Springtime in Wadena...

I peered out the window this afternoon and was shocked to see a shadow on the ground. Amazingly, the sun had finally burned through the clouds for a little while at least. When I asked Mrs. L4T if she was interested in checking out the sun, she answered in the affirmative. And so we were off.

I knew we would likely see at least two westbounds, and I heard the broken up transmission of a detector at some .6 milepost, with a train on Main 1, so I surmised the first one was not far off. I beat him to Verndale by less than 5 minutes. Here's a preview of a possible Verndale Rail shot-you can tell it's springtime when the afternoon sun is far enough around to get a little nose light on this shot.


Since I was on the Verndale bandwagon, I decided to grab the next train right in town. Olsen's Farm Supply has been busy unloading fertilizer cars on the spur here for the last few weeks and two are sitting there now.


We had ideas about heading to Staples to have supper at the Spot Cafe. However, once we arrived, it was closed. New winter hours call for them to close at 2:00 PM on Sundays. That should change soon as winter is rapidly giving way to spring in central Minnesota.

So after a brief tour of the yard, where a single GP was coupled up to the east end of a long string of cars but nothing else was present, we headed back to Aldrich to get a bite to eat at Ted and Gen's. They have fantastic rib sandwiches. Just before we made it into town, I heard an eastbound clear up his Richards Spur to Wadena warrant and decided to try a backlit shot. Another short wait yielded this parade of GE's:


Then it was off to supper. One more westbound passed while we were eating. The clouds had moved in again by the time we finished, so straight home it was. It's after 7:30 as I write this and there is still light in the western sky. It must be spring.

Jim