Racing to Randall...and back

Yesterday morning (Wednesday) required a trip to Randall for work, which is always a good thing as it gives the opportunity for railfanning the Staples Sub. I met a coal empty coming out of the sun between Wadena and Staples, but my first photo op was in Staples where a loaded WPSX train was posed behind a pair of Grinstein green SD70MAC's.


The leader had the ugly bare nose, along with one of the odder patch jobs I have seen on one of these units.


Maintenance of Way forces had a 7 hour work window, which dried the flow of trains up to less than a trickle. There was no traffic through Randall for most of the day. There was a crew working on the east siding switch in Randall, though.

When I left for home, I could hear the dispatcher clearing up track and time from a number of crews. There were also a number of eastbound trains stacked up waiting for a chance to continue their journey. The first one I saw was waiting at Philbrook. Right behind him, at the 470th St crossing, I caught this under thickening overcast.


Remember the coal loads I shot in the yard that morning? Well, with the sun swung around to the west, I decided to grab a shot of the DPU as I passed through town. Here's evidence that it's still possible to find a train with three executive painted MAC's as its sole power in 2010, even if they are in a 2+1 DPU configuration.


And that's all the train photos for today. The good news for me is I still had one more day to make the commute to Randall. So, this story is to be continued...

Jim