The westbound Montana Rail Link Laurel-Missoula manifest splits the cut approaching Austin Creek Viaduct. The train is making good time up Mullan Pass, and has no helper this afternoon.

A Montana Rail Link ballast train rumbles through scenic Jefferson River Canyon between Sappington and Whitehall, Montana, on June 26, 2019. Led by SD45 No. 346, the train running on MRL’s Fifth... (more)

Powered by Montana Rail Link GP9 No. 109 and SD40-2 No. 250, MRL’s Helena switch zips over Winston Hill with two cars for the cement plant in Townsend following a BNSF coal train into the darken... (more)

Cutting between the mighty Clark Fork River and the smaller but still beautiful Smiley Slough, the Day Gas finally hits the sunshine as they approach Plains.

MRL 250 ready to depart back to Helena after switching at Montana City.

Approaching the small town of Superior, MT (famous for the last remaining, albeit removed, semaphores on the MRL) the Night Gas takes the longer 4th Sub so an eastbound fleet can take the shorter ... (more)

Five Boeing fuselages entrained on a westbound BNSF intermodal train climbing Mullan Pass on Montana Rail Link on June 30, 2019. The train is crossing Austin Creek Trestle just west of Skyline, Mo... (more)

A Montana Rail Link welder repairs the frog on the east switch at heavily-used Lombard siding in Montana’s Lombard Canyon on July 1, 2019.

Montana Rail Links’s 844 local out of Logan, Montana, stops for some work just west of town. After tying down their train on the Fifth Subdivision main, the two GP35s head up a spur to a petrole... (more)

SD45 under a rainbow
On July 2, 2019, after a rainy crossing of Bozeman Pass, Montana Rail Link’s Laurel to Bozeman local hits a pocket of late evening sunshine as it descends the west... (more)

Montana Rail Link’s 844 local out of Logan heads westward on the Fifth Subdivision at Three Forks, Montana, on July 2, 2019. Today, the local is taking three empty ballast cars to the siding at ... (more)

With the rugged Mission Range behind it, Montana Rail Link’s night gas local runs westbound along the Flathead River near Dixon at McDonald, Montana, on June 29, 2019.

Traversing the scenic Jefferson River Canyon between Sappington and Whitehall, Montana, is a westbound Montana Rail Link ballast train led by SD45 No. 346 on June 26, 2019. The empty train is head... (more)

Montana Rail Link EMD SD45 No. 355 leads the Laurel to Bozeman local out of a storm as it approaches Craver, Montana, on the afternoon of July 2, 2019.

The evening sky is glowing with pink accents as Montana Rail Link’s westbound Bozeman turn led by a venerable MRL EMD SD45 No. 355 passes the east switch at Quebec, Montana, during sunset at 9:1... (more)