The Rollag Trip

Every year, two specific Saturdays are blocked out in my calendar before any others. They have "priority", as it were. Those dates are the longest Saturday of the year, which is fast becoming the traditional weekend for Verndale Rail, and the Saturday before Labor Day, which has turned into the day of my annual visit to the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion in Rollag. This past Saturday was the day of Rollag.

In the past I've taken my camera with, and even got some railroad shots on the grounds of the show. This year I left the camera in the car and enjoyed the show. Not only are the displays and equipment fantastic, I have the privlege of attending with a great group, which includes my son, and don't want to distract them with frequent requests to stop for a picture.

That doesn't mean there are no train pictures from the day, though. On the way home, we just missed a meet at the Frazee S curve, where the westbound was still passing as we approached. Another meet seemed possible at the Luce crossing when a headlight showed up. Being as how I was the driver I stopped at the crossing to shoot the train. It was a Superior coal empty.


The eastbound hadn't shown yet, but I decided to move on, but my companions encouraged me to wait a couple of minutes for another shot. At their urging I did. Here's the stack train with a pair of Dash 9's leading that would have been part of the Frazee meet had I been a couple of minutes earlier.


As you can tell by looking at the sky, I was lucky to catch him in the sun. That's all the train photos for that Saturday, but it was fun to be able to include a bit of railfanning in what was otherwise a super day of old time agriculture, sawmills, and delicious food all shared with good friends. Thanks for waiting, guys!

Return to Rollag

Last year I made my first ever trip to the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion just outside Rollag, MN. It was so much fun that I had to go back again this year, and it was worth the trip. While many of you were out chasing a very late Amtrak #8 on Saturday, I had a different passenger train in my viewfinder. I was after the former SOO Line 353, which serves as power for Rollag's "Railroad to Nowhere". It seemed to me that they had beefed up the consist of the train this year, with 5 passenger cars available to guests. I suspect that this train can carry more people at one time than the standard consist of the Empire Builder, albeit not in the same luxurious style.


It's not all about trains. There is an endless variety of steam engines, both mobile (tractors) and stationary. In addition, the gas engine fan would be entertained to no end by the hundreds of units of every conceivable size, from little engines that would run a wash machine to the giant 600 horsepower Snow engine that is 67 feet long and weighs in a 140 tons. Some examples of the equipment you see during a visit to Rollag:



We ate like kings, we toured the grounds and watched as the giant steam hammer from the old railroad shop in St. Paul did its thing, making the ground shake under a large crowd as it stamped out commemerative plates for the 2010 edition of the show. We saw threshing machines, sawmills, a flour mill, a couple of enormous steam powered electrical generators, a working foundry and machine shop, and actual STEAM rollers and STEAM shovels go through their paces. After walking until I thought my legs would fall off, it was time to head for home. Since one of the attendees from our party was staying at Rush Lake, we followed the scenic route through lake country. Wherever we crossed the CP I took a good look each way for any railroad action, and when we reached Dent, it paid off as I spotted red to my southeast. This called for a brief stop to shoot a SOO SD60 that was sitting in the siding, waiting for its call to work.


I'm already looking forward to next year.

Jim

Steam in Rollag

Saturday I made the trek to Rollag with a friend for the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion. What an experience this turned out to be.


As you can see, this group is a firm believer in steam and had this 0-6-0 steamed up and hauling people all day. The cars that trail the 353 carry up to 500 people, and they were full much of the day. The engine puts on a great show.


WMSTR calls their railroad the "Railroad to Nowhere", as it has no connections to the outside world. There is a fair amount of rolling stock and MOW equipment on the site. I'm not sure how long the loop around the pond is, but it has to be over a mile. There are two stops for the train, and it serves a valuable purpose in helping people get from one part of the grounds to another.



The two shots above are taken near the east stop. The first one is a late afternoon shot as he is pulling away from a stop, and the second one is morning shot as the train approaches its stop.

And, it's not just a steam locomotive. There are a whole lot of steam tractors, along with some magnificent stationary steam engines. The vertical engine from the old Pabst brewery is three stories tall, and operates almost continually during the show. It's amazing to see, smell, feel, and hear these things in operation. Actually, by the end of the day, you can nearly taste them, too. The meatballs and ice cream and sweets kind of overpower the taste of the steamers, though.


The tractor above was one of my favorites, probably because of the similarity to a locomotive. The are all great, though, and when they have one hooked to the dyno to test horsepower you get not only a visual, but an audio show. The sharp crack of the exhaust of a steam engine under heavy load has to be experienced to be appreciated.

I posted these and a few more photos in a set on my photostream. If you are interested in old machinery, steam, gas engines (MASSIVE gas engines, up to 39,600 cubic inches-yes you are seeing that right), not to mention operating sawmills powered by steam, a steam powered flour mill, many threshing machines powered by horses, steam, or gas engine, other agricultural equipment, steam powered shovels and huge old caterpillars, Rollag on Labor Day weekend is the place to be. I know that I will be back in the future. It was wild.

Jim