With 111 cars on the drawbar, two SD40-2XR's powering a road freight in 2017 are fairly uncommon on the MRL. With the arrival of the 4400 series ACe's, SD40's are now primarily used in yard switching, transfer and helper operations. The two big ACe's assigned to this Laurel-Missoula manifest have not yet arrived Laurel, so the Transfer power was tapped to shuttle this train to clear space in the yard. Running well under 1.0 HPT these two Xtra Reliable units are screaming along the Yellowstone River on a gorgeous fall day.
