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 is probably the last time I will ever photograph a MRL SD45 leading a train on home rails. The next day’s local departed Helena extremely late, putting the return trip through the canyon well after dark. The day after that, No. 382 was removed from local service and was routed to MRL’s Livingston shops to have its fuel optimizer system removed, to be added to a lucky SD40 (SD40-2XR). The SD45 era on the MRL has ended…
