Pipeline
Just another simple shot l like from this location at the west end of the run af pipeline. The warm evening light illuminates Montana Rail Link 'night gas' train with SD70ACes 4406 and 4408 (both built new for the road in Apr. 2014) as they work the terminal at Pipeline in this view looking east from the private crossing at MP 29.4 on the 4th Sub just east of Thompson Falls. They have just brought a trainload of refined petroleum products 111 miles from Missoula via the 4th and 10th Subs and after swapping loads for empties here the Phillips66 facility they will start back east.
These railfan favorite gas trains are the only trains on this end of the railroad anymore that are guaranteed to run with blue power. Strictly an intra-MRL operation, these trains came into being in 1995 when a gap was created in the 40 yr old and 531 mile long Yellowstone Pipeline when the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe chose not to renew the pipeline company's lease of 21 miles of right of way across their Flathead Indian Reservation. To learn about how and why this came about this article may be of interest: www.bigskywords.com/montana-blog/the-yellowstone-pipeline...
Near Thompson Falls
Sanders County, Montana
Sunday September 4, 2022
Pipeline
Just another simple shot l like from this location at the west end of the run af pipeline. The warm evening light illuminates Montana Rail Link 'night gas' train with SD70ACes 4406 and 4408 (both built new for the road in Apr. 2014) as they work the terminal at Pipeline in this view looking east from the private crossing at MP 29.4 on the 4th Sub just east of Thompson Falls. They have just brought a trainload of refined petroleum products 111 miles from Missoula via the 4th and 10th Subs and after swapping loads for empties here the Phillips66 facility they will start back east.
These railfan favorite gas trains are the only trains on this end of the railroad anymore that are guaranteed to run with blue power. Strictly an intra-MRL operation, these trains came into being in 1995 when a gap was created in the 40 yr old and 531 mile long Yellowstone Pipeline when the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe chose not to renew the pipeline company's lease of 21 miles of right of way across their Flathead Indian Reservation. To learn about how and why this came about this article may be of interest: www.bigskywords.com/montana-blog/the-yellowstone-pipeline...
Near Thompson Falls
Sanders County, Montana
Sunday September 4, 2022