Just after sunset on July 5, 2023, Montana Rail Link EMD SD70ACe Nos. 4302 and 4301 power a Helena to Bozeman turn dropping downgrade past milepost 214 east of Winston, Montana.
With the collapse and reconstruction of MRL’s Yellowstone River Bridge near Reed Point from June 24 to July 22, 2023, and the subsequent severing of a busy main line, MRL and BNSF had to scramble to accommodate and reroute trains during this time. BNSF sent its overhead tonnage to different lines during the closure, but MRL continued to run its locals, as well as operating a series of daily trains over the western portion of the railroad to shuttle cars and serve its on line customers. The empty Boeing cars up front behind the locomotives are being shuttled to Reed Point to accept Boeing fuselages being trucked west on I-90 around the missing bridge site.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)