Big Timber Recreation Area entrance. This appears to be some sort of public land but the road is blocked for vehicles. There is room to park a couple of cars outside, however.