Holiday Hustle
Having made quick work of delivering 23 cars to Ash Grove Cement in Montana City the Montana Rail Link's 840 Helena Local is hustling home light engine to return to whatever they had in store on this quiet Labor Day holiday.
They have just climbed up and over the hump on the 'new' connection that swings from this former GN trackage to the ex NP mainline and are smoking it up as they accelerate off the 13th Sub branchline and enter the MRL's 2nd Sub mainline here at MP 235.1 for the short three mile trip home.
For the prior few months, the assigned power on this local had been MRL 109 and 355. Both are veteran ex Burlington Northern units, the former a GP9 originally blt. Feb. 1955 as Northern Pacific 210 and the latter an SD45 blt. Dec. 1971 as BN 6558. Long known for its preference for the 20 cylinder EMD brutes, the MRL rostered some 52 indivdual units of the model at varying times during the past 35 years (and over 80 if you include dash 2 and cowl variants) though today this one is the last of her breed in service on the property.
Countless articles have been written about the MRL over the past 35 years of its existence and if you care to learn more download this great set of articles courtesy of Trains Magazine:
www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/TRN-MRL.pdf
East Helena, Montana
Monday September 5, 2022
Holiday Hustle
Having made quick work of delivering 23 cars to Ash Grove Cement in Montana City the Montana Rail Link's 840 Helena Local is hustling home light engine to return to whatever they had in store on this quiet Labor Day holiday.
They have just climbed up and over the hump on the 'new' connection that swings from this former GN trackage to the ex NP mainline and are smoking it up as they accelerate off the 13th Sub branchline and enter the MRL's 2nd Sub mainline here at MP 235.1 for the short three mile trip home.
For the prior few months, the assigned power on this local had been MRL 109 and 355. Both are veteran ex Burlington Northern units, the former a GP9 originally blt. Feb. 1955 as Northern Pacific 210 and the latter an SD45 blt. Dec. 1971 as BN 6558. Long known for its preference for the 20 cylinder EMD brutes, the MRL rostered some 52 indivdual units of the model at varying times during the past 35 years (and over 80 if you include dash 2 and cowl variants) though today this one is the last of her breed in service on the property.
Countless articles have been written about the MRL over the past 35 years of its existence and if you care to learn more download this great set of articles courtesy of Trains Magazine:
www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/TRN-MRL.pdf
East Helena, Montana
Monday September 5, 2022