Chasing with Chris

Saturday morning found Mrs. L4T and I on the road to Bemidji. Her Mom fell down a week or so ago and suffered a slight pelvic fracture, and is doing the rehab stint at the Bemidji hospital. Her recovery is going great, and she hopes to be able to go home this week.

I didn't plan on spending the entire day in the hospital though. After contacting MN Chris plans were made to visit the Bemidji model railroad layout. Around lunchtime we met up in the depot basement where I pestered Chris while he tried to lay some replacement flex track on the club layout. We were swapping tall tales about railfanning when a growing rumble tipped us off to a passing train.

Chris had seen a DEEX empty come into Cass Lake before heading to town and expected a crew would arrive shortly to continue the trip west, but we were still taken a bit by surprise. It's doubtful there has ever been a quicker exodus from the layout room of the club as we both beat feet for the Escape to make chase. Getting out of Bemidji was slow, and the train had a fairly good lead on us, but we passed him somewhere east of Bagley and swung into town for a shot as the empty passed the old GN water tower. Here's my effort:


But Chris had greater plans. There's a place in Minnesota, that I didn't even know existed, called Ebro. Ebro is a unique spot, because it's one place along the Grand Forks sub where the track curves around toward the south and offered the hope of some decent light. Chris "encouraged" me to make the best possible time to our ultimate destination. Matter of fact, I felt a bit like "Ruler on Ice" as he galloped toward the finish line in the Belmont Stakes.

Anyway, it all worked out as we beat the train to a little bridge across some body of water with a minute to spare. The stopping place I picked wasn't conducive to the telephoto lenses we had, but I decided to do what I could with mine. Chris, on the other hand, stuck his head in the back of the Escape, grabbed a short lens, and made the switch so quickly all I saw was a blur. He was standing next to me as the train rolled into view. He must practice changing lenses blindfolded on new moon nights to be that quick!

Anyway, that's a lot of babbling just to introduce the picture, which was actually spoiled by the presence of an inconvenient cloud.


And then it was time to reverse the route and dash back to Bemidji. Having finished one of the mains on the club layout, Chris set up a gorgeous ethanol train with a pair of custom painted DME SD40-2's up front. It was a lovely site making its way around the layout. That Chris is quite the rennisance man-not only an excellent rail photog, but also an artist with the airbrush.

Thanks for the entertaining afternoon, Chris! What better way to pass the time than sandwiching a chase of an ACe-led coal train between a couple of stints at the model railroad club?

The Back Way

Saturday Mrs. L4t and I set out for Grand Forks to see our son. Rather than the typical trip west to Fargo and then flying up I-29, I convince the Mrs. that a short cut through Erskine was the way to go this day. I don't know what I missed as a result, but here is a short report on what I did in fact catch on National Train Day.

Just south of Waubun, we encountered our first CP train. This eastbound had a GE leader and white SOO SD as the second unit. I shot him at max tele to capture the hump:


The heat distortion is already setting in, so I got him again as he approached:


My assumption that this was all the CP action for the day proved correct. The next line encountered was the BNSF Grand Forks Sub, which we started to follow at Erskine. The line curves away from the highway in a few spots so we were lucky to spot a headlight in the distance as we approached Fisher. Mrs. L4T confirmed that it was a train and I found a crossing. I thought this was a Noyes train but on further reflection it almost had to have been headed to Superior. That's if all the old open hoppers were limestone cars, anyway.


We made a couple of passes by the yard in Grand Forks over the weekend but even with a healthy collection of GP's near the shop I didn't get any shots. Someday when I have more time I'll try and find a place to shoot them from.

We followed the Hillsboro Sub home and met one westbound fertilizer train, all CSX covered hoppers with three CSX GE's leading. Again, no shots as home was calling out strongly. I do suspect seeing the exact same train returning empty this evening near Wadena, which would have been a very fast turnaround.

Poaching

Late yesterday afternoon, I snuck into MN Chris country via back road for an evening meeting. Having arrived at a secret location a little over an hour before the start time, I decided to turn on the scanner and find a nice spot trackside to eat my orange and drink my diet coke.

I was shocked to hear 161.520 come to life as a defect detector at MP 70 point something (about 5 miles east of Bagley) announced the passing of what had to be a coal train, given the axle count. After waiting a matter of minutes, here he comes:


The water tank has always fascinated me. I would love to have seen GN steamers pull up for a drink "back in the day".

So on a day when I drove almost 200 miles and paralleled railroad tracks for none of it, I still managed to see a train. Keep the faith!

Jim