Montana Rail Link’s Helena local is preparing to pick up a BNSF SD70ACe off the house track at Lombard, Montana, in some of the very last sunlight of June 28, 2016. Two days before, BNSF No. 9105 was a rear DPU on an eastbound grain train passing through Lombard Canyon when it developed a traction motor problem and flat-spotted a wheel set. It was set out at Lombard where local mechanical personnel traveled miles on rough, dirt roads to work as best as they could to grind out the flat spots. The locomotive is now being moved by the local to Toston, which has better road access, so more work can be performed. On this day, MRL No. 382 is the last SD45 operating on the railroad, and has only two more trips on the local before possible retirement. In the background, an eastbound grain train’s DPU is about to disappear around a curve on the main line.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
