Good catch with the first train Bevan, excellent to see the former BHP Iron Ore SD70ACe 4308 now as MRL 4317 leading the remotes at 2:15 with sister 4302 now MRL 4316 also in the helpers. Cheers, Toad.
Love the thumping of those MRL EMD's! it reminds me a bit of the SD40-2s. That low note through the ground in notch 8 could be heard and felt from miles away.
I loved this. Only thing I wish is that you had a separate, un-edited video of that long coal train... I've always had a peculiar habit of counting freight cars and writing down the type as they go by. So was a bit disappointed at the edits, although skillfully done.
Hi Im not Bevan..just thought I would chime in on what I know since I worked with both MRL and BNRR in Helena. (short version)MRL was created in the 80s by the Washington Corporation based in Missoula MT. They bought up used locomotives to be utilized as helper units for hire by BNRR and other rail companies. MRL also ran MRL branded freight trains through Montana. In 1989, MRL had a disaster occur that started out on Mullan Pass with an end result in Helena. You can read and watch videos of the 1989 event which changed MRL drastically. Years after the 1989 event MRL purchased all new SD70 aces locomotives to be used in what your seeing in this awesome video..helper units for assisting BNRR over MT mountain passes and hauling coal, freight etc through Montana. I come back on occasion and catch up on all these awesome people who take the time to make these railway videos!
The relationship is that MRL leases the track from BNSF. They run some of their own trains, but most of their business is that they interchange with BNSF in something like seven places. BNSF drops off a train and an MRL crew takes it through the mountains and returns it to BNSF at the other end. In early 2022, MRL agreed to let BNSF buy out the lease. BNSF are going to pay MRL something like $2B to end the lease early and resume running the line themselves, subject to the Surface Transportation Board agreeing.
With three locos in front, four in the middle and one at the end won't the knuckle in any of the cars become weak and break? How do the despatchers decide the no. of locos to haul and the backer?
The point of distributing locomotives through the train is precisely to avoid knuckles breaking. If you put eight locomotives on the front, the knuckle of the first car is lifting the whole train up the hill and it will break. By spreading the locomotives out, in effect, the first quarter of the train is being pulled by the lead locomotives; the second quarter is being pushed by the mid-train helpers; the third quarter is being pulled by the mid-train helpers and the last quarter is being pushed by the rear helper. (Of course, that's an over-simplified version and all the cars are being part-pulled and part-pushed, but you get the picture.) This means there's far less stress on the couplers.
I observe that quite a few refrigrated cars. what do they carry, perishables or fruits or other items meant to be kept under refrigerated conditions? Of course under the present conditions, i.e., in Feb.2021 I would have thought 'Vaccinne'
Any sort of food that needs to be refrigerated. It's possible that they could be carrying vaccines, but not the Pfizer one that has to be stored at -75C -- a reefer can't get anything like that cold.
