To Perham

Mrs. L4T and I were contemplating a place to take sustenance earlier today, and part of the research involved a look at ATCS. With a pair of westbounds showing, I proposed that we make Perham our ultimate destination, after a stop or two for photography. So we were off.



First stop was the Bluffton curve, where we waited impatiently for the train. Finally he was in the plant at Wadena, and I dismounted to await arrival. The horn for the Highway 75 crossing presaged the new gates at Black's Grove Road dropping, and then he swept around the corner and into my view:





In the meantime it looked like another train had joined the parade, coming off the Brainerd Sub. I decided to wait for another train at this location, and after a few minutes here he came. This time the train crept rather than swept around the corner, as he must have on the blocks of the first train. Doesn't take much of an excuse to grab a few frames of a 60M:





The sun had been buried behind a massive fluffy cloud not more than 10 seconds before the shutter was released for this shot. I was alternating glances between the sky and the tracks, wondering if there was a chance for a sucker hole, and sure enough a crack in the clouds allowed a bit of sunlight to illuminate this one.



With that we were off to Perham for a DQ stop. After quickly picking up our food (and a gigantic smoothie) it was back to the tracks. The rock train passed by us just as we reached the tracks, leaving me thinking that there was still a coal empty coming. Sure enough, after a couple of chicken strips and some fries, headlights popped up to the east. It was an EMD led coal empty from MERC:





I think Mr. Pentax's focusing system fell in love with the milepost on that shot.



That was it for our brief railfanning outing while grabbing supper. Tonight the BNSF treated us to some traffic and even a cascade green unit in good light. The food was good, the smoothie was better, and the SD60M was best!