LISTEN - WinAmp, iTunes, XMMS
LISTEN - RealPlayer
LISTEN - Windows Media Player 9 only

MRL/BNSF - Billings, MT.

This stream is coming from Billings Montana. You will hear not only the local MRL switch crews as they shuffle cars around town, but also the MRL East Dispatcher answering "Rimrock or Huntley Radio" to issue and release track warrants for trains going between Laurel to the west and East Billings. In addition, the Billings Transfer runs nightly out of Laurel shuttling cars to and from the major yard at Laurel.

There is a daily BNSF Z train, the Chicago-Laurel, that always stops in Billings in the afternoon and cuts off a good portion of its loads to be handled by the MRL switch crews. Some of the local industries served by MRL are oil refineries, a sugar refinery and a coal-fired power plant. The Carter Local is a road switcher that makes runs east to the Exxon-Mobil refinery in Lockwood. Sometimes it will go out to Huntley to the Coors barley elevator which is located close to the end of the MRL at Jones Junction.

All of the many non-local trains traveling through Billings are BNSF trackage rights trains with BNSF crews heading to and from Laurel. At Laurel, some trains continue with MRL crews westward on the former Northern Pacific line, while others head northwest on the BNSF Laurel Sub to Great Falls and the Highline beyond that. You may hear the BNSF dispatcher answering the Hesper Radio to issue track warrants for this line.

Trains coming from and going to the east on the BNSF take either the former NP main toward Glendive (ABS TWC), or the former Chicago, Burlington and Quincy "Longbranch" line (CTC) to Sheridan Wyoming and beyond. The BNSF dispatchers to the east will answer many different radios including Anita, Jones Junction, Pompeys Pillar and Hysham. We can also hear the dispatcher for the Casper and Cody subs which run south/east from Laurel.

Hope you enjoy the stream,
Todd Wilson