Fanning the Frost

Today's adventure began with an early morning trip to Henning. Temperature and humidity had conspired to create a thick fog, and a side effect was heavy hoarfrost on every tree and fenceline that passed by. Of course I had to snap a couple of photos to try and capture the effect, knowing that it would be gone by the time I was returning home later this afternoon.

Turned out I knew no such thing. Strangely, the thick layer of frost stuck around all day and even with a slight wind, showed no signs of abanoning its grip. I detoured past Black's Grove Park, just west of Wadena, to see if the big pines in that area would be covered as well. But just as I turned, a check of the ATCS image showed a westbound train approaching Wadena, so I changed my plans and scooted down the road to the tracks. My first shot of the afternoon captured what I think was a short Z-NTWLAU behind a pair of GE's.


I decided that the frost made it worth chasing him down to try for another shot. The overcast was pretty heavy and made photography tough, but this is probably the best shot I got of the train, as he passes the "Big Woods" just east of Perham.


I headed back to Wadena after that. Crossing the tracks, a glance east revealed a pair of headlights pointed my way, so a detour was again in order. The train on Main 2 was the target, with an ex-Santa Fe GP unit leading. I believe, from what I could see, this was some kind of all boxcar train.


Driving down Colfax allowed this shot, of the second unit in the consist. Seems like the former SD40-2's are getting more common again as time passes. The reporting marks on all the cars I could see were MRS.


Since I was about out of light, I called it a day without investigating the train on Main 1. So that's all I've got for you today. Pray for sun on Thursday, when the schedule calls for a trip to Lake Park.

Jim