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. 

 

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.