Spaghetti Junction

There's a place on the north edge of Thief River Falls that I think of as spaghetti junction. How come? Because three different railroads (Canadian Pacific, Northern Plains, and Minnesota Northern) all converge in this one spot. I've never taken the time to figure what belongs to whom, but two tracks come in from the south and three emerge, two headed north and one with a more westerly tack.


I've got a long history of driving by this area. In the 80's when we lived in Baudette, occasional trips to Grand Forks took us down Highway 32. After the move to Wadena in 2004, job responsibilities encompassed Thief River Falls along with Roseau, Warroad, and Baudette, which led to trips past this area. And now, I sometimes stay in TRF while working in the Warren and Hallock areas. This gives me an excuse to drive by on my way to and from work.

That's what I did Tuesday evening, as I returned to TRF from Stephen. I spied a Minnesota Northern train tied down on the north edge of town and swung across a gravel road to get in position for a shot, shown here:


The MNN has quite an attractive paint scheme, and the evening sun lit it nicely. I was glad to be able to get a set of GP units back to back.

When I left for Hallock early this morning on Highway 59, I glanced across the field to see the train still sitting there. Since time was kind of tight I continued on north until encountering something else, which will be the topic of another post.

Jim