You Just Never Know

A hint of sun and a southbound showing on ATCS was enough to get me out of the house this cool May Saturday morning. The southbound was lined into the siding at Coons to meet two northbounds, so I stopped at Munger in hopes of getting some sidelight. It was not to be, since as I waited impatiently for the southbound to get lights into Proctor, another northbound OUT of Proctor lit up. The light was going to be on the nose at Munger if the southbound did finally get a light after this third meet, so I decided to take the short trip to Adolph and try a backlit shot of the third northbound. It was an ore empty behind a pair of dash 8's and a wide cab SD40-2. 

After that train passed, I waited to see if my southbound would get a signal to come home. Sure enough after the train I just shot passed Coons, the train in the siding got lined all the way into the scale track at Proctor. A little internet surfing later I was rewarded with a trio of GE's, on a limestone empty and I got a sucker hole to boot. 

I also got a drone shot at Adolph. After landing the drone, I scooted down to Proctor and caught the train arriving there. The engineer left the ditch lights on, which I think adds to the photo. I always appreciate when they do that, even though I know it's not to do me a favor. The clouds were getting thick by this time but I managed a semi-well lit shot.

And with that, I headed home. It was a productive outing, and just the opposite of last weekend, there were lots of GE's out and about. They aren't my favorite but a solid set is nice to shoot. Plus, anytime there are trains moving and the sun is shining, it's a good outing. 
 

Saturday Morning Mash Up

 The title of this post is based on the first moving train I shot this morning. You might understand why after I share a photo of it. But before we get to that, my first photo of the morning was at Proctor. The Polar Vortex has loosened its grip on Minnesota, but it was still cold (and humid) enough this morning to get the pellets steaming.

With that out of the way let's move on to the story of the mash up. ATCS told me there was a meet set up for Alborn. In the hopes that the southbound was another taconite load, I headed north with the intention of catch the meet from the air and chasing the southbound, well, south. When I arrived I was disappointed to see a dinky little train that will show up later. Still seemed like the thing to do was wait for him to go south and try to make the best of the situation. But first the northbound had to clear. It was a long train that had been leaving Proctor when I got the shot above. I hadn't seen the power so I wasn't expecting this.

Good Lord, I said to myself, that ain't ordinary. I haven't seen the 215 stray from Proctor since, well, I don't know when. A long time. With the rumors of the standard cabs going away circulating I leapt to the conclusion that this could be the end of maroon paint on former DMIR rails. I guess time will tell. 

Now for the southbound that guy above met. I headed to Culver for a shot at the curve. The short train was making dandy time so my wait wasn't long. I banged away as he approached and passed me. 

I caught up for one last shot at Jeffrey Road.

Another southbound got a light to Coons, so back north I went. Since it was a balmy 6 above by this time, I busted out the drone for a flight at Bear Trap.

He was just getting ready to pull after a meeting an intermodal at Coons, so I pulled over and fired off a few more frames. I'm a sucker for those Oakway SD60's. 

By then it was time to head for home and a fresh cup of coffee. A good morning of railfanning. 

Mish Mash

 The first Sunday of 2021 found me trackside on a sunny day. The hint of a southbound on the Missabe sent me searching for a nicely lit location and I settled on the curve at Jeffrey Road. Before long the IC 6261 showed itself and put my shutter release finger to work. 

I had a hard time deciding where to head next, and after some poor decision making I ended up at Ratika Road in the hopes of getting something usable on the former DWP. I wasn't overly successful, and wound up with this:

Further away from the lake the frost was still hanging on, so I headed back up 2 when I noticed a train lined into Proctor. Maple Grove road let me get the limestone GE's returning to Proctor.

With that I headed home. In the afternoon Mrs. L4T agreed to ride shotgun on an outing that took us over Superior way to the other railroad. I had the drone charged up for taconite loads at State Line. 

So that's my mish mash of photos from the first Sunday of the year. 

Kicking Off 2021

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. 

 

It's Winter

It's that time of year when accumulated vacation gets used up, which explains how I wound up at Proctor this morning waiting for a transfer from Pokegema to arrive. 

It was cold. Not below zero cold, but for this winter one of the colder mornings. Which led to the hope that the sun would shine, but the lake did its normal job of creating a cloud bank that just let the sun tease a body with occasional slivers of light. 

Luckily the CN entertained me with a pair of DMIR units on the Proctor switch job. Sounded nice while they were jockeying cars back and forth. 

Clear skies to the north and west taunted me as I waited, but being the stubborn person that I am, I wouldn't budge from my position on the overpass. Eventually the transfer showed up.

As he approached, I notice something unusual about the power. Was that a cowl unit in the consist? Sure enough it was. My calculating mind led me to conclude that if I would just wait at the south end of the yard, I could get the Draper "leading" when they ran around the train. Since warming up sounded good anyway, I jumped in and drove down to the crossing after a stop at Kwik Trip. I had to wait for a limestone empty to head down the hill but I finally got the shot I was waiting for. It's not much but I don't get too many chances at these so I take what I can get. 

I thought about running down to get the limestone empty at 27th. There was something coming off the DWP, headed down to Steelton, and a southbound approaching Coons. So many choices! In the hopes of a pellet load I opted to stay at Proctor. Given that there was a loaded train sitting in the yard I should have known better. My hopes were dashed when I saw the southbound Instead of 140 cars of taconite, I got a couple of empty gons and a pair of bentonite cars. As you can see in the photo, the clouds were still taunting me with sunshine just north of Proctor. It's enough to make a person grind his teeth. 

By now, the wind was blowing, I was cold, and it seemed like a good time to head for home, so the next move was back to Duluth. I processed pictures and thawed out for a while, then settled in to enjoy some vacation time. 
 

A BLE Kind of Morning

With a vacation day scheduled for the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend, what better way to spend it than heading out trackside. After a look at ATCS showed both north and southbound trains on the Missabe Sub this morning, that's where I went. 

First stop, Proctor. The first northbound turned out to be a transfer coming up the hill from Pokegema. The southbound was approaching Coons. But upon arrival the switch job was working, offering a nice view of the 215.

We have that, even if the CN doesn't paint a DMIR heritage unit. 

It was only a short wait until the transfer showed up, rounding the curve and approaching the yard. Judging from what looks like HelperLink hardware on the nose of the loco, one of the helper sets was doing transfer duty on this Monday morning. 

Finally the southbound shows itself, and it turns out to be a loaded pellet train led by a BLE unit. It was just cold enough to show a little steam from the hot pellets. 

There looked to be another meet coming up at Coons, so I headed north to catch whatever it was coming down from the range. Thought I'd try a drone shot at the Saginaw depot, but I think I got a little too high. Here's the result:

Another BLE leader makes two in a row for me. The northbound manifest rolled by at Coons but I didn't get a shot. One more stop at Jeffrey Road was kind of a bust, nothing from there to post. Then it was home for a cup of coffee and lunch. Tomorrow it's back to the grind. Woe is me. 

Green Hornet Redux

(Definition of redux-brought back)

Once upon a time, there was a railroad from Bemidji to International Falls called the Minnesota and International. Aftere being absorbed by the NP, it eventually ended up as a Burlington Northern branch, before being abandoned some time in, I'm guessing here, the 1980's? It handled traffic to and from International Falls and other points along the line. To the best of my knowledge, BN obtained trackage rights over the DWP from Duluth to International Falls when this line was abandoned. While I lived in the Falls, BN would run a train that was nicknamed the "Green Hornet" which interchanged with the Minnesota, Dakota, and Western at Ranier. The only customer in the Falls besides the paper mill was Ferrell Gas. Boise Cascade at that time was shipping a fair amount of their traffic via intermodal so in turn that was much of what the Green Hornet carried. Of course tank cars and covered hoppers of various chemicals and Box Cars were also common. Yes, I should have taken more pictures back in those days. 

Fast forward a few years and BN(SF) must have passed that business on to the CN. I had moved away from the Falls area and didn't keep track of what was going on up there. However, my move to Duluth has re-kindled my interest in the goings-on north of town, and the trains that replaced the Green Hornet. CN now owns all the former DMIR and DWP trackage and runs trains directionally between the iron range and the Twin Ports. Northbounds use the former DMIR and southbounds generally run on the DWP. The mainline "through" trains from Chicago to Winnipeg and points west come up the hill from Pokegama Yard but these local trains between Ranier and the Ports seem to call Proctor home.

Recently I have been more active chasing trains on the CN. For some reason, I have had pretty good luck catching what I think is the Ranier Local. From what I have gathered, this is the L567 northbound and the L568 southbound. For a while it was running with a pair of former Oakway SD60's:

Just last Sunday I caught a northbound at Coons that I suspect was this train as well. Again, pair of SD60's and a short L567:

It was a race to get that one and I didn't have time to get in proper position for a photo, so this was one of those point and shoot moments. 

I went out again this morning, and almost waited for a southbound at Simar, but decided to try something different. Proctor had already sent one north ahead of me, but ATCS showed another on the way. I headed north even though I knew the shot would likely be backlit, but I was "lucky" in that there was a cloud bank about where Highway 2 turns west. But Bear Trap was my target this morning. so I went straight. I got the drone unpacked and lit up about the time I heard a horn and was hovering when the train rounded the curve.

The combination of a pair of older 6 axle units with the string of MDW boxcars up front were an indication this was, again, the Green Hornet Redux. 

I swung by Proctor on the way home, but with not much happening there I didn't stay long and soon was home trying to extract something usable from the above photo. 

And that's the rest of the story.

Under the Overcast

 Unlike vampires, railroad photographers love sunlight. I'm no exception to this axion, probably worse than most, to the point that Mrs. L4T often scolds me for complaining that "the light isn't right for a picture here". 

So it's probably obvious that heavy overcast makes it harder for me to motivate myself to head out trackside. But the clouds do have the advantage of allowing you to shoot in just about any direction without worrying about backlighting. In fact, if you can't see shadows, it hardly matter which way you point the camera. 

All this is a long introduction into my train chasing trip yesterday morning. I didn't leap out of bed and hit the road, but after a couple of leisurely cups of coffee and contemplation of what to do with a day of vacation, a glance at the monitor told me that CN was calling with a northbound heading up the hill and something else coming south. After bundling up and grabbing the appropriate gear I headed west. The next check of ATCS showed the southbound lined to hold the main at Coons far a meet with the northbound coming up the hill. It wasn't long after settling in at Munger that the northbound came at me, working hard on the front of a long vehicle train.

An EMD up front is always a treat, and that BC Rail unit behind was a nice change of pace too. 

Although the plan had been to shoot the northbound, the southbound, then head for home, no one told the RTC about my plan. They had a northbound lined out of Proctor right behind the vehicle train, so it wasn't but a few minutes before this empty pellet train with solid EMD power passed by, gaining on  the vehicle train. 

Someday I will get an over-under at Munger. Yesterday was not that day. But being pretty confident that the next train is coming from the north, let's chase this guy and get another shot. Off Highway 2:

And finally it was time for the southbound. Leaving the house I had high hopes for a loaded pellet train, but instead I got limestone empties with a GE in charge. Canosia Road:

All in all, not a bad hour and a half door to door. And the solid overcast I discussed at the start of this post allowed me to get trains travelling both directions on this section of track without worrying about backlight. Maybe Mrs. L4T has a point. (But don't tell her.)

Like Old Times

 The days are getting short. We lose daylight both morning and evening, which means it's usually dark when I get up this time of year. This morning was no different. 

A glimpse out the window as the sun peeked above the horizon showed a fresh blanket of snow, maybe 3 inches, and with flurries continuing. ATCS told me that a northbound was heading out of Superior, so with the OK from Mrs. L4T I bundled up and headed out into the snow. The roads were less than ideal, but I figured I had plenty of time to catch the train somewhere north of Proctor. That idea was dashed upon reaching Jeffery Road, as the train was speeding north. Pressing on, I made it to North Coons with but a minute to spare, and grabbed a shot of what I figure was the Ranier local based on the fact that the train had a pair of SD60's for power and only a few cars. 

With one headed my out of Superior, I backtracked with the intent of catching the next northbound somewhere closer to Proctor. I decided to swing by the yard on the way and managed to get a limestone train being made up while the customary switch engines stood by. A pair of DMIR leaders is always a win. 

Then it was off to Stark Road to wait for the northbound. Didn't take too long, but I heard him blow for at least 3 crossings before seeing him. Anticipation was killing me. Then this:

I planned to head home after that train, but with a southbound showing approaching Proctor, I texted the Mrs. telling her I would be a few minutes late and was rewarded with pellet loads.

 Made it home in time to get a text from Mr. Mackey informing me that the WC heritage unit was headed my way. Well, clouds and fog or not, that merited a return trip. Munger seemed like a safe spot to intercept that train. But first, the CN had to run this limestone empty to Proctor so why not shoot that too?

Then it was the moment we have been waiting for-the arrival of the WC heritage unit. I spent a little battery on that.

And that was that. I headed home with a good day's railfanning in the bag. Thanks to Dan Mackey for the heads up on the WC unit. Would have missed it without that tip. 

The title of this post is Like Old Times, because this outing reminded me of many trips I made to Staples while I lived in Wadena. It felt like I am starting to become familiar with locations in the Twin Ports area, and that reminded me of how I used to feel along the Staples Sub. Good memories. 

Sun, Snow, and Steam (and Clouds)

 Saturday morning October 24 revealed a clear blue sky and significant snow on the ground. Seemed like the kind of day that should be captured for posterity. What better way than to take some train pictures?

I had been sniffing around the former DWP main out in the Munger area and thought the snow and morning sun would make for a nicely lit backdrop for a southbound CN train. Off I went to the crossing Maple Grove Road, where I could sit and wait and observe the glory of a Christmas scene in October. 

The wait was relatively short, and I was ready when the southbound passed by a row of flocked evergreens. 

That zebra painted second unit inspired me to have another go at this train, so it was off to Becks Road, where I shot this at the overpass.

It's kind of crazy how just a little drop in elevation reduces the amount of snow on the ground. That shot looked more like early November than Christmas. 

On my way home, a stop at the overpass on the north end of Proctor Yard yielded a shot of pellet loads steaming alongside a tunnel motor leader pointed toward the range. The overcast had moved in by that time, giving the scene a wintry appearance. Why not capture that?

With that, my morning was complete and I headed for home thinking Santa would show up any day. Another railfanning outing in the books.

A Dandy Lashup

 With the year end creeping up on us and vacation needing to be used before that date, I burned a day Friday. That allowed me to venture out into CN territory in the morning. I looked at ATCS before leaving the house and saw a southbound lined from Simar to Steelton. I made the dangerous assumption that he would get a light all the way to Pokegama and headed for the Wisconsin side of the Oliver bridge in the hopes of getting a drone shot of the train creeping across the river. 

No such luck, as he stopped in Steelton, and I ran out of patience waiting. ATCS looked like the main was tied up by a switch job at Pokegama. I made a swing through Superior and saw nothing much of interest, but there was another southbound waiting at Simar so I galloped up Highway 2 just to find myself once more waiting for a train to move. Since that one had his headlight on, I figured he would be moving as soon as a northbound coming up the hill cleared Nopeming. I had a little longer to wait, though, as the northbound was through Munger before the soutbound started to roll. I figured I would shoot him at Maple Grove Road since it would allow me a quicker getaway than waiting for the whole train to pass. Here's what I got:

As the train rolled by me I noticed the consist was interesting enough to warrant a second look. Draper bodies are getting rare and deserve a bit of extra effort, so I tried to think of where I could get a good broadside to capture the whole mess of power and settled on Steelton Hill. Off I went, and after a short wait he rolled down the hill and into view. The train, along with a late season fisherman, passed me at the same time.

That's a nice change from the steady diet of late model GE's that are usual on these CN trains. 

And that was it for my Friday adventure. I headed home and went to work (yes, on my vacation day!) for a couple of hours. But any day I get to take a train picture I will count as a win!

Before the Snow

This afternoon I was able to sneak out of work a little early (with permission, of course) and venture out to see what was moving on the CN. I knew there was a northbound coming up the hill, and it looked like something headed south on the Rainy Sub too. 

As I reached Highway 2 at the Morris Thomas Road intersection, I was greeted by the passage of the lone locomotive at the head of the train. After a right turn, I managed to get in position for a shot at Munger, but the clouds made it a pretty blah attempt. 

So I swung over to Simar for a peek up the tracks, which revealed a train on the main with the headlight off. Not being sure what that meant, I ran down to Adolph and considered waiting for another train coming up the hill, but the clouds were still pretty thick. Some blue sky to the west inspired me to backtrack. A glance at ATCS revealed that the train at Simar now had a light so I headed back there for this shot.

Headlight was on now! With that one bagged, I checked the status of the next northbound and found he was close to Adolph already. With the sun peeking through the clouds from time to time now, I decided to try Canosia Road for the final shot of the day. A wonderful sucker hole appeared and I opened fire at long range, getting this.

And then the sun slipped behind a cloud, which resulted in the bland image below. If it was just a couple of GE's I wouldn't mind so much, but a pair of SD75's up front is not so common. Would have liked to have had the sucker hole here.

Feeling frustrated and with nothing close by on the radar, I headed for home. Still, can't be too disappointed seeing 3 in a long hour. It was better than staring at outlook and Microsoft Teams, for sure. Maybe tomorrow there will be first snow shots to get.