Frosty Days

Usually we associate the word "frost" with cold. The last couple of days have been sweatshirt weather in these parts, yet the frost has been about as glorious as it gets. I like shooting in the frost as it adds something rarely seen around here. It's even better if the sun comes out, as here, but it's even neat in the clouds. Yesterday and today fit into the latter category, even sneaking toward fog yesterday. For example, here's an intermodal I happened across shortly after leaving on a trip to the Cities Thursday afternoon. I also got a couple others on the trip, the first at Aldrich:


And the second one I managed to intercept at the old Highway 10 bridge near Lincoln. This train had a pair of GE's and a long string of freight cars stretched out behind.


I scored in the same location again today on the way home. This time it was Dairyland Power loads, headed down the Staples Sub behind a GE and a MAC, with yet another MAC shoving. This train has some frost on the MU hoses to go along with what was coating the trees.


I wish there was a better way to actually capture the beauty of these conditions but I just don't have the knack. It's fun to see though.

Hot Shots

It's been mighty hot around these parts, and even though the intense heat has broken, it still is pretty warm. Nothing like last weekend and the first part of this week, though, when dawn found temps near 80 degrees with dewpoints to match. Tuesday morning, for example, as I headed down Highway 10 to the Cities for a meeting, an eastbound in the siding at Randall called out to be photographed. I got this shot from the car window, with the storm that had hit Wadena and Perham earlier in the background.


A couple of other photo attempts were thwarted when the camera lens fogged up just as soon as I stepped out of the car. No efforts at clearing it were successful, so I just gave up. With the AC running inside, the camera was actually below the dew point outside and would be a dripping mess moments after stepping outside.

The day did offer one more photo op, though. On the way home, I was able to wait for a westbound in Aldrich. This is a dark photo, and once again I had just wiped off the camera lens before shooting it.


That's all the pix from Tuesday. Hopefully we won't see dew points in the high 70's and low 80's again, well, ever.

Can't Get it Out of My Head

I've been humming that old song by the Electric Light Orchestra for a while. It's probably due to the magnetic draw of the beautiful blue skies we have enjoyed for a few days-even if you try to avoid it, the railfan bug keeps coming back. Mrs. L4T and I finally broke down yesterday and made the trip to Staples to investigate what the BNSF might be up to on a lovely late Sunday afternoon.

The railroad was kind enough to send a few westbounds our way during our time along the tracks. Before reaching Staples a headlight announced the arrival of one of the MAC's with flashing ditchlights. He was heading up a long manifest train, with a green Dash-2 providing the other end of a GE sandwich, as seen here:


We suspected another westbound, so stopped at the crossing in Staples to wait a bit prior to eating. This turned out to be a good decision, as Mrs. L4T told me she thought she could hear something. Darned if she wasn't right-I had planned to stand on the yard lead (in the crossing) to shoot this train, but that plot was foiled when he showed up running on the wrong main and I backed off so as not to upset the crew. Still got a nice look at what the H1 paint job is supposed to look like-and this one looks many times better than most of the newer engines running around.


Leaving the parking lot after chicken at the DQ, we decided to make a trip to Motley and back. Nothing was doing along the Brainerd Sub, but it turned out to be a good move anyway as another westbound stacker was visible across the lake as we came back to Staples, giving another chance at a shot. This time we picked Aldrich, and came away with this:


While we were waiting for the above train to arrive, an eastbound cleared a 308 warrant at Wadena and I decided to wait and shoot him as well. His headlight swung into view just as the tail end of the train above cleared the curve west of Aldrich, so it was a short wait until the 5268 showed up.


And then it was back to Wadena. It was a fun outing, especially seeing the sun in a location that was somewhat conducive to photography. As sure as another train on the Staples Sub, summer is coming-and I can't get it out of my head.

Springtime in Wadena...

I peered out the window this afternoon and was shocked to see a shadow on the ground. Amazingly, the sun had finally burned through the clouds for a little while at least. When I asked Mrs. L4T if she was interested in checking out the sun, she answered in the affirmative. And so we were off.

I knew we would likely see at least two westbounds, and I heard the broken up transmission of a detector at some .6 milepost, with a train on Main 1, so I surmised the first one was not far off. I beat him to Verndale by less than 5 minutes. Here's a preview of a possible Verndale Rail shot-you can tell it's springtime when the afternoon sun is far enough around to get a little nose light on this shot.


Since I was on the Verndale bandwagon, I decided to grab the next train right in town. Olsen's Farm Supply has been busy unloading fertilizer cars on the spur here for the last few weeks and two are sitting there now.


We had ideas about heading to Staples to have supper at the Spot Cafe. However, once we arrived, it was closed. New winter hours call for them to close at 2:00 PM on Sundays. That should change soon as winter is rapidly giving way to spring in central Minnesota.

So after a brief tour of the yard, where a single GP was coupled up to the east end of a long string of cars but nothing else was present, we headed back to Aldrich to get a bite to eat at Ted and Gen's. They have fantastic rib sandwiches. Just before we made it into town, I heard an eastbound clear up his Richards Spur to Wadena warrant and decided to try a backlit shot. Another short wait yielded this parade of GE's:


Then it was off to supper. One more westbound passed while we were eating. The clouds had moved in again by the time we finished, so straight home it was. It's after 7:30 as I write this and there is still light in the western sky. It must be spring.

Jim

I Saw a Train

Actually, Mrs. L4T was along, so technically, we saw a train. The particulars: Saturday, in Aldrich, MN, which is not so unusual, it was a westbound coal empty (yawn), GE on the front (ho-hum), and the sun was shining.

What?

Yes, the sun was shining. So I took a photo, which I share with you here.


Obviously late in the afternoon, and that time of year has arrived when shooting on much of Staples Sub is tough due to the sun being so far south. The section of track from Staples to Aldrich is one of the areas where you can get a little afternoon nose light. We were on our way to Staples when I heard this guy clear up his warrant on the Brainerd Sub so crossed my fingers and made for Aldrich. I beat him by about a minute and jumped out for this shot. It would have been nice to get a little further east and avoid the tree shadows, but at this point I'm just thankful that the sun shone enough to create shadows.

The we headed on to Staples, for supper and to see what was in the yard, which was about nothing on Saturday evening. I did take a couple of shots of the depot sporting a new roof. Here are some compare/contrast shots. Before:


After:


And again, before:


And after:


I know I've questioned the likelihood this building could survive before but with the work that has been done, its chances look to be improving. Poor pigeons are going to have to find a new place to call roost, though.

And that was it. Supper was at the Spot, and very tasty. A couple more trains were spotted after dark, which comes all too early time of year. Soon enough we were snug in our house and dreaming of solid consists of SD40-2's rolling freight trains to and fro.

Jim