Montana Rail Link’s LM reaches the summit of Bozeman Pass, with the eight SD45/SD45-2 cradling the actual top of the grade at West End, Montana, on September 23, 2002. The point helper will stay... (more)

A winter storm rolls through Whitehall, Montana and fills the air with heavy snowfall as an extra Montana Rail Link crew pulls a train of storage oil tank cars off the 10th Sub. The pair of MRL SD... (more)

From inside a long-abandoned ranch building at Austin, Montana, is a view on a BNSF grain train slogging upgrade on Mullan Pass, assisted by a foursome of Montana Rail Link EMD SD70ACe manned help... (more)

MRL 405 handles switching chores at Three Forks, MT where the Montana Rail Link serves a talc plant and this grain loadout. This local handles business from Logan to Whitehall, MT with occasional ... (more)

MRL 405 puts the finishing touches on its local west to Whitehall, MT at Logan yard while an eastbound BNSF manifest freight crosses the Gallitan River on the MRL mainline. The Gallitan, Madison a... (more)

Welcome to Paradise!. For a moment it's all Montana Rail Link as the local power watches the afternoon gas train roll west toward Thompson Falls. These were the only regular MRL equipped assignmen... (more)

Under a big sky full of rainy clouds, Montana Rail Link’s Helena local climbs Winston Hill as heads westbound for home approaching Winston, Montana, on the afternoon of June 30, 2020.

I think all of us at some point ask ourselves if what we are doing is worth it. In my case, driving for hours in awful road conditions for a long hood forward geep? After Montana was slammed with ... (more)

A recently painted GP9 at Livingston Montana.

MRL 113 and 127 head west toward Paradise, MT after switching the lumber mill at St. Regis. The local will continue west to Thompson Falls and switch another mil, then head east again back to Para... (more)

MRL 113 gets fired up for a day's work handling the Paradise local, a turn that worked east to St. Regis, MT and west as far as Trout Creek, MT at the time. Geeps 113 and 127 will handle chips, lu... (more)

Of all the abandonments and tracks ripped out during the Burlington Northern's purge of the 1980's, one of the most short sighted and foolish had to be the removal the Park Branch. Laid in 1883 fr... (more)

A Burlington Northern Santa Fe Q train trundles by as it climbs Bozeman Pass, and with only two locomotive pulling it, MRL’s LM (Laurel to Missoula freight) has caught up to it on red signals an... (more)

After switching the grain elevator in Harrison, Montana Rail Link’s 844 local rolls downgrade on the Harrison Branch on June 27, 2016. The 9.5-mile branch out of Sappington, Montana, on MRL’s ... (more)

As another autumn day turns to night on October 1, 2020, the signals light up at West Tuscor, Montana, in response to a couple mouse clicks from the Montana Rail Link dispatcher in Missoula. Not l... (more)