More River

Many of you have had the experience of travelling down a highway that parallels a railroad right-of-way, keeping one eye peeled for oncoming rail traffic at all times. That's what I was doing Tuesday evening, as I took the scenic route from Red Wing to Austin. That means I drove a good length of Highway 61 along the Mississippi River.

I was just south of Lake City, not even to Maple Springs, where I had hoped to stop and set for a spell, when a glimpse of what looked to be headlight caused me to dump the air in my vehicle and pull over to the side of the road. Grabbing the camera and crossing the highway, I barely had time to shoot this:


Just ten more minutes, and I would have caught him in nice light sweeping around the curve at Maple Springs. Oh well, no sense waiting for a train there now. On I went.

I missed the headlight on a train I met at Lock and Dam 5. The only indication of that train was the cars flying by me in the opposite direction. Since the stretch of highway was 4 lane a u-turn and chase allowed me to overtake the train near Minneiska for a couple of shots as the power rounded a curve. It's pretty down there, but I sure wish the CP would cut brush instead of spraying it.



That jumbled up mess of power reminded me of something I saw in New Ulm a couple of weeks ago-a four unit set of power with no two painted the same. Seems these lashups are spending time on the mother railroad as well.

I got one more mixed-up consist in Minnesota City. More lease units, this time waiting in a siding for yet another westbound to pass.


With miles to go before I slept, I angled off for Austin here and travlled though some gorgeous scenery in the Rollingstone area. No trains there, though. So that's it for this short installment of look4trains.com.

Jim