I&M Rail Link

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I happened to come into possession of a KATO HO Scale I&M Rail Link SD40-2. I know that IMRL are out of business. Two questions:

  1. Were IMRL related to Montana Rail Link?

  2. What became of IMRL SD40-2s? Are they still out there somewhere with new owners?

2

  1. Yes they were related. Both were/are owned by the Washington Corporation.

  2. Not sure about there loco’s. I believe, but not sure that some were purchased by DM&E/IC&E. Others went back to MRL while some were retired. Don’t quote me on that though.

3

Thanks–I looked online and it seems that many IMRL SD40-2s went to the IC&E. They seem to have just patched out the IMRL logo on the cab with “ICE” and left all other markings intact.

4

There was a fair amount of power swapping between MRL and IMRL when they had common ownership. Some locos were relettered for IMRL, some weren’t. ICE picked up the SD40’s (200 series) and some other power from IMRL with minimal relettering when they took over operations, the rest was returned to MRL. ICE picked up some new power (4200’s and 6400’s) and also leases some power from DM&E.

Just to add to the confusion, BRC leased four MRL SD40’s as hump pushers in the period just before the C424’s were retired and their own SD40’s were acquired.

5

IC&E owns 3 SD40-3ss and 16 SD40’s.2 SD40’s were recently sold to NRE,1(231) is on lease to BNSF and the other(212) has been stripped of its parts at Silvis.

SD40-3’s: 206,208,209
SD40’s: 201,202,203,205,207,210,213,217,220,221,222,223,224,230,232,233.

ICE did buy some SD40’s and SD40-3’s from MRL which had been on long term lease to IMRL.Most that were on lease were returned to MRL only to later be leased to BNSF and other railroads.

Here’s a detailed roster
http://illinirail.50megs.com/icerail/detailedroster.htm