An eastbound BNSF grain train, viewed from US Highway 2 somewhere west of Havre, MT.

Montana Rail Link’s Billings Transfer departs Laurel Yard on the morning of October 8, 2023. The train is powered by MRL SD40-2XR Nos. 263 and 259 and has a substantial amount of cars for Billin... (more)

After a relaxing night camping along the Clark Fork over the Fourth of July holiday, Minturn the Beagle watches a Montana Rail Link train roll by on the morning of July 5, 2023. We didn’t expect... (more)

A westbound BNSF Office Car Special meets an eastbound BNSF grain train at Muir, Montana, on Montana Rail Link’s main line over Bozeman Pass on October 7, 2023. This is a deadhead move west as c... (more)

A westbound BNSF Office Car Special climbs Bozeman Pass just east of Muir, Montana, on Montana Rail Link’s Second Subdivision main line on October 7, 2023. This deadhead move is also transportin... (more)

A WB oil train begins its trip up Mullan Pass as it departs Helena with a Santa Fe warbonnet unit assisting second out.

Montana Rail Link’s 844 local that works out of Logan, Montana, approaches milepost 0 of the Harrison branch at Sappington with seven cars from the Harrison grain elevator on October 8, 2023.

Two BNSF locomotives off a manifest freight parked just to the west, pass a westbound vehicle train at the west end of Montana Rail Link’s Laurel Yard on the afternoon of October 8, 2023. Looks ... (more)

In a view from our Airbnb vacation accommodations, a westbound BNSF unit oil train climbs Winston Hill between Townsend and Winston, Montana, on Montana Rail Link’s Second Subdivision main line ... (more)

Two Montana Rail Link remote switchers work simultaneously at the east end of MRL’s large yard at Laurel, Montana, on the morning of October 8, 2023. For many years, former cabooses carried remo... (more)

It’s October 10, 2023, at 6:15 p.m. and the last rays of sun are shaped by a mountain ridge to the southwest as the lead locomotive of a BNSF coal train momentarily gets illuminated by golden li... (more)

Passing two horses and a resting longhorn on its way to switching customers on the Fifth Subdivision, Montana Rail Link’s 844 local clatters through Three Forks, Montana, on October 11, 2023. Lo... (more)

Montana Rail Link’s LM departed Livingston, Montana, on the afternoon of September 23, 2002, but soon came to a halt at the end of double track just west of town. The train is ready to attack Bo... (more)

Rolling through the picturesque Jefferson River Canyon, one of what's likely to be the final MRL ballast trains is dwarfed by a massive cavern, part of the Lewis and Clark Cavern State Park. Truly... (more)

Fifteen miles from the border of Idaho, situated along the Clark Fork River, lies the small village of Noxon, Montana. Montana Rail Link's former Northern Pacific mainline passes through here and ... (more)