Montana Rail Link’s 844 local out of Logan, Montana, arrives at Sappington and will soon diverge onto the branch to Harrison with four covered hoppers for the Harrison Elevator. Co.

Grimy but still SP
On the morning of April 23, 2002, an eastbound Union Pacific coal train heads downgrade at mile 22.6 at the mouth of Coal Creek Canyon between Plainview and Clay, Col... (more)

An eastbound BNSF coal empty curves along the shoulder of Montana State Highway 200 and river’s edge of the Clark Fork between Weeksville and Plains on May 9, 2010.

Montana Rail Link’s 840 local from Helena arrives at Logan, Montana, on September 26, 2007. Still standing on this day in the background is a relic from another age and mode of locomotion—an o... (more)

Fog has settled over the Twin Ports region on the morning of June 13, 2016 as a railroader walks back to the Canadian National locomotive facility at Proctor, Minnesota, passing a line up of power... (more)

Clouds and fog shroud the mountains around Trout Creek, Montana, as a westbound BNSF ballast train trundles along the Clark Fork, casting its reflection in the calm water of Frog Pond on the morni... (more)

Four of a kind
It’s 6:45 in the morning of July 14, 1991, as Soo Line EMD GP38-2 No. 4444 glows in the early sunlight and new candy-apple red paint, leading an eastbound Soo freight ou... (more)

Powered by a pair of EMD SD45s, a Montana Rail Link ballast train moves slowly eastward as it loads at the ballast pit at Spire Rock, Montana, on September 14, 2010. MRL uses the former Northern P... (more)

A Montana Rail link ballast train is slowly filled at the loader at Spire Rock, Montana, on September 14, 2010. The railroad uses the former Butte main line now called the Spire Rock Industrial Tr... (more)

On June 4, 2002, a trio of Burlington Northern Santa Fe EMD SD40-2s power a westbound BNSF train westbound over Marias Pass east of Bison, Montana.

Rocky Mountaineer’s “Rockies to the Red Rocks” tour train has just exited Tunnel 1 east of Plainview while climbing Colorado’s front range mountains westbound on the morning of September 1... (more)

An eastbound BNSF coal empty meets a westbound BNSF coal train at Winston, Montana, on September 26, 2007. Montana Rail Link’s 840 local power was used to help the westbound coal load up Winston... (more)

Montana Rail Link EMD GP35 No. 403 powers an eastbound BNSF passenger extra over Bridge 50 spanning the inlet of Big Beaver Creek into the Clark Fork east of Trout Creek, Montana, on September 18,... (more)

Conrail EMD SD50 No. 6713 leads CR’s ELKA westbound toward Chicago rumbling through the curves at New Carlisle, Indiana, at 4:10 p.m. on March 16, 1991.

A westbound BNSF Q train flies across Bridge 62 at Tuscor, Montana on July 4, 2022. This bridge spans the inlet for Swamp Creek into the Clark Fork on Montana Rail Link’s Fourth Subdivision.