More Missabe

On Wednesday afternoon, I had to leave Hibbing for the Metro area. Since I had no deadline of when to arrive, CR 7 seemed to be a good alternative to Highway 53. The sun was out and it was beautiful afternoon.

As I approached Forbes I could see loaded cars moving west. For a minute I wondered why a T-bird train would be moving away from the plant while loaded. It took me a bit to realize I had lucked into United Tac loads headed for the docks.

I was quickly able to get ahead of the loaded train, powered by a matched set of tunnel motor units. I don't know the place names, but here's the shot of the train as it rolls south.


Even though it was a pleasant afternoon, the pellets were still giving off a wisp of steam as the train passed. I stopped and shot him a couple of more times as we traveled south together. Then all of a sudden, I noticed my low gas light was on. Out in the middle of nowhere. I decided my best chance of making civilization was to head for Meadowlands, so I left my lucky train and struck out west.

I made it to town and found the only gas pump was at what appeared to be an abandoned gas station. Something moved me to pull in anyway, and a sign taped to the window pointed me to the brown house with a green roof, to the right. Before I could even find the house, the friendly pump jockey came out and asked if I needed something. What a relief! I was running on vapor. With only $13 cash to my name, I bought all I could afford, thanked my rescuer after a pleasant visit about the upcoming Empire Builder trip he and his wife had scheduled, and continued my journey. Next thing you know, I was on Highway 53 at Independence. After a short jaunt down MN 33, I spotted the tail end of my loaded train disappearing as I crossed the tracks. A quick about-face and I was off again. This was all new territory to me, down Saginaw road and Highway 2 to Proctor. I snapped off a couple of poorly lit photos on the drive, and wound up the day's fanning with a shot off the overpass at the end of the Proctor yard. Limestone was stage to head north.


After topping off my tank at the Proctor Holiday station, it was on to I-35 for the rest of the trip. I spotted what looked like a northbound empty all rail some miles down the interstate but didn't even think about chasing, since there was no exit nearby. So, these two shots are all I have to offer from my trip down the Missabe.
Jim

An Hour at Iron Junction

While I've never had the opportunity to do a lot of railfanning of the DMIR, my occasional trips to the range area are always interesting. I lived in Virginia when I was just a youth, and can clearly remember high nose SD's and beautiful wide vision cabooses working the industrial area, sometimes delivering coal hoppers to the municipal power plant across the street from the Junior High and Roosevelt High School. Oh to have had a digicam in those days!

Iron Junction is also the site of the first real railfan trip I ever took, which lasted a total of about 2 hours due to other commitments that same day. But I was lucky as the Missabe put on a show, with one of the then fairly fresh tunnel motors teaming with a pair of SD-M's on Minntac loads bound for Two Harbors. I still have that photo somewhere.

So when work takes me to the range area these days, I always try to find a little time to visit the Iron Junction area again. Today was one of those times, as I finished up with my responsibilites in Hibbing about 3:30 and left the building to an actual sunny spring day. I was off.

My wait for a first train was short as I soon heard a horn to the north. A short three car train behind a pair of units came off the Two Harbors main (I can never remember what is what in that area, sorry) and crossed over to the west main at Iron Junction. Hey, a GT unit and a CN unit. No maroon here.


It was only about a 15 minute wait for the next train. This one was a loaded T-Bird, with an IC "death star" up front and the 403 trailing, still in maroon! So far I've seen four engines, in four different paint schemes.


If you take a close look at those two pictures, you can see that a northbound green signal lit up between the appearance of the two trains. I figured I would soon see more action, and sure enough, here came a T-Bird empty behind a pair of repainted tunnel motors. Backlit, but there was some dust being kicked up. I've barely been there a half hour and already have three trains bagged.


For some reason (actually, because I had work waiting in my hotel room), I decided to head out. Just as I crossed the tracks on Highway 7, another headlight showed up. Off I went, to shoot my first J-ball, the EJ&E 674, on the point of some morphodite train. A few gondolas, three covered hoppers, and a long string of old low-side ore cars. There weren't enough for a whole train, though. I wondered if they were being taken to a scrapyard somewhere, given that new cars are showing up.



And with that, I did head for the hotel, albeit with a short detour to Shelton Junction in the hopes a southbound CN Manifest would roll through. No such luck, so back to Chisholm it was. And now that I have done my preparation for tomorrow, I found enough time to sort-of edit a few photos and make this post. It was a great evening, with less than an hour between the first shot and last. Now you know my story of an hour at Iron Junction.

Jim

Range Report-Missing the Maroon

After work Monday evening, I managed to sneak in an hour or so of railfanning in the Virginia area. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, I head out to Iron Junction as that seems to be the most likely place to intercept a train without any inside info to direct you.

I hadn't even finished changing clthes when the strong west wind carried the sound of a locomotive horn across Silver Lake to my hotel. It was off to the races. I found the junction of CR 7 and CR 101 blocked by a southbound manifest. After it cleared, I raced to the Highway 37 overpass to shoot this train as he headed south. While there was a great sucker hole as I heard him approach, the sun snuggled in behind a cloud as soon as the train came into sight.





I haven't shot this location before, but I like it. It's a bit sidelit, but should get better later in the year. The old code line poles add to the shot.

This train was moving fairly slowly, and the sun was darting in and out, so the chase south began. This next shot is from Townline Road, south of Keenan Yard. The sun had peeked out again. Sidelit, but nice anyway. And, the second unit is a Draper! I like them, they remind me of the years I spent in Ranier watching the DWP and CN.


I left him off here, and headed back north. Wanting to catch something in good light, I investigated the line to Fayal, but found nothing. The RTC (Dispatcher in CN lingo, I guess) soon was talking to someone and 909 crept into the conversation. Knowing this was probably the BLE 909, I swung back to Iron Junction just in time to catch a northbound T-bird led by an ex-IC SD40-2. The 909 was trailing, so I don't know why I heard him mentioned on the radio.



By now the clouds were really starting to build in from the west, and I wanted something to eat. There was also work to do, so it was off to the hotel. It ended up being an entertaining little outing, but I think this is the first time I have been to Iron Junction and not seen a maroon unit. That seemed a little sad, and reminded me of the changes on other railroads. Another good reminder to shoot them while we can.

Jim