On Monday October 26, my Outlook calendar told me I had to be in the Cities for a meeting. Back on the road! Luckily, Mrs. L4T agreed to ride along on this day trip so she could take advantage of the retail opportunities the metro area offers.
Cloudy skies spoiled a couple of photo opportunties on the way down, where two trains met in Clear Lake, a coal empty was leaving Becker behind four units-a pair of AC GEVO's leading, trailed by a pair of Grinstein MAC's. I should have tried to get a decent shot of that consist, I don't think I have ever seen that particular combo before.
After my meeting, we decided a swing by Northtown yard was in order. I gave the Mrs. a quick tour of the area, which I am not all that familiar with anyway, and then parked so she could enjoy her magazines while I spent a little time on the St. Anthony bridge. Seems that FURX might be getting some SD40-2's returned, given the accumulation at Northtown.
Of course some of those units are SD60M's, and there might be some SD75's in the mix as well, but there are a whole lot of -2's in this photo.
One of the units doing some switching was also an SD carbody, I'm assuming now called an SD39-2. I haven't seen one that wasn't re-numbered for some time, so this was kind of a treat. They did have to pick one of the rattiest looking cascade green units I have seen to use that day, though.
I grabbed a straight on shot of one row of the 40's from the bridge. The fourth one back was painted in a FURX scheme.
I was just about to leave when I saw headlights approaching from the south and wandered back out on the bridge to see what was coming. When I spotted the train I was glad I walked back out on the bridge. I trotted all the way across to shoot a "practice" Northstar train as it passed through Northtown yard. I've caught a couple of the coaches before but this was my first time seeing the power live. Sharp!
I never did really get any decent light, but it's always fun to stop by Northtown to see what BNSF is up to. We headed home in the clouds and spotted a couple of trains on the way home, but no photos. That's it for now.
Jim
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