Thundering through Tobin
A Montana Rail Link rear helper set of three SD40s mated with another SD45-2 shoves hard into the rear of the westbound BNSF coal train thundering through Tobin... (more)

A trio of MRL blue SD40-2s lead a combined Jimbo and empty rail train back to Missoula, MN along the MRL 10th subdivision. MRL 255 MRL 257 MRL 259

MRL 259 and 255 have the honors of bringing rail up to Tuscor, the location of a recent derailment of about 30 coal cars. This was the first train we ran into on our MRL adventure.

Departing Trident along the Gallatin River, Montana Rail Link’s 844 local heads back to Logan with twelve cars of cement.

An eastbound Montana Rail Link ballast train takes the siding at Townsend, Montana, on the morning of June 26, 2019.

Fourteen locomotives head back to Helena, Montana, as a light engine movement on the afternoon of February 6, 1997. Two 4-unit helper sets, a 2-unit point helper and a set of four BNSF locomotives... (more)

Dropping downgrade off Winston Hill is an eastbound Montana Rail Link ballast train nearing Townsend, Montana, on June 26, 2019. Powering the empty train that will head west on the Butte line (MRL... (more)

On June 26, 2019, a Montana Rail Link ballast train approaches Logan, Montana, led by MRL EMD SD40-2XR (rebuilt SD40) and SD45 No. 346. At Logan, the power will run around the train and head west ... (more)

Three Montana Rail Link EMD SD40-2XRs (rebuilt SD40s), Nos. 251, 253 and 255, power BNSF’s freight between Spokane and Laurel as it begins its descent of Winston Hill at Winston, Montana, on Jul... (more)

The rear end of a westbound Burlington Northern grain train is exiting the big Iron Ridge Cut between Austin and Weed, Montana, while climbing Montana Rail Link’s main line over Mullan Pass on A... (more)

Montana Rail Link’s Helena switch works upgrade into Winston, Montana, on the morning of July 5, 2018. This is the “local” out of Helena that switches the cement plant and RY Timber at Towns... (more)

After all these years the Farmers and Occidental Grain elevators still stand in Reed Point.

A trio of Montana Rail Link SD40s (rebuilt and labeled SD40-2XR) power a westbound freight up Winston Hill east of Winston, Montana, on the morning of July 2, 2018.

MRL 259 runs long hood first with a Jimbo work train headed east at Belknap after working the west end of the Montana Rail Link during the week. MRL 259 is former BN 6324, built in November 1971, ... (more)

Two Montana Rail Link SD40-2XRs lead an eastbound, probably MRL’s Missoula to Laurel freight, approaching the west switch at Quebec, Montana, on October 17, 2018. Snow already cloaks the Crazy M... (more)