On June 10, friends and neighbors of Montana Limestone Company near Warren, MT, gathered to dedicate a new truck dump and rail load-out facility. The new additions will help Montana Limestone supply limestone to the new scrubbers at Basin Electric’s Leland Olds Station.
Montana Limestone’s new duties require the power of two locomotives to move rail cars full of limestone up and down a 1.5-percent grade on a new rail spur. The locomotives are 1986 models that have been fixed up and freshly painted in Montana Limestone’s colors.
The day before the dedication celebration, Mike Jones, Montana Limestone’s fine grind plant superintendent, gave a tour of the locomotives. He demonstrates how to start, operate and shut down the engines.
Daryl Hill, Basin Electric media relations supervisor, gets the rare opportunity to start one up. Watch the video below to see.
Basin Electric: Live Wire 
How long is the rail haul by the 2 engines? Does the rail line run all the way up to the Laurel area to connect to BNSF? How many runs a day does the train make?
Hi Ed!
We asked Project Manager Karl Lemmerman to provide some answers to your questions. His answer is below:
The two locomotives were required, by BNSF, if the unit train was left at Warren to be loaded without the assistance of the BNSF locomotives -which will often be the case. This was required so as to be able to move and load the 80 to 90 cars as well as prep the train while BNSF’s power was gone.
We can only operate these two locomotives on our two spurs (approximately 18,000 feet in total) — they are not permitted on the BNSF tracks! Once BNSF locomotive power picks up the train for shipment to the Leland Olds station, the round trip will take about 4 days.