Montana Rail Link’s ML crosses Austin Creek Trestle at Skyline, Montana, on September 12, 2002. A trio of MRL SD45s and F45 No. 391 (off line) power the freight operating from Missoula to Laurel... (more)

A Montana Rail Link crewman of a westbound BNSF train sitting in the siding at Austin, Montana, greets BNSF HPASKCK descending the grade of Mullan Pass on September 12, 2010.

A westbound Keokuk Junction Railway freight passes milepost 120 between Sommer/Hollis and Kolbe, Illinois, on April 7, 2016. Two EMD FP9s (Nos. 1750 and 1752) and GP20 No. 2003 power the train of ... (more)

An eastbound Burlington Northern piggyback train curves under the signal bridge at 5th Street in Mendota, Illinois, at 9:35 a.m. on May 2, 1992.

An early season snowfall veils BNSF’s Hi Line Subdivision main line through Grizzly, Montana, as a BNSF grain train climbs west toward Marias Pass on October 10, 2018.

Santa Fe’s 199 train flies over the Vermillion River Bridge as it leave Streator, Illinois, in its wake at 4:58 p.m. on June 26, 1993. Powering the train destined for Richmond, California, is AT... (more)

An eastbound Conrail freight has just exited New Portage Tunnel and a helper of two CR EMD SD40s keeps the train in check down “The Slide” at Tunnelhill, Pennsylvania, on a sunny October 23, 1... (more)

An eastbound (southbound) Wisconsin Central freight passes an eastbound WC taconite ore train between Van Dyne and North Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, on April 14, 1997. The freight is on the WC main li... (more)

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)