Blaze06_YT
The Third Link
Marking my third catch of a Montana Rail Link SD70ACE, MRL #4305 trails behind two BNSF Gevos on an EB Q train for Cicero. While this isn’t as dramatic as the first time(s) I caught MRL units in my area (let alone two in one day), this was still a major highlight of the day and it’s good to know that BNSF is finally putting these units on trains that aren’t coal trains!
Before I end off here, I’d like to take the time to remind many of how Montana Rail Link power used to be relatively common as foreign power and how they used to have far greater roots in Illinois. When first created some of their units could sometimes be seen on BN (later BNSF) trackage and there was a slight chance they could even make appearances on foreign railroads! But in the early to mid 90s, MRL even took ownership of the ex Milwaukee Road trackage between Elgin, IL (East of there is the Metra owned Milwaukee West Line to Chicago just to point out for my fellow fans along that territory) and Iowa and other lines that radiated off that set of trackage in Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota from SOO Line/CP Rail. To top it off, they even created a whole new railroad known as the “I&M Rail Link” (reporting mark IMRL) to operate this trackage (note both MRL and IMRL still used the same dark blue MRL paint scheme btw)!
However in the early 2000s, IMRL wasn’t making much of a profit so all of its trackage was sold to the Dakota, Minnesota, and Eastern Railroad (DM&E) which in 2002 created the Iowa, Chicago, and Eastern Railroad (IC&E) to operate this new territory for the DM&E (both roads locomotives sported a badass blue and gold paint job and we’re sometimes interchanged with each other on occasion for road trains)!
However, in 2008, CP ended up taking back what used to theirs and chopped up a potential plan to reach the powder river basin and sold some of old DM&E mainlines in North Dakota to the Genesee and Wyoming owned “Rapid City, Pierre, and Eastern” (reporting mark RCPE. Also thanks a lot Hunter Harrison).
The way MRL managed to grow as a company will always be interesting after its 1987 startup to being acquired by BNSF in the beginning of 2024. It was quite possibly one of the most profitable and successful regional railroads alongside the Wisconsin Central who also was starting to get a kickstart around the same time span which goes to show even the smallest of railroads can put itself to the test!
The Third Link
Marking my third catch of a Montana Rail Link SD70ACE, MRL #4305 trails behind two BNSF Gevos on an EB Q train for Cicero. While this isn’t as dramatic as the first time(s) I caught MRL units in my area (let alone two in one day), this was still a major highlight of the day and it’s good to know that BNSF is finally putting these units on trains that aren’t coal trains!
Before I end off here, I’d like to take the time to remind many of how Montana Rail Link power used to be relatively common as foreign power and how they used to have far greater roots in Illinois. When first created some of their units could sometimes be seen on BN (later BNSF) trackage and there was a slight chance they could even make appearances on foreign railroads! But in the early to mid 90s, MRL even took ownership of the ex Milwaukee Road trackage between Elgin, IL (East of there is the Metra owned Milwaukee West Line to Chicago just to point out for my fellow fans along that territory) and Iowa and other lines that radiated off that set of trackage in Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota from SOO Line/CP Rail. To top it off, they even created a whole new railroad known as the “I&M Rail Link” (reporting mark IMRL) to operate this trackage (note both MRL and IMRL still used the same dark blue MRL paint scheme btw)!
However in the early 2000s, IMRL wasn’t making much of a profit so all of its trackage was sold to the Dakota, Minnesota, and Eastern Railroad (DM&E) which in 2002 created the Iowa, Chicago, and Eastern Railroad (IC&E) to operate this new territory for the DM&E (both roads locomotives sported a badass blue and gold paint job and we’re sometimes interchanged with each other on occasion for road trains)!
However, in 2008, CP ended up taking back what used to theirs and chopped up a potential plan to reach the powder river basin and sold some of old DM&E mainlines in North Dakota to the Genesee and Wyoming owned “Rapid City, Pierre, and Eastern” (reporting mark RCPE. Also thanks a lot Hunter Harrison).
The way MRL managed to grow as a company will always be interesting after its 1987 startup to being acquired by BNSF in the beginning of 2024. It was quite possibly one of the most profitable and successful regional railroads alongside the Wisconsin Central who also was starting to get a kickstart around the same time span which goes to show even the smallest of railroads can put itself to the test!