Montana Rail Link's SDP40 290 with it Montana Centennial paint job. Leads a seven unit string of MRL blue's. (Tom Ellis photo)

MRL 290 leads seven companions. MRL 290 is special for multiple reasons. It was painted up in a special paint scheme, for Montana's centennial for statehood 1989. It is also the lone SDP40R on the... (more)

Montana Rail Link SDP40 No. 290 pulls an eastbound work train on the main line at Woodlin, Montana, heading for the lead into Thompson River Lumber (just east of Thompson Falls) on September 26, 2... (more)

Montana Rail Link’s day gas local has just arrived at Pipeline on the east side of Thompson Falls, Montana, with a short 7-car train on February 9, 2014. The power is running around the train an... (more)

Montana Rail Link’s gas local parallels a frozen Flathead River just east of Paradise, Montana, on February 9, 2014. Three vintage EMDs power the eastbound train through the frigid landscape. Le... (more)

MRL SDP40 no. 290 rolls east on the point of an Eastern Washington Gateway "Scooter" grain train that originated in Coulee City, WA and will unload at an elevator near Cheney, WA for tra... (more)

Eastern Washington Gateway's "scooter" train has picked up at Almira, WA and is following a shallow coulee east through sagebrush and wheat fields to Govan and Wilbur. The train will sto... (more)

Eastern Washington Gateway's "scooter" train heads east through Hartline, WA after making a stop to pick up two grain loads. Next stop Almira for 15 more. The train cruises the former CW... (more)

MRL 290, former GN SDP40 321/BN 6395, is on lease to Eastern Washington Gateway. The crew has gone to work by driving out two hours to Coulee City, WA from Cheney, fired up the power and have move... (more)

An Eastern Washington Gateway "Scooter" train climbs a crest in the undulating wheat fields at Hanson Station, WA a few miles west of Almira. The train originated at Coulee City, WA with... (more)

Montana Rail Link’s gas local flies though the snow at Dixon, Montana, on a cold February 9, 2014. On the lead is MRL’s only EMD SDP40, No. 290.

Aptly named... Railfans of the MRL have been known to call the MRL 290 by its nickname, of "Flat-Back". The 290 began its life in May of 1966 as the GN 321, and eventually made it... (more)

A short ballast train eases to a stop while a crew member walks up to the MOW crew to prepare the train to dump on Skyline Trestle.

MRL's lone SDP40-2XR easily handles this short ballast train eastward out of Garrison on the way to their work site on Mullan Pass.

More interested in the photographers, two horses ignore Montana Rail Link’s rare and only SDP40 (MRL labels it a SDP40-2XR) leading a work train at Clarkston, Montana, on September 14, 2010.