Glint

I spent the day in Westbrook, MN, where there are no trains. There is still a depot, but the rails have been gone for a long time. Luckily, the path from Westbrook to Marshall, where I'm spending the night, can be "adjusted" to parallel some tracks. That's my chosen route.

The sun was just peeking out from under a heavy cloud cover on my arrival at the BNSF/DME crossing near Florence. A westbound behind a set of blue and yellow units would have been beautifully lit for a period of about half an hour. Sadly, no such train arrived. Just as the time came to leave, however, a train horn jerked me upright and my head began to swivel trying to identify the source. Sure enough it was a BNSF eastbound coming right out of the setting sun.

After spending some time waiting, it seemed only right to try and shoot the train anyway. A nice S-curve just south of the bridge over the DME offered the opportunity of some glinty action, so out the Pentax came. After a (not very) patient wait the train rolled into sight and the clicking began. Once again, the lack of software probably does nothing to help this image but believe me, it was lovely in real life.


Made me think of my CP friends as the one unit wonder rolled by. He wasn't moving very fast, as a long string of DDG cars stretched out behind the train. I shot him in one other location, then the light was totally gone. That one will have to wait until I get home.

One other treat from today was the sighting of a short DME train with four units up front, parked east of Tracy. The leader was blue and yellow, and had six axles. The next two units were leasers, and bringing up the end of the power set was a DME GP40 in nice paint. Again, I'll have to give those shots a good dose of Elements before I can post them.

A good day, and tomorrow I'll get another chance to strike it rich along the Marshall Sub and DME as I travel from Marshall, to Tyler, and then back to New Ulm. Wish me luck!