placed back in storage. As of late Febru- ary, the six remaining locomotives were working for BNSF in the Glendive area. How much longer those six SD45-2s
will work is unknown and it’s unclear what is next for MRL’s fleet of vintage EMDs. There have been numerous in- stances before when a premature eulogy has been written – just look at the return of Union Pacific’s DDA40X Centennials in the mid-1980s or the brief resurrection of Canadian Pacific’s M630s and M636s a decade later in the 1990s. Even the very locomotives this article focuses on had been written off a decade ago when the first SD70ACes arrived on MRL in 2005. One can only hope that this final bow leads to one more encore. However, if this reincarnation are the SD45-2s fi-
34 APRIL 2015 •
RAILFAN.COM
nal performance under Montana’s Big Sky, then the memories of trios of flared, six-axle locomotives rolling along the state’s pristine rivers and jagged moun- tain vistas will have to suffice. Regardless of what happens next,
MRL’s SD45-2 comeback was perhaps summed up best by a retired MRL en- gineer and rail enthusiast: “It was fun while it lasted.”
Special thanks to Brent Mueller, David Franz, and other retired and current Montana Rail Link employees for their assistance with this story.
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