A trio of Canadian Pacific SD40-2s lead CPKC A18, the Golden Wayfreight, north through Doyle, B.C., on October 27, 2024. What started as a rainy and cloudy Sunday, turned into a stunning afternoon in the Southern Interior.

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For the first time in decades, the sound of a steam whistle echoed off the headframes and miners' halls of Butte, Montana, as “Northern Pacific No. 1770” (really former McCloud River Railroad 2-8-2 No. 18 borrowed from Nevada’s Virginia & Truckee) steamed around town following a multi-day shoot for Paramount’s Western drama “1923” starring Harrison Ford. After being turned on the wye, it returned to the BNSF Railway yard where it would soon be loaded onto a truck for home. The brief run was the first time a standard gauge steam locomotive had operated in Montana in more than 15 years and was likely the first time one had appeared in Butte under steam since the 1950s.

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A westbound departs Helena on October 19, 2024.

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The BNSF era on Mullan Pass still looks an awful lot like the MRL era, as a westbound grain sits at the depot at Helena waiting for a set of helpers to heat west.

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Three former Montana Rail Link SD70Aces and an undecorated Athearn unit (allegedly its either the Essential Workers or Vets unit, but its kinda hard to tell these days) shove a westbound grain train up the east slope of Mullan Pass. October 19, 2024.

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