Saturday, May 21, 2022
You Just Never Know
Saturday, February 20, 2021
Saturday Morning Mash Up
The title of this post is based on the first moving train I shot this morning. You might understand why after I share a photo of it. But before we get to that, my first photo of the morning was at Proctor. The Polar Vortex has loosened its grip on Minnesota, but it was still cold (and humid) enough this morning to get the pellets steaming.
With that out of the way let's move on to the story of the mash up. ATCS told me there was a meet set up for Alborn. In the hopes that the southbound was another taconite load, I headed north with the intention of catch the meet from the air and chasing the southbound, well, south. When I arrived I was disappointed to see a dinky little train that will show up later. Still seemed like the thing to do was wait for him to go south and try to make the best of the situation. But first the northbound had to clear. It was a long train that had been leaving Proctor when I got the shot above. I hadn't seen the power so I wasn't expecting this.
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Mish Mash
The first Sunday of 2021 found me trackside on a sunny day. The hint of a southbound on the Missabe sent me searching for a nicely lit location and I settled on the curve at Jeffrey Road. Before long the IC 6261 showed itself and put my shutter release finger to work.
With that I headed home. In the afternoon Mrs. L4T agreed to ride shotgun on an outing that took us over Superior way to the other railroad. I had the drone charged up for taconite loads at State Line.
Saturday, January 2, 2021
Kicking Off 2021
Monday, December 28, 2020
It's Winter
By now, the wind was blowing, I was cold, and it seemed like a good time to head for home, so the next move was back to Duluth. I processed pictures and thawed out for a while, then settled in to enjoy some vacation time.
Monday, November 30, 2020
A BLE Kind of Morning
With a vacation day scheduled for the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend, what better way to spend it than heading out trackside. After a look at ATCS showed both north and southbound trains on the Missabe Sub this morning, that's where I went.
First stop, Proctor. The first northbound turned out to be a transfer coming up the hill from Pokegema. The southbound was approaching Coons. But upon arrival the switch job was working, offering a nice view of the 215.
We have that, even if the CN doesn't paint a DMIR heritage unit.
It was only a short wait until the transfer showed up, rounding the curve and approaching the yard. Judging from what looks like HelperLink hardware on the nose of the loco, one of the helper sets was doing transfer duty on this Monday morning.
Finally the southbound shows itself, and it turns out to be a loaded pellet train led by a BLE unit. It was just cold enough to show a little steam from the hot pellets.
Another BLE leader makes two in a row for me. The northbound manifest rolled by at Coons but I didn't get a shot. One more stop at Jeffrey Road was kind of a bust, nothing from there to post. Then it was home for a cup of coffee and lunch. Tomorrow it's back to the grind. Woe is me.
Friday, November 27, 2020
Green Hornet Redux
(Definition of redux-brought back)
Once upon a time, there was a railroad from Bemidji to International Falls called the Minnesota and International. Aftere being absorbed by the NP, it eventually ended up as a Burlington Northern branch, before being abandoned some time in, I'm guessing here, the 1980's? It handled traffic to and from International Falls and other points along the line. To the best of my knowledge, BN obtained trackage rights over the DWP from Duluth to International Falls when this line was abandoned. While I lived in the Falls, BN would run a train that was nicknamed the "Green Hornet" which interchanged with the Minnesota, Dakota, and Western at Ranier. The only customer in the Falls besides the paper mill was Ferrell Gas. Boise Cascade at that time was shipping a fair amount of their traffic via intermodal so in turn that was much of what the Green Hornet carried. Of course tank cars and covered hoppers of various chemicals and Box Cars were also common. Yes, I should have taken more pictures back in those days.
Fast forward a few years and BN(SF) must have passed that business on to the CN. I had moved away from the Falls area and didn't keep track of what was going on up there. However, my move to Duluth has re-kindled my interest in the goings-on north of town, and the trains that replaced the Green Hornet. CN now owns all the former DMIR and DWP trackage and runs trains directionally between the iron range and the Twin Ports. Northbounds use the former DMIR and southbounds generally run on the DWP. The mainline "through" trains from Chicago to Winnipeg and points west come up the hill from Pokegama Yard but these local trains between Ranier and the Ports seem to call Proctor home.
Recently I have been more active chasing trains on the CN. For some reason, I have had pretty good luck catching what I think is the Ranier Local. From what I have gathered, this is the L567 northbound and the L568 southbound. For a while it was running with a pair of former Oakway SD60's:
Just last Sunday I caught a northbound at Coons that I suspect was this train as well. Again, pair of SD60's and a short L567:
It was a race to get that one and I didn't have time to get in proper position for a photo, so this was one of those point and shoot moments.
I went out again this morning, and almost waited for a southbound at Simar, but decided to try something different. Proctor had already sent one north ahead of me, but ATCS showed another on the way. I headed north even though I knew the shot would likely be backlit, but I was "lucky" in that there was a cloud bank about where Highway 2 turns west. But Bear Trap was my target this morning. so I went straight. I got the drone unpacked and lit up about the time I heard a horn and was hovering when the train rounded the curve.