Haven't I Seen You Somewhere Before?

I shot the photo above on the afternoon of Labor Day, 2006, when BNSF MOW forces replaced the bridge over the Otter Tail River betwen Perham and New York Mills. I happened to look at it today, and the second unit in the consist rang a bell for me. So after a bit of searching, I learned that I had indeed seen and photographed BNSF 4080 at another time in another location. I caught it a little over two years later crossing the continental divide near East Glacier, Montana.


This got me curious about whether I had more of these "duplicate" locos in my image files. It seems like someone who spends a fair amount of time along the tracks must surely see the same locomotive pass by numerous times. However, when I started looking for these situations, they were much more rare (for me, at least) than I suspected. BNSF has a whole lot of locomotives, and they don't always use the same ones to lead trains. Since my photos are saved with filenames that incorporate the number of the lead unit, finding a match with locos I have shot trailing like the one above is purely a game of chance for me.

But I did find some matches. On April 5, 2008, I headed to New York Mills to try some shots on the curve there. One of the trains I got was a manifest led by BNSF 5383.


On another Minnesota spring day, the 5383 was westbound at the Verndale sag, earning its keep lugging a manifest train across the Staples Sub. This one was taken on May 23, 2009.


BNSF 5724 is another unit I have been lucky enough to catch leading trains in various locations, at different times. My first shot of this GE leading is from a frosty January morning in 2008.


March 14, 2009 found me in Hawley where the 5724 was leading coal empties west, with a MAC in exec paint trailing.


But my all time favorite unit to get duplicate shots of has to be SD70MAC BNSF 9999. I have shot this unit at least four separate times, all in Minnesota, but in different locations. My first shot is from August of 2008, coming out of Frazee with coal loads:


On a cold February morning in 2009, it was resting at the west end of the Staples yard, and I snuck up and took a picture.


Late June found me in Red Wing, prowling the CP River Sub. What to my wondering eyes should appear but an SD70MAC, pushing for all it was worth on the tail end of a COLX train? Why yes, it was the 9999, passing under a bridge in Wabasha.


And only a week or so later, I got her again, this time at the Verndale sag, and this time as a leader.


These coincedental sightings are one of the things about railfanning that appeal to me. Anyone else got a "favorite" loco that they just seem to come across over and over?

Jim

Train Huntin'

Greetings train fans. A couple of photos for your enjoyment tonight. Mrs. L4T and myself plied the roads around Wadena this evening in search of trains and found a few.

I knew there was a westbound out and about from the ATCS display. This coal empty off the Brainerd Sub was in Staples when we left home, so I decided to have a go at him at the Wing River. I clambered this old frame up on the Escape bumper for a little extra elevation, but it's nothing like balancing on the side of Jer's Silverado. Anyhow, here's the resulting shot:


I didn't even realize the lone leader on this train was my old friend the 9999 until after I looked at the shot. I just saw this engine last week on a COLX train headed down the CP River Sub. Since then he's been upgraded from DPU to leader.

Mrs. L4T likes to call these little outings "train hunting", a term that has caught on in the L4T household and even the extended family. When the Mrs. calls her mom a few minutes late some evenings, the question is always "Have you been out train hunting again?" She also has a friend who, when she heard the term, thought we were out looking for tiny toy trains. Turns out she was too embarassed to ask what it really meant.

Since I knew there weren't many other westbounds out tonight, I chased this guy to Perham for a second shot. If it had been any almost any other MAC I would have likely passed, but I have a special affinity for this unit. I shot him from a new angle (for me) as he rolled around the curve east of Perham.


As I was setting up for this shot, I heard a horn to the west. When I turned around a worm train was bearing down on me with three Dash 9's in the lead. The plan became an eastbound chase with the hope of a glint shot as the sun got lower. When I reached the overpass between Perham and New York Mills, I decided to try another new shot for me, and I was kind of pleased with the results.


In this view the train has just passed over old Highway 10. It's one of the few places where you can show foreground and background along this section of track without having to worry about a huge pole line or the road interfering with the shot. I'm sure I will try other shots here in the future, especially later in the year when the sun gets around to the south more.

ATCS showed another westbound in Staples, so I decided to continue east. I was so focused on getting a glint shot of the worm train that I was surprised by the fast moving westbound right just as we entered Verndale. I considered a u-turn and chase, but I knew I wouldn't get him before Wadena and wasn't going to run all the way to Perham again. So after a couple half-hearted attempts at a glint, we called it a night and headed for home.

That's all for tonight, thanks for reading and keep on train hunting.

Jim