With the recent news that one of the quintessential regional railroads, Montana Rail Link, would soon disappear, it made me go back and look at some of my images from my only visit to the railroad, back in June of 2006. Myself and three friends spent a week on the MRL following a week spent on Union Pacific's former D&RGW trackage in Colorado and Utah. Near the end of this adventure, we made a stop at the MRL's major yard on the east end, Laurel Yard near Billings, and were invited into the control tower of Laurel Yard for a tour. Such an invitation was extremely rare by this time (and surely more so today), so we jumped at the chance. Here, in a scene reminiscent of interlocking towers from days gone by, an MRL employee monitors yard movements via computer and television screens in the tower on June 20, 2006.
