As the sun rises on October 3, 2014, three Montana Rail Link EMD SD45s cross the bridge at Tuscor, Montana, with a westbound BNSF freight. In the silence of an autumn morning along the Clark Fork, we could hear the booming 20-cylinder machines thundering along water’s edge many miles away. Too bad their resonance wouldn’t be heard much longer on the MRL, as this was also the autumn for these stalwart locomotives.
The EMD SD (special duty) series are a strong and reliable kind of locomotive which still serve America's rails today. They have proved themselves reliable by clocking in several million miles of freight service over several decades.