• Montana Rail Link SD45s

  • Montana Rail Link (reporting mark MRL) is a privately held Class II railroad in the United States. MRL, which operates on trackage originally built by the Northern Pacific Railway, is a unit of the Washington Companies, and is headquartered in Missoula, Montana. Website: montanarail.com
Montana Rail Link (reporting mark MRL) is a privately held Class II railroad in the United States. MRL, which operates on trackage originally built by the Northern Pacific Railway, is a unit of the Washington Companies, and is headquartered in Missoula, Montana. Website: montanarail.com
  by U-Haul
 
Is Montana Rail Link selling or scrapping the SD45s retired due to the SD70ACe's?

Star Trek 40th Anniversary

  by GN 599
 
From what I have seen, no. I think they get leased or something. Before I came back from WA I had them in consists between Vancouver and Pasco. I would always see one or two lingering around the service tracks in Pasco, saw a new ace too. I dogcaught a train that had two BN green SD's with the MRL 355 as our third unit. It had was on an easbound and had came straight from CEECO. Nothing is better than the smell of fresh paint on an SD45........

  by kitsune
 
The original plan was only to scrap the worst of them, and then lease the balance that were unused due to the SD70s arrival. However, the 70s are having teething problems, so the 45s are in higher demand than expected. They'll probably hang on at MRL in quantity for maybe another year before they really begin scattering in lease service, like MRL's SD40-2 fleet.