The Rollag Trip

Every year, two specific Saturdays are blocked out in my calendar before any others. They have "priority", as it were. Those dates are the longest Saturday of the year, which is fast becoming the traditional weekend for Verndale Rail, and the Saturday before Labor Day, which has turned into the day of my annual visit to the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion in Rollag. This past Saturday was the day of Rollag.

In the past I've taken my camera with, and even got some railroad shots on the grounds of the show. This year I left the camera in the car and enjoyed the show. Not only are the displays and equipment fantastic, I have the privlege of attending with a great group, which includes my son, and don't want to distract them with frequent requests to stop for a picture.

That doesn't mean there are no train pictures from the day, though. On the way home, we just missed a meet at the Frazee S curve, where the westbound was still passing as we approached. Another meet seemed possible at the Luce crossing when a headlight showed up. Being as how I was the driver I stopped at the crossing to shoot the train. It was a Superior coal empty.


The eastbound hadn't shown yet, but I decided to move on, but my companions encouraged me to wait a couple of minutes for another shot. At their urging I did. Here's the stack train with a pair of Dash 9's leading that would have been part of the Frazee meet had I been a couple of minutes earlier.


As you can tell by looking at the sky, I was lucky to catch him in the sun. That's all the train photos for that Saturday, but it was fun to be able to include a bit of railfanning in what was otherwise a super day of old time agriculture, sawmills, and delicious food all shared with good friends. Thanks for waiting, guys!

The Long-Lost Staples Saturday Morning

A couple or three years ago, it was a common thing for me to head over to Staples on Saturday mornings to grab some kind of breakfast sandwich, see if the Staples or Brainerd Sub had anything much going on, and check out the yard and depot. Somehow I've gotten out of that habit. Today seemed like a good day to do it again, if only for old times sake. Cloudy skies nearly cancelled the trip, but when Mrs. L4T looked out and said the sun was shining I flew into action. After a stop at Holiday for vittles, it was off to the races.

My first train was this eastbound, holding at the Dower Lake station sign on Main 2. With the crossing blocked, it sounded like they were in a hurry to move, but the dispatcher told them to be patient. I got a shot anyway, to record the power:


A westbound was waiting as well, this one just before the switch for the Brainerd Sub. Since no attractive photo angles were in play, and the yard looked to have some interesting stuff, I passed right by. However, when I was shooting some of the yard trains they started to pull and I got this backlit shot under the clouds as they passed the depot.


When the sun peeked out, I managed to grab a shot of the trains in the yard. Here you can see a trio of Dash 9 led eastbounds waiting to head for Northtown and destinations beyond. Gotta love that H1 paint!


After that I swung over to the Depot, where renovation is still underway. A conversation with a caretaker clued me in that the ticket agent's room will soon house the Staples Chamber of Commerce. They are making progress.

I was waiting for the eastbound I had shot earlier to come by, and finally he did. The dispatcher had crossed him over to Main One at Dower Lake and he passed the depot on the near track, under stormy skies that the Mrs. informed me were producing rain in Wadena almost from the time I left.


After that, with ATCS showing nothing and rain approaching Staples, it was off for Wadena, where I set to work on a custom built grain bin that may some day approach completion.

Stormy Skies

Greetings railfans: the long drought of posts at look4trains.com is ending, at least for a while. The last couple of weeks have given me the chance to experience what back pain is really like, and one thing I've learned is that I'm not a fan of a sore back. That pain has prevented me from spending much time railfanning or doing much of anything but what is absolutely required at work. However, I have managed to shoot some photos out the car window and want to share a couple of those today.

Last Tuesday required the trek to Virginia, and I shot a couple of cloudy train pictures on the way over. While I spent three days on the range, the sore back referred to earlier overcame any desire to railfan, and the clouds managed to tamp down that tiny remaining flicker of desire. So no CN shots from this trip.

Thursday was a decent day in Virginia, but Mrs. L4T had informed me that the same was not true in Wadena. The trip home was mostly rain free until reaching Brainerd, where the skies started to become threatening and the windshield wipers started seeing intermittent use. The closer I got to home, the darker it got. My mind was mulling the possibility of a photo capturing the look, and when I got to Staples a coal train in the yard called out to be included in the shot.


That's an approximation of what it actually looked like late Thursday afternoon. It's the best I can do with what I had to work with.

Anyway, the gloom continued as I drove the last few miles to Wadena. A couple of tiny blue spots offered hope for some sunlight but it was vain hope. Arriving at the grade crossing on 1st Street East, the signal was lit for an eastbound and I stepped out of the Escape to shoot him as he passed. Here's the result:


That's my take from the drive home. I may try and post the cloudy shots from Tuesday, or maybe not. Anyway, hopefully this lets you know I am still alive and kicking, and with any luck this back will heal and I'll be at full strength again.

Jim

Homebound on Highway 10

Thursday, I was in the north metro all day and managed to complete my assigned duties by quitting time. Home was calling, and the most direct route took me right up Highway 10 all the way to Wadena.

The thought occured to me that there should be some Northstar trains out and about. I hadn't yet had the chance to catch them in action, just a couple of the cars as they came through Red Wing last year and a test train one afternoon last fall when I had the chance to stop at Northtown Yard.

Highway 10 was its usual clogged-up self as I passed through the Anoka and Elk River areas, but was clearing out pretty nicely by the time I reached Big Lake. I didn't know what the Big Lake station was like, but the signs along the highway made it easy to find. After waiting only about 5 minutes, a headlight appeared to the east, and soon materialized into one of the evening Northstar trains. My first photo shows him as he drifts to a stop near the platform.


The train had barely stopped when the doors opened and a rush of passengers spilled out of the cars. These trains certainly do sport a flashy paint scheme.


Having been gone for 4 days made me anxious to get home. Although I spotted a train or two over the next hundred miles or so, nothing offered the opportunity for a quick shot. I did have to detour past Camp Ripley due to the flood damage to the Highway 10 bridge at Little Falls, which offered the opportunity to see the "street trackage" across the river bridge at the Camp. Is that trackage still used?

An empty coal train was just clearing the crossing in Motley, which offered the chance at a photo on the Brainerd Sub. I passed the train about halfway between Motley and Staples, and crossed over to the south side of the tracks for these two shots. Obviously, clouds had moved in as I travelled northwest, and there was just a crack to the west letting the sun through for this shot.


I decided to shoot the DPU as well, since there was no choice but to wait for it to clear. Here is the result:


The sun was gone before this train made it through Staples. Coal traffic was healthy, though, as one loaded train was waiting for these empties to clear so it could head east on the Brainerd, and I met a second loaded DEEX train before making it to Wadena. And that's all for this episode of your railfan reality blog.

Jim

Finally...Sunshine

I think it was John Denver who sang about sunshine on his shoulders making him happy. For me it is more like sunshine on BNSF's locos makes me happy. And Thursday I finally got a bit of that.

The morning started out with an early trip to Randall for work. The sun was out and a coal train was posing in the Staples yard, creating a combination that was too good to pass up. I grabbed this shot to capture the scene.


I spent most of the day in Randall, either outside along the tracks or trapped in meetings that let me see and hear the trains passing by but with no chance to attempt photos. Since the sun was almost directly overhead for much of the day I guess that was no loss. Street construction had a BNSF section employee on site in Randall and I got a chance to talk with him for a moment. The most interesting tidbits were that the ongoing tie replacement project on the Staples Sub comes at a high price-the total cost for each tie replaced is in the $45 neighborhood. That adds up to a LOT of money. Second, his impression was that traffic is down a bit, and that the change in traffic seems to lag the economy. This means that even as the economy recovers, any increase in train frequency will likely be a few months behind that improvement. Not scientific, just a working man's observation, but it seems the economists haven't been the most accurate when predicting what is going to happen so this probably has as much credibility as anything.

One interesting sighting was a two car business train, with the trailing car being "Skagit River", passing through Randall eastbound Thursday afternoon. Again, no photos as my camera was in the car, and the train was there and gone so fast I had no chance to retrieve it.

I arrived home to company, and after they left I asked Mrs. L4T if she was interested in going out for supper. Of course she was willing so we headed uptown with camera in hand. When I crossed the tracks an empty coal train was crossing from Main 2 to 1. I ran to CR 75 west of Wadena to catch him and I really liked the sky in the shot.


Next we headed for Staples. There was a train changing crews at the CR 9 crossing near Aldrich, and I shot him just as he started to pull. Probably should have changed lenses to try a wide angle.


After getting some "to-go" vittles at the DQ, we headed to the west end of the yard to shoot what I think is a rail welding train. Here are a couple of shots of this contraption, complete with a set of cascade green power, including an SD (40 or 39 or something) in the consist.


Soon Mrs. L4T spotted a headlight approaching from the east and I decided to backtrack towards Wadena to get in a spot where the light was less head on. I settled for a crossing just east of Oink Joint Road for this shot.


With that we aimed for home so I could take a look at what I had captured. Not too bad an evening, as we were able to see some trains and share a ride and a meal. Another fine day along Central Minnesota's iron highway, the Staples Sub.

Jim