Frosty Morning

After yesterday's discussion of trains in the fog and frost, I figured the weather events were done for a while. Wrong again!

This morning I had a meeting at church, and when I walked out of the house I heard a train horn to the west. Since my church is close to the tracks, it seemed like no harm would be done by taking the long route just in case the train was eastbound. The gates were coming down as I approached the tracks, so after a full speed exit and barely coming to a stop I shot my first crude train of the day at the Highway 71 crossing. Tried to include a little of the frost that was hanging on everything including the front of the locomotive.


After finishing up at church, I needed to stop at Ben Franklin for some weathering supplies. I'm glad I did, since there was another eastbound tank train passing through town when I walked out the front door of the store. A quick phone call to Mrs. L4T to let her know my arrival home would be delayed was followed by hot pursuit towards Staples.

After overtaking the train just east of Verndale, a quick dash across the tracks yielded this:


As you can see the sun was out now, leaving me wondering how much longer any of this frost could hang on. I spun around to shoot the train going away as well, as much as anything to get a shot of my favorite Staples Sub tree sporting a glorious coat of white.


The frost was prettier than I was able to record, and not being able to get the train against the trees due to the position of the sun and highway was a little frustrating. My next big idea was to try a shot south of Staples, where the sun and frost just might play well together. Well, kind of I guess.


A pit stop at a Staples gas station extinguished the low fuel light, and I headed back for Wadena. Almost immediately BNSF 771 East cleared up a warrant, and it was back to work. This time from the Todd County Highway 9 crossing, for what turned out to be my favorite shot of the day.


Another tank train! Knowing how much he would wish he had been there, I immediately texted Chris with tall tales about the flood of oil trains headed into the bright sun amidst the frosty scenery. That was kind of mean of me.

When I got home, the frost was just starting to drop, creating mini snow flurries throughout the neighborhood. It was a scenic day, and thanks to the BNSF for cooperating and giving the chance to shoot some trains in these unusual conditions!