Going and Coming

The Spud River Model Railroad Show and Swapmeet happened to fall on a lovely October Sunday (excepting the wind) this year. The combination of train traffic and sunny skies allowed a few of the attendees the opportunity to do some railfanning as part of the adventure, myself included. For a couple of reasons my theme turned out to be "Going and Coming", first of all, I guess, because you have to go somewhere before you can come home.

Another cause of the them was this first set of images. Traffic was light on the Staples Sub most of the way over, but just west of the first Frazee exit I glanced across Acorn Lake and spotted a most unusual sight-a pair of GP's, running west light engine. Seemed a worthy photography target.

After being foiled in Detroit Lakes by an evil brew of traffic and traffic lights, I wasn't able to get a respectable shot of the combo "going away" until the other side of Audubon. Here you go:


I was contemplating the chances of getting some nose light on the leader when the combination of sun angle and tracks through Hawley came together to allow this:


It's not everyday when you can get decent nose light on both ends of the power set in 15 minutes. Kind of a treat.

No other photos until we were coming home, when a check at Watts revealed no westbounds. But, before reaching Glyndon a vehicle train drifting down the hill called for a course reversal. Was it worth a u-turn?


That was it for photo opportunites for me, although I know that MN Chris and Darren were able to get a few more interesting sights. I'll be watching for their trip report as well. I'm also interested to see what a third list member got of a "unit" tank train we spotted heading east just before arriving at Fargo. You know who you are.

All for now.