Well, it's 2021. The 15th year since I bought my first "real" camera and started railfanning "seriously". The 13th year of this journal, with a couple of breaks due to workload and health concerns (hopefully those are behind me). Since I've stuck with it this long, I figure I may as well give it at least one more year. Thusly, when I sat down at the computer this morning and spied a southbound waiting for a meet at Coons, the die was cast. I was off for Proctor.
Where this pair of BLE Tunnel Motors greeted me. I have titled this creation "Orange Frosty". Wendy's might not have them but the CN does.
I waited a bit for the southbound to make his way to Proctor, taking the time to stomp out a couple of observation posts in the snow piled along the sides of the St. Louis River Road bridge. Finally the headlight came into view, and finalier the train got close enough to get a decent shot through the gloom. The Death Star leading a pair of DMIR Tunnel Motors was worth the wait.
With nothing much moving at that point I headed home. Fast forward to afternoon. I was happily entertaining myself with a lazy game of Sudoku when the sun came out. That got my attention. A check of ATCS hinted at a pair of northbounds. The temp was, if not balmy, at least comfortable. And i had wisely charged a battery for the drone a few hours earlier in anticipation of just such a confluence of events. I joined the fleet of northbounds, destination Cloquet River bridge. After a brief wait I was rewarded with this view of a grungy GEVO passing through a wonderfully-flocked landscape.
With another train hot on his heels I relocated a mile or two south and launched again, this time capturing a stacker with a mid-train DPU. The low winter sun was casting long shadows as the train rolled by.
And with that I reversed course and headed for home. After soundly thumping Mrs. L4T in a game of gin rummy, I settled in for the evening, content in the day's railfanning. Another year of shooting has begun.
