BNSF’s Helena local crosses over a bridge spanning a small tributary of Prickly Pear Creek as it approached East Helena, Montana, in late afternoon light on July 9, 2024. Leading the train is Montana Rail Link GP9 No. 109, built by EMD for Northern Pacific in February 1955. A few weeks later at the end of July, BNSF retired MRL No. 109, the last GP9 still operating from the MRL roster and last on BNSF’s giant roster too. After nearly 70 years of pulling tonnage on NP, Burlington Northern, MRL and BNSF—much of its time, if not most of it—on home rails in Montana. The venerable locomotive now rests on a back track at Livingston waiting its fate.
