Passing through remarkable Sheep Canyon is BNSF’s north local (Cowley turn) out of Greybull, Wyoming, on June 22, 2016. Two recently reactivated EMD SD70MACs power the southbound train that is following the Bighorn River just south of Spence on BNSF’s Casper Subdivision.

An eastbound Union Pacific “dirt train” led by Rio Grande EMD SD40T-2 Tunnel Motor No. 5390 curves by the colorful rocks west of Narrows, Utah, on May 5, 2004.

Canadian Pacific’s wayfreight between Cranbrook and Golden passes Castledale, British Columbia, on the scenic Windermere Subdivision on July 6, 2014. Trailing lead SD40-2 No. 6036 is a former Soo Line SD60, now CP No. 6238.

Burlington Northern local freight 11451 rolls smartly through Highlands, Illinois, powered by a pair of leased former Reserve Mining EMD SD38-2s on a sunny March 15, 1992.

A pair of Burlington Northern EMD SD9s rumble eastward through Brookston, Minnesota, with a BN local freight on October 19, 1985. The train is about to pass under U. S. Highway 2 overpass just east of Brookston siding.

Led by a pair of EMD SD40-2s, Union Pacific’s Potash local heads eastbound up the Cane Creek Subdivision, also known as the Potash Branch, and is about to enter Bootlegger Canyon on March 15, 2002.

By mid-2002, there were still 47 former Rio Grande EMD SD40T-2s running on the Union Pacific system, but only seven were not patched or painted yellow. At this time, a quartet called Helper, Utah, home and could be found running on the local that operated to East Carbon on the Sunnyside branch and return. On July 26, 2002, the “Gang of Four” as they became known, passes mile 606.7 west of Mounds, Utah, with UP local LJP45. Rio Grande Nos. 5390, 5401, 5377 and 5371, equalling 12,000 hp worth of aging black Tunnel Motors, storm by on the warm summer morning.

Late in the day of June 29, 2016, Montana Rail Link’s Helena local rumbles through Lombard Canyon, Montana, with seven cars for Helena yard. This may be my very last photo of a MRL SD45 leading a train on home rails. The next day’s local departed Helena extremely late, putting the return through the canyon past our sleeping camp well after dark. The day after that, No. 382 was removed from local service and was headed to Livingston to have its fuel optimizer system removed, to be added to a lucky SD40 (SD40-2XR). If this is my last shot, at least it’s in the heart of Lombard Canyon…

Eight vintage EMD locomotives lead Montana Rail Link’s 640 local out of Manhattan, Montana, on July 2, 1994. A trio of SD9s, a SD7, three GP9s and a GP35, are eastbound with the local, led by MRL EMD SD9 No. 601, former Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range No. 127.

BNSF’s Cody local approaches Vocation, Wyoming, on June 24, 2016. Vocation was a siding and station on the CB&Q’s line to Cody near the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, a concentration camp used for internment of Japanese Americans evicted from the West Coast Exclusion Zone during World War II. At one point, it had a peak population of 10,767, making it the third-largest "town" in Wyoming before it closed on November 10, 1945. Today’s local is four cars and a caboose powered by two former Burlington Northern SD70MACs, and is bound for the connection with the Casper Subdivision at Frannie.

With more switching to do in the town of Superior on this autumn day of October 16, 2000, Montana Rail Link’s Paradise Local chants eastbound past the semaphores at St. Regis, Montana. The train is powered by venerable EMD GP9 Nos. 114 and 123, both former Northern Pacific locomotives built in 1957. This pair of semaphores is shorter than standard to provide a sight line for westbound trains under the Milwaukee Road overpass and old U.S. Highway 10 bridge that I’m standing on.

Even in Utah desert country, the Price River brings autumn colors to the short canyon between Mounds and Wash on the afternoon of October 6, 2004. Curving through the scene is a trio of Rio Grande SD40T-2 Tunnel Motors (Nos. 5390, 5349 and 5371) powering an eastbound Union Pacific LJP45 dirt train.

A healthy Montana Rail Link Schilling local crosses Moccasin Lane heading back to Missoula after switching the huge Frenchtown pulp mill on September 22, 2008. Unfortunately, the local doesn’t run out here anymore after the plant shut down on December 31, 2009.

BNSF’s east local out of Greybull makes a trip through Wind River Canyon on June 28, 2021, as it emerges from 177-foot Tunnel 4 between Dornick and Piper, Wyoming, on BNSF’s Casper Subdivision. In 2021, the local began making occasional trips this far south to Bonneville.

Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range’s Steelton Switch, powered by three EMD SDs with SD18 No. 188 on the point, is returning from interchanging cars with the Soo Line at their Stinson Yard and passes retired MJ Tower on the south side of Superior, Wisconsin, on October 20, 1985.

On a rainy spring day, Montana Rail Link’s Bitterroot local crosses the busy intersection of Brooks Street and Reserve Street (which is also U.S. Highways 93 and 12) on the Darby line at Missoula, Montana, on May 18, 2013. Unfortunately, this local no longer runs—and the venerable Geeps are out of work too with the end of the Paradise local.

A westbound Burlington Northern local—comprised of two EMD GP20s, six wood chip gons and a caboose—zips past the wood frame station at Cromwell, Minnesota, on October 19, 1985.

A quartet of Rio Grande EMD SD40T-2 Tunnel Motors bring the westbound Union Pacific LJP45 “dirt train” local into Mounds, Utah, on the sunny afternoon of January 30, 2003. The train is about to enter the Green River Subdivision main line from the Sunnyside Branch, which UP calls the Sunnyside Industrial Lead.

Union Pacific’s West Local, powered by three Rio Grande GP40-2s, waits on the grade of Rocky Spur for a westbound UP coal empty to pass on the main line at Rocky, Colorado, on February 9, 2002. After passage of the coal train, the local will head east back to Denver’s North Yard.

Montana Rail Link EMD SD45 No. 355 leads the Laurel to Bozeman local out of a storm as it approaches Craver, Montana, on the afternoon of July 2, 2019.

Toledo, Peoria & Western’s Morton Switcher departs Morton, Illinois, with a diminutive train for the yard at East Peoria on a cold day in December 1983. The local this day is powered by TP&W’s only GP18, No. 600, and only one car and a caboose trails the colorful locomotive.

Union Pacific’s “Blitz local” switches three cars of coal for the huge Monolith cement plant just east of Tehachapi, California, on March 8, 2001. Even though it is a UP local, the three Southern Pacific SD40M-2s in Speed Lettering make it look like it’s from a slightly earlier era. Lead SD40M-2 No. 8635 is a former SD40, while the trailing units are former SD45s.

BNSF’s Cowley turn creeps around the corner right at milepost 414 in Sheep Canyon north of Greybull, Wyoming, on the afternoon of June 22, 2020.

With 14,197-foot Mount Princeton towering in the background, Rio Grande GP40 No. 3075 and Cotton Belt GP40-2 No. 7291 power a five-car local of zinc concentrate between Brown Cañon siding and Salida, Colorado, on January 9, 1998. For a year-and-a-half after Union Pacific closed Colorado’s Tennessee Pass as a through route on August 23, 1997, it still operated a once-a-week local from Pueblo to Malta, near Leadville, on a round trip that took two days. Looks like they are losing some of the zinc ore out of the three gons without covers on this somewhat faster section of track approaching Salida.

Storms are receding to the east as Montana Rail Link’s Helena local, led by MRL EMD GP9 No. 109, rolls downgrade just east of Winston, Montana, on the afternoon of July 7, 2021.

Heading downhill at a good clip is Montana Rail Link’s Helena local bound for the lime plant at Townsend, Montana, on the afternoon of July 7, 2022. MRL EMDs Nos. 109 and 355 have the local past milepost 214 and are about to cross Kimber Gulch Road between Winston and Townsend. In today’s railroad world, seeing a GP9/SD45 combo out on the high iron is a vintage treat of goodly proportions!

A westbound local freight train, bound for Troy Grove, approaches a Metra commuter train that's stopped at the Geneva, Illinois station.

Mile Post 35.20, Union Pacific Railroad Geneva Subdivision

Nikon D5100, Tamron 18-270, ISO 200, f/5.6, 92mm, 1/125s

Canadian Pacific’s Golden to Cranbrook wayfreight arrives at Skookumchuck, British Columbia, on July 6, 2014, powered by a pair of venerable CP Rail SD40-2s, Nos. 6018 and 6067. They’ll make quick work of switching here and will soon head for Cranbrook. Even at this date, it was nice to see a pair of clamshell (Multimark) Dash 2s powering the train.

Union Pacific’s seven car Potash local is dwarfed by the amazing red rock country along the Colorado River near Moab, Utah, on February 10, 2006.

On January 9, 1998, Rio Grande GP40 No. 3075 and Cotton Belt GP40-2 No. 7291 power a five-car local of zinc concentrate along the Arkansas River through Browns Canyon, Colorado. For a year-and-a-half after Union Pacific closed Colorado’s Tennessee Pass as a through route on August 23, 1997, it still operated a one-a-week local from Pueblo to Malta, near Leadville, on a round trip that took two days.

BNSF’s Hudson local passes the reflective waters of Barr Lake just east of Barr, Colorado on the morning of October 21, 2010.

On the afternoon of June 23, 2017, BNSF’s Cowley turn out of Greybull, Wyoming, has just met a northbound freight at Kane and is southbound returning to Greybull yard. Leading the train is former Burlington Northern SD60M No. 1410 still dressed in Cascade green, followed by newer SD70MAC No. 8912. Kane is a siding ten miles south of Lovell on BNSF’s Casper Subdivision.

Montana Rail Link’s Helena switch works past milepost 216 into Winston, Montana, on the morning of July 5, 2018. This is the “local” out of Helena that switches the cement plant and RY Timber at Townsend is powered by MRL No. 262, a rebuilt SD40 labeled a SD40-2XR, and venerable GP9 No. 109.

An eastbound Cimarron Valley local on the former Santa Fe Manter Subdivision crosses a trestle east of Ulysses, Kansas, on March 1, 2000. CVR GP30 No. 3023 is a former Rio Grande locomotive of the same road number.

The word diminutive is seldom, if ever, used to describe the Crooked River Bridge. But on my first visit to the bridge to view my first train on the bridge, it came to mind. A one-car BNSF local out of Bend crosses the spectacular bridge located near Terrabonne, Oregon, on the afternoon of September 28, 2016. Powering the diminutive train is BNSF GP38-2 No. 2093 and GP50 No. 3149, both still dressed in former Burlington Northern colors.

A Burlington Northern local freight powered by two SD9s flies along U.S. Highway 2 east of Floodwood, Minnesota, on a sunny October 19, 1985. They sounded good too!

On September 23, 2008, Montana Rail Link’s Polson local crosses the wood trestle at Moiese, Montana. Unfortunately, the “Flathead Flyer” doesn’t run anymore…

BNSF’s Sandpoint local, led by EMD GP60M-3 No. 105, flies through the curve approaching Athol, Idaho, on February 3, 2022.

Venerable Montana Rail Link EMD GP9 No. 109 smokes it up leading the Helena local up Winston Hill at milepost 215 east of Winston, Montana, on the afternoon of June 25, 2020. MRL 109 was built in February 1955 for Northern Pacific, and is still earning its keep 65 years later!

On a beautiful spring day in the Utah mountains, Union Pacific’s LJP45 “dirt train” makes a special run over to Sutro on the western approach of the grade over Soldier Summit. In this view, Rio Grande SD40T-2 No. 5390 leads the train through Rio under an eye-popping Wasatch Range on June 25, 2004.

Montana Rail Link’s Paradise Local backs up the Thompson River Lumber Lead at Woodlin near Thompson Falls, Montana, on a cold, crisp February 7, 2014. Recently-repainted EMD GP9 No. 127 leads the train, which will return to Paradise after switching three customers on the spur.

BNSF’s Connell turn from Pasco, powered by a pair of Cascade green EMD SD60Ms, along with Columbia Basin Railroad’s Connell turn, make quick work of exchanging trains at—you guessed it—Connell, Washington, on September 28, 2021.

Montana Rail Links’s 844 local just departed Logan, Montana, and stops for some work just west of town. After tying down their train on the Fifth Sub main, the two GP35s head up a spur to a petroleum facility to fetch some empty tank cars spotted there.

On a mostly stormy afternoon, a small pocket of sunshine lights up Montana Rail Link’s Bozeman turn on the curve along the Yellowstone River leaving Columbus, Montana. MRL SD45 No. 355 and SD40-2XR No. 252 power the westbound local on July 2, 2019.

In September 1984, a caboose trails a northbound Burlington Northern local freight past the towering bluffs along the Mississippi River at Trail of Tears State Park north of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in old Frisco territory.

Returning to Greybull, BNSF’s Cowley turn curves around a sheer rock cliff in scenic Sheep Canyon as it passes milepost 414 south of Spence, Wyoming, on the afternoon of June 22, 2020.

It’s 9:15 p.m. on June 25, 2019, as Montana Rail Link’s Helena switch scurries over Winston Hill following a BNSF coal train into the darkening evening with two cars for the cement plant in Townsend. MRL GP9 No. 109 and SD40-2 No. 250 provide an abundance of power.

Union Pacific’s West Local, powered by Rio Grande GP30 Nos. 3002 and 3006, works Rocky Spur above an eastbound coal train led by Southern Pacific GE AC4400CW No. 267, that is tied down in Rocky siding, on February 19, 1998. Only four of Rio Grande’s 28 GP30s ever received large billboard lettering on the long hood during repaints.

Moments before sunset on October 7, 2020, Montana Rail Link’s Helena local departs Townsend, Montana, after meeting an eastbound BNSF train there, and storms over the Missouri River bound for a twilight crossing of Winston Hill.

After Union Pacific closed Colorado’s Tennessee Pass as a through route on August 23, 1997, it still operated a one-a-week local from Pueblo to Malta, near Leadville for about eighteen months. On April 23, 1998, Cotton Belt EMD GP40-2 No. 7254 leads the Malta local along the Arkansas River between Vallie and Cotopaxi.