It doesn't get much better than a pair of SD40's passing the fall colors of a grove of Cottonwood trees along the Yellowstone River. It had been over 20 years since I'd done anything with MRL, bu... (more)

"Passing Pipestone on Pipestone Pass" An MRL ballast train shoves up Pipestone Pass to Conda Mining, with the engines passing under an outcropping of pipestone.

The Bozeman local returns to it's home, but will first take the siding to work a lumber reload, passing under a soon to be replaced Northern Pacific RR cantilever signal.

On the afternoon of June 30, 2023, an eastbound Montana Rail Link train rolls over a fill along the Clark Fork between Heron and Noxon, Montana. Powered by a pair of BNSF locomotives, this is a tr... (more)

Montana Rail Link’s 840 local, the Helena local, returns from the cement plant at Montana City and is approaching East Helena, Montana on July 7, 2022. MRL EMD SD45 No. 355 and EMD GP9 No. 109 a... (more)

Montana Rail Link EMD GP9 Nos. 127 and 109 switch their train at Thompson Falls, Montana, before heading back home to Paradise on January 24, 2013.

Stack over Two Medicine
It’s autumn, but snow has already coated the jagged peaks in Glacier National Park. On October 8, 2018, a BNSF stack train crosses the oft-photographed Two Med... (more)

Montana Rail Link’s 844 local has just made a run up to Harrison to pick up a pair of empty fertilizer cars from the Harrison Elevator and is now at Sappington, Montana, on June 27, 2023. The co... (more)

Heavy clouds and fog envelop the Clark Fork River valley as an eastbound BNSF coal empty follows the southern bank of the river approaching Trout Creek, Montana, on January 25, 2020. The Clark For... (more)

An eastbound BNSF grain train passes by on the main line while Montana Rail Link’s Helena local prepares to pick up a BNSF SD70ACe off the house track at Lombard, Montana, very late in the day o... (more)

Grain loads working up the grade to Muir, taking the route out of the yard around another train with motor issues.

Grain loads working up the grade to Muir.

With helpers up front, the "LM" arrives in Helena, where they will work the yard & head into Missoula.

Searchlight signals protect the west end of Winston siding atop Winston Hill on Montana Rail Link’s Second Subdivision on the afternoon of July 2, 2018. Slowly climbing the grade from Townsend i... (more)

On an early summer evening in Toston, Montana, a BNSF Pasco to Laurel manifest freight makes its way across the Montana Rail Link mainline behind CN, BNSF and NS locomotives. The train is passing ... (more)