A railroad inspector was forced to stop his track truck Friday morning near Butte when he came across three mountain lion kittens on the tracks.

It wasn't that the animals were waiting to jump the next westbound freight train to Missoula. Rather, the eight-week old kittens had become frozen to the rails in the frigid morning air.

Pat O'Rourke, an employee of the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad, was inspecting the main line 12 miles west of Butte when he spotted something odd on the tracks.

"I saw stuff in front of me," O'Rourke said Saturday night. "I thought it was a deer that got hit by a train or something."

O'Rourke was surprised to find three kittens on the tracks instead. The young mountain lions had crossed Silver Bow Creek in the 10-degree air before walking onto the steel rails.

O'Rourke said one kitten was frozen to the track on its back. Another was frozen to a railroad spike by its paw and its belly also was frozen to the rail. The third kitten was frozen to a second set of tracks by the tail.

"I tried to approach them with a shovel and give them a little prod," O'Rourke said. "I couldn't figure out... I thought they were just born."

When O'Rourke couldn't move the kittens with a shovel and realized they were frozen to the tracks, he tried pouring his thermos of coffee on one kitten's paw, hoping it would free the animal from the icy trap. That didn't work either.

"They kept licking their paws, and the more they licked, the more stuck they got," O'Rourke said. "It seemed like every time they moved one thing, something else got stuck."

The sound of the screaming kittens roused their mother who was watching the spectacle from a nearby ridge. The roar of the angry female mountain lion spooked O'Rourke back into his track-truck.

Debbie Lewis, a TipMont License Fraud Coordinator with FWP, took O'Rourke's call that morning.

Lewis contacted Marty Vook, a game warden with Montana's Fish, Wildlife and Parks, who arrived on the scene with hot water. When the kittens finally ran free, O'Rourke said, they left patches of hair on the steel tracks.

"(O'Rourke) said the kittens were all teeth and claws," Lewis said. "They actually held the train back to keep from running over the kittens."

O'Rourke said the kittens were exhausted by the ordeal.

"They weren't real healthy when they left," he said. "But the warden said that was their best chance."

Now O'Rourke's co-workers are calling him the "Lion King." He said he doesn't mind the prodding. He was just happy to help the young mountain lions out of their jam.

Martin Kidston can be reached at 447-4086, or by e-mail at mkidston@helenair.com.