Western Railroad Discussion > MRL: Old school, new class

I have been around trying to harvest a few images in the nice Fall Montana sunshine. Dodging all those out of state poachers criss crossing the state to gain a few images of the remaining SD45 flared radiator diesels on the mainline means you need to keep a sharp eye out for chase traffic overtaking you while in pursuit. From posts on TO it is obvious they have been meeting with success. I was lucky enough to get a nice meet at West Missoula of two trains fully equipped with 20 cylinder power. The BNSF SD70MAC is so far back it seems inconsequential to the main show. The scene was better not too long before when the clouds had not moved in. Included are both the color and B&W renditions of the meet. Old school work horses still earning their oats.

MRL 500 is doing shakedown duties in the yard at Missoula prior to getting a full repaint at the Rainglow facility west of town. The crews say the unit is working well and is a strong puller compared to the 400s. It is of WP and WC heritage and was left by a customer in Livingston with LRC by CEECo. When LRC moved west and CEECo was shutterred the loco stayed in Montana and it's shortline seems to have gone out of business. MRL has been working to make a working locomotive out of it since acquiring title to the unit. You can see this unit as WC 3025 in the Kalmbach/Trains Locomotives 2014 magazine Livingston Shops feature on the stands now. This is the first loco in the 500 class.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/14 20:08 by fbe.

---

---

---

Photo 3 looks like a Modelers Kitbash project

MRL 500 was built as Western Pacific 3543 in September 1971. It was the second to the last regular GP40 acquired by the WP. The next EMD road units the railroad received would be GP40-2s.

The UP numbered her 690, then she joined the Chicago, Missouri and Western as 3025 and received the maroon and red paint scheme before that railroad folded. On the Wisconsin Central she retained the number 3025.

MRL online roster shows the unit as ex-RMIX 3025, RMIX seems to be a mark for the National Ready-Mix Concrete Company.

Z

That is one ugly unit! I'd vote for the B & W version of the shot... nice stuff!

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

FBE: Great catch on the meet. Thanks very much for sharing your fantastic images over the years and allowing guys like me who can only visit every few years to live vicariously through your lens.

mojaveflyer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That is one ugly unit! I'd vote for the B & W
> version of the shot... nice stuff!


Ugly now but a visit to the paint booth is in the near future!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/14 10:38 by PHall.

Jim,

Thanks for the B&W support. It is hard to say the 500 is ugly given the MRL history of all those heritage C&NW GP9s in various states of paint, primer and remodel from the early days. I hope to do more chasing before the unit goes down for paint.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Z,

Thanks for the industrial history of the unit. I will try to confirm a frame number one of these days.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

PMike,

Thanks for the good will. I am always happy to find others get some use of the locations I present while they are out here. Gas and vacation time are precious so any shortcuts I can share I try to do. The first and second trip to MRL can be a lot of guardrail photography after that it is nice to find what is overlooked.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PMike,
>
> Thanks for the good will. I am always happy to
> find others get some use of the locations I
> present while they are out here. Gas and vacation
> time are precious so any shortcuts I can share I
> try to do. The first and second trip to MRL can be
> a lot of guardrail photography after that it is
> nice to find what is overlooked.
>
> Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

You are very welcome, FBE. I try my best to do likewise in terms of my backyard here in western PA, even tough we aren't quite the railfan destination that Montana is, lol. That's why this is a great community. And you are definitely right, those of us "poachers" who are just visiting really only scratch the surface of all there is to see and do. We spent a lot of the trip saying "if only we had time to try this road or climb that hill, etc". One could spend a lifetime in Montana and not do it proper justice, so thanks for continuing to share your images.

Painters we in the yard this afternoon (10/22) getting a bid ready. I was able to score roof views from the Scott St overpass.

The extended range dynamic brakes make it seem a -2 body but there is no cab roof overhang. The clasp brakes have been removed and single composition shoes are now the standard.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Painters we in the yard this afternoon (10/22)
> getting a bid ready. I was able to score roof
> views from the Scott St overpass.
>
> The extended range dynamic brakes make it seem a
> -2 body but there is no cab roof overhang. The
> clasp brakes have been removed and single
> composition shoes are now the standard.
>
> Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Those appear to be standard-range dynamics; the spotting feature of extended-range d/b's is a shorting contactor access door ahead of the grills. The length or shape of the taper has nothing to do with whether or not it has extended range d/b. The longer taper on late 40-series units was just another production change by the fine folks at EMD.

All the other spotting features on the unit...pilot plates, short battery box doors, cab sidewall construction, long hood details, ribbed blower housing, etc. make it a late production GP40 (not Dash-2), originally WP 3543 built in August 1971 (if my googling on its history is correct), only a few months before Dash-2 production began in January of 1972.

Great shots! Thanks for sharing.

MrOGDEN

zephyrus Wrote:
>>> MRL online roster shows the unit as ex-RMIX 3025,
> RMIX seems to be a mark for the National Ready-Mix
> Concrete Company.>>

Thanks for pointing that out. If it was on the MRL yahoo group roster, it has since been corrected. Should now read RIMX, a typo.
Dave in Msla