Thanks to an early morning heads up by Steven Welch and a text from Jer I had advance notice of yet another late Empire Builder headed back to Chicago. These have been getting pretty routine so I may have passed on it but both alerts included information of an unusual lead engine for this area. With that I decided to head out.
Rather than drive all the way to Staples, I decided to try and get him just west of Wadena as the tracks climb out of the Leaf River Plain. I heard the detector at MP 174 announce the pending arrival of the train just before I reached my chosen location. The wait for a train was very short.
The photos above and below were shot as the train raced up the hill. It was kind of fun seeing something unusual, especially on the ever-consistent Builder.
My last shot is intended to be a better view of the Dash 8 leader and an opportunity to compare it to the Genesis unit trailing. One thing I noticed when processing this shot was the fuel tank. To my eye it's shaped like the tank on an EMD rather than the "slab sided" tanks most GE's sport.
And with that it was back home. Thanks again for the heads up guys!
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