Since its founding in October 1987, the Montana Rail Link has plied the rails laid down by the Northern Pacific in the Big Sky country of Montana. It has served as a bridge line for the Burlington Northern and later BNSF between Jones Junction, Montana and Sandpoint, Idaho. In addition to handling main line freight, MRL has provided rail service to many local customers along its 900 plus miles of track utilizing several branch lines.
In January 2022, news of the MRL reaching an agreement with BNSF to end its lease brought many railfans out to Montana to see their beloved regional railroad one last time, not knowing exactly when the end would come. We made several trips in 2022 and early 2023 to capture some of the hot spots at various times of the year and are proud to present this four-part series showcasing Montana Rail Link in quite likely its last years of operation.
Part 1 begins in Missoula and follows MRL’s Gas Local over the 4th and 10th Subdivisions to Pipeline. Then we turn east over the former Northern Pacific’s racetrack to Garrison. Highlights include MRL’s system-wide manifest trains the LM (Laurel-Missoula) and ML, the Bonner Local, both Day and Night Gas trains and a few of the BNSF run-through trains including coal, grain, and crude oil.
This series was created to preserve the memory of this amazing regional railroad. Farewell MRL!
This program is available on DVD, HD Blu-ray, Streaming and 4k Digital at 7ideaproductions.com. [ Ссылка ]
0:00 Intro
6:28 Map
8:11 Missoula
15:39 De Smet
19:55 Lothrop
22:04 Philemon Tunnel 5.5
23:37 Cyr
26:34 Superior
28:18 St Regis
29:22 Paradise
30:02 Plains
32:04 Eddy
35:26 Pipeline
44:33 Thompson Falls
51:57 Paradise
56:00 The 10th Sub
1:09:34 Dixon
1:13:30 Evaro Hill
1:20:13 Marent Trestle
1:22:50 Fire on Evaro Hill!
1:26:41 De Smet
1:28:43 Missoula
1:39:13 Bonner
1:47:01 McQuarrie
1:47:54 Bonita Tunnel 5
1:50:18 Nimrod
1:51:19 Drummond
1:54:04 Jens
1:55:58 Garrison
