A quartet of Montana Rail Link SD70ACes get a roll on it leaving Austin siding to return to Helena after helping a train over Mullan Pass. In the background a westbound grain train is being helped... (more)

Various MRL power idles at the west end of the shops in Helena, MT. From left to right: Unassigned MRL SD40-2XR 256, Helper #3 with MRL SD70ACes 4305, 4301, 4307 and 4311 and GP9 109. The helper s... (more)

Helper #3 starts to dig into the eastern edge of MRL's Mullan Pass in the middle of a heavy grain train.

Consisting of MRL SD70ACes 4311, 4307, 4301 and 4305, Helena Helper #3 drifts down Mullan Pass for their next assignment.

Two sets of four Montana Rail Link EMD SD70ACes, along with a couple of SD45s and yard switcher GP9 No. 120 gather at the engine facility at Helena, Montana, on May 23, 2011. The SD70ACes are used... (more)

With a pair of MRL SD70ACe Helpers on the point, led by MRL 4305, a westbound BNSF freight starts the torturous climb up the East Slope of Mullan Pass.

As raindrops continue to patter and run down on the roundhouse office windows, Montana Rail Link Machinist Kevin Leonard contemplates what these new EMD locomotives will mean to his job after chan... (more)

A contract worker gives a Montana Rail Link SD70ACe a bath in Helena, Montana. The contractors were used frequently to high-pressure wash, and scrub down MRL's helper locomotives stationed in Hele... (more)

After a hard push up Mullan Pass, A helper set with four SD70ACe's and a tag-along SD45 roll light down the grade at Austin Montana. Before the rehabilitation of Mullan Tunnel, the helper locomoti... (more)

MRL's westbound manifest, the LM, exits Rocky Canyon after crossing Bozeman Pass and is headed toward the Gallatin Valley.

Five MRL SD70ACe's cross the trestle at Austin, helping a loaded grain train over Mullan Pass.

Even something so massive as a quartet of SD70ACes can be dwarfed by the sheer size of Montana's mountains and forests. A microcosm of that visual dominance was depicted on a rainy spring afterno... (more)

Halfway to the top of Bozeman Pass from Livingston with a full cut of loaded coal, one of MRL's newest locomotives leads the slow but steady presession. The unit may look outnumbered in this photo... (more)

Another birthday surprise! A 2nd set of SD70ACe helpers transverses Mullan Pass in a 10-minute period. The old Continental Divide sign still stands strong on the spine of North America. Mullan ... (more)