Detroit Lakes, Minnesota — BNSF Staples Subdivision
The Northern Transcon through downtown, roughly 40 trains every 24 hours
Detroit Lakes, Minnesota — BNSF Staples Subdivision
BNSF Railway — Staples Subdivision (Northern Transcon), milepost 210.1; CPKC traffic also present · Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, United States
This operator has not granted Spotatrain permission to embed the feed, so we link to it instead.
Watch at Northern Transcon Railcams (broadcast on the Steel Highway Rail Cams channel)Streamed by Northern Transcon Railcams (broadcast on the Steel Highway Rail Cams channel)
Stream hosted by Northern Transcon Railcams (broadcast on the Steel Highway Rail Cams channel). Spotatrain links to the original feed and does not rebroadcast.
Where this camera films
Camera position: 46.82048, -95.84503
- Location
- Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, United States
Weather & light at the camera
Sun times calculated for this camera’s coordinates.
Trains on this camera
Through trains per day
27reported to the FRA
Daytime
14
6 AM – 6 PM
≈ 1 every 51 min
Nighttime
13
6 PM – 6 AM
≈ 1 every 55 min
Reported by the railroad for FRA grade crossing 081018G, 80 m from this camera (FRA inventory, July 2026). An estimate, not a schedule — crossings on this line within 5 km report 14 to 27.
- Track at the crossing
- 2 main tracks · 75 mph timetable speed
What the stream’s operator says
"With nearly 40 trains passing through each 24 hours" and "On average, we feature 34.7 trains per day over the last 10 days." — Northern Transcon Railcams stream description
Traffic as described by the stream’s operator. Spotatrain has not counted the trains itself.
Train types
Passenger trains past this camera
- Train 27, to PortlandDaily · changed Oct 53:06 AMarrives Detroit Lakes Amtrak Station
- Train 7, to SeattleDaily · changed Oct 53:06 AMarrives Detroit Lakes Amtrak Station
- Train 28, to ChicagoDaily · changed Oct 34:27 AMdeparts Detroit Lakes Amtrak Station
- Train 8, to ChicagoDaily · changed Oct 34:27 AMdeparts Detroit Lakes Amtrak Station
Scheduled times from Amtrak’s official timetable, updated October 3, 2026 — trains often run late.
On the line here
FRA / NTAD — crossing inventory Jul 21, 2026 · bridge inventory Oct 14, 2022
About this cam
Northern Transcon Railcams watches BNSF's Staples Subdivision at milepost 210.1 in downtown Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, looking towards the depot. The operator counts nearly 40 trains a day and publishes a running train log with road numbers, symbols and car counts.
Northern Transcon Railcams operates this camera at milepost 210.1 of BNSF's Staples Subdivision, looking towards the Detroit Lakes depot across a downtown street crossing. This is the Northern Transcon — BNSF's main line between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest — and Canadian Pacific Kansas City traffic runs here as well.
The operator keeps a public train log recording road numbers, times, direction, cargo, car counts, symbols, axle counts and lead-unit photographs, published at ntr-otc.com. They state that nearly 40 trains pass in each 24 hours, and give a measured figure alongside it: an average of 34.7 trains per day over the preceding ten days.
A scanner on a 55-foot antenna picks up BNSF and Canadian Pacific radio in Detroit Lakes; it is published separately on Broadcastify rather than mixed into the video. The stream is broadcast on the Steel Highway Rail Cams channel, but the camera is Northern Transcon Railcams' own.
What to watch for
Amtrak's Empire Builder passes here on its Chicago to Seattle and Portland run, and the operator lists the foreign power that turns up on BNSF trains: CP, CSXT, Ferromex, KCS, UP, CN, SP, and the local Otter Tail Valley Railroad. Because the camera looks across a street crossing in the middle of town, you see the gates drop and traffic stack up before each move, which makes it easy to catch. The depot in frame is the reason the location was chosen. The published train log is worth opening alongside the stream if you want to know what is coming.
The camera
- Stream
- YouTube live stream
- Filming
- Historic depot
- Traffic
- Freight & passenger
- Sound
- Live lineside audio — horns and engines
- Hours
- Streams around the clock, 24/7
- Camera movement
- Fixed view
- Feed checked
- September 9, 2026
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