Montana Rail Link has unveiled its latest special locomotive, SD70ACE No. 4404, which pays tribute to essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Montana Television Network reports the locomotive, wrapped with 1,600 square feet of graphics by Alphagraphics of Missoula, Mont., at the MRL shops, was unveiled in Missoula on Dec. 23, with the railroad’s chief communication officer, Ross Lane, telling the station MRL wanted to “pay tribute to all those essential workers and include our employees, but also the doctors, nurses, janitorial staff, teachers, and the list goes on… We’ve really relied on essential workers to keep us going.” It is the second specially decorated locomotive the railroad has introduced in two months, joining a tribute-to-veterans engine released in November [see “MRL honors veterans, essential workers with special locomotives,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 11, 2020].
