Saturday Morning Mash Up

 The title of this post is based on the first moving train I shot this morning. You might understand why after I share a photo of it. But before we get to that, my first photo of the morning was at Proctor. The Polar Vortex has loosened its grip on Minnesota, but it was still cold (and humid) enough this morning to get the pellets steaming.

With that out of the way let's move on to the story of the mash up. ATCS told me there was a meet set up for Alborn. In the hopes that the southbound was another taconite load, I headed north with the intention of catch the meet from the air and chasing the southbound, well, south. When I arrived I was disappointed to see a dinky little train that will show up later. Still seemed like the thing to do was wait for him to go south and try to make the best of the situation. But first the northbound had to clear. It was a long train that had been leaving Proctor when I got the shot above. I hadn't seen the power so I wasn't expecting this.

Good Lord, I said to myself, that ain't ordinary. I haven't seen the 215 stray from Proctor since, well, I don't know when. A long time. With the rumors of the standard cabs going away circulating I leapt to the conclusion that this could be the end of maroon paint on former DMIR rails. I guess time will tell. 

Now for the southbound that guy above met. I headed to Culver for a shot at the curve. The short train was making dandy time so my wait wasn't long. I banged away as he approached and passed me. 

I caught up for one last shot at Jeffrey Road.

Another southbound got a light to Coons, so back north I went. Since it was a balmy 6 above by this time, I busted out the drone for a flight at Bear Trap.

He was just getting ready to pull after a meeting an intermodal at Coons, so I pulled over and fired off a few more frames. I'm a sucker for those Oakway SD60's. 

By then it was time to head for home and a fresh cup of coffee. A good morning of railfanning. 

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. 

 

It's Winter

It's that time of year when accumulated vacation gets used up, which explains how I wound up at Proctor this morning waiting for a transfer from Pokegema to arrive. 

It was cold. Not below zero cold, but for this winter one of the colder mornings. Which led to the hope that the sun would shine, but the lake did its normal job of creating a cloud bank that just let the sun tease a body with occasional slivers of light. 

Luckily the CN entertained me with a pair of DMIR units on the Proctor switch job. Sounded nice while they were jockeying cars back and forth. 

Clear skies to the north and west taunted me as I waited, but being the stubborn person that I am, I wouldn't budge from my position on the overpass. Eventually the transfer showed up.

As he approached, I notice something unusual about the power. Was that a cowl unit in the consist? Sure enough it was. My calculating mind led me to conclude that if I would just wait at the south end of the yard, I could get the Draper "leading" when they ran around the train. Since warming up sounded good anyway, I jumped in and drove down to the crossing after a stop at Kwik Trip. I had to wait for a limestone empty to head down the hill but I finally got the shot I was waiting for. It's not much but I don't get too many chances at these so I take what I can get. 

I thought about running down to get the limestone empty at 27th. There was something coming off the DWP, headed down to Steelton, and a southbound approaching Coons. So many choices! In the hopes of a pellet load I opted to stay at Proctor. Given that there was a loaded train sitting in the yard I should have known better. My hopes were dashed when I saw the southbound Instead of 140 cars of taconite, I got a couple of empty gons and a pair of bentonite cars. As you can see in the photo, the clouds were still taunting me with sunshine just north of Proctor. It's enough to make a person grind his teeth. 

By now, the wind was blowing, I was cold, and it seemed like a good time to head for home, so the next move was back to Duluth. I processed pictures and thawed out for a while, then settled in to enjoy some vacation time. 
 

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. 

Sunrise at Proctor

With a couple of weeks vacation carried over from 2013 to 2014 and the requirement that it get used up ASAP, I took the first couple of workdays of the year off. This morning, Mrs. L4T and I polished off a pot of coffee, and after a peek out the window I decided to head to Proctor to enjoy the sunrise. 

The yard switch job with DMIR 215 pointed north was puttering about when I arrived, well away from my vantage point. That didn't stop me from capturing the sun as it rose in the southeast, preparing to illuminate the yard. 

There was another train tucked back in the yard as well. Limestone loads behind a quartet of SD40 variants were working their way out as the sun climbed in the morning sky. I felt for the conductor who was handling the switches as the train progressed through the yard trackage. It was -21 when I drove up and didn't feel like it was warming up any. 

One more shot as he approaches the bridge. Every time the train throttled up the exhaust formed an almost steam engine-like cloud. Very impressive. 

A loaded pellet train was sitting at the scale, and I wanted to work that into a photo. Got my opportunity when the limestone loads stopped to get a switch before heading out. Oh, and there is our old friend the 403, trailing today. That means that technically the first shot in this post has both remaining maroon Missabe units in it, although you sure can't identify them.

It was about this time one of my pinkies was ready to snap off, so I headed to the Holiday in Proctor to warm up for a bit. Also needed to pick up milk. After that was done I stopped back to see if the sun had climbed enough to illuminate the pellet train, sure enough it had. I grabbed a couple shots of that, even though the wind was preventing any spectacular steam clouds from lingering.

All in all, a productive hour or so. Might get the chance to do it again before I have to head back to work Monday.

Maroon

I have had past chances to shoot multiple maroon units in a day, most recently last spring during a trip up the NSSR to retrieve coal empties that had been stored during the winter. In that case, though, both were museum pieces. Today, I got one of those, along with an active DMIR unit.

The retiree was at the depot this morning, after it finished doing some switching preparing a train for the 2719 to take to Two Harbors. Even though the light was on the rear of the unit, it was so nice I couldn't resist a photo.

And then after Mrs. L4T and I got home from supper, I dropped her off and headed to Proctor in the hopes of catching the 215 working Proctor Yard. Sure enough, along with a few other fans, we got what we were looking for as the sun dropped toward the horizon. 

Along with some steam shots this morning and a quick stop at the Cloquet Terminal in between, it was a great railfanning day with lots of good company and a few photo opportunities. Blue skies and cool temps were the order of the day and I look forward to getting to do it again. 

Along County Road 7

Today Mrs. L4T and I had to head north for a graduation party in International Falls. Since there has been a tremendous dearth of railfanning in these parts recently I cleared a deviation from the Highway 53 routing and we headed west to follow the former DMIR right of way.

Made it as far as South Coons before we spotted our first victim, a loaded pellet train sitting at the signal.

In a flash we were northbound once more, uninterrupted by any trains until we passed Kelsey. Another loaded pellet train was headed south and a quick u turn got us in position for a shot as the power rolled over the bridge crossing the Whiteface River.

Third unit in that consist was a beauty.

That was it for the trip north, the Peg was quiet all the way to the Falls. We did see a train pass through Orr on our return trip but I was gassing up and had no chance for a shot. Highway 7 was our intended route at least part of the way home again, though, and the gates were dropping just east of Iron Junction as we approached the crossing. I guess this could be called a "leaping" shot, as I lept out of the car to shoot it at the very last minute.

We continued south in the hopes that something else would show. Sure enough we were not far south of Zim when a headlight appeared and I pulled across the tracks at a handy crossing. A long CN Manifest was making its way north behind a trio of EMD's. I got a friendly toot-toot from the engineer as they passed.

That was it for trains. The photos are not much to brag about but it was fun to get out along the tracks and do some railfanning. It's been way too long.

A Dream Trip

Today was a special day for a railfan (me). I received a call from Dan Mackey a couple of days ago, informing me that I just HAD to take Thursday off. When asked why, he just said to trust him, it would be worth it. Sure enough he was right.

The big surprise turned out to be a trip from the Depot in Duluth to Palmers, via rail. Specifically, a pair of ex-DMIR SD's headed up to grab a coal train that had been stored on the North Shore Scenic Railroad for the winter.

We started the day with a healthy breakfast at the Sunshine Cafe on Grand Ave in Duluth. Soon we were at the Depot, doing all the things that need to be done to prepare locomotives for work. Anyway everyone else was, while I mostly just tagged along doing what I was told. (That's a specialty of mine.) After what seemed like forever, much of that time involving things like locomotive inspections, adding 20 gallons of oil to one unit, and getting a track warrant, we were off. Engineer Mackey was sporting a fancy new Enbridge Rail North Dakota hat as we prepared for the trip through Duluth.

My co-workers heard the horn as we passed in front of my new office, the tracks just across the interstate from the downtown Duluth office where I should have been sitting. We got waves from a number of folks on the lakewalk as we passed. 

The further up the lakeshore we went, the deeper the snow got. Just a couple of miles before reaching Palmers, the track was completely covered and the pair of EMD's got a mini snowplowing workout as they cleared track unused since fall. After we arrived at out destination I jumped out and grabbed a shot of 316, which had led us up the line long hood forward and wore some snow on her pilot as a celebration of April in Minnesota. 

It was shortly after this that I learned my purpose for joining the group on this trip. Today was my first lesson in how to assist with a brake test. I also was reminded what it is like to wade through heavy, wet snow nearly knee deep. It's hard work that reminded me of meter reading back in the old days. It also reminded me of why I kind of appreciate an office job. Oh, and by the way, I also snuck away to shoot the power after it was coupled up to the train. 

I had to be back in the office by 2 PM for a VIM (very important meeting). One thing I DO know about railroads is this-late trains tend to get later. This one had left the depot just a bit later than I was comfortable with given the 2:00 deadline I was facing, and I chickened out and grabbed a ride back to town so I could be assured of making it in time. Before leaving, I noticed the sun had come out and blue skies were moving in, so I grabbed one more shot of the train. 

My apologies to Kevin Madsen for posting a shot with the door open :). But with a crew like this, whatcha gonna do? 

I made it back with 10 minutes to spare after having to park on the 5th level of the parking ramp at work. When I walked in the office, my co-workers were all a-twitter with questions about my adventure. They know more about the NSSR than they did before. 

All in all, a great day. It's a rare event to even get to see a pair of locomotives like this working together in 2013, much less actually get to ride in the leader. Wish I could have stuck around for the return trip, but duty calls and all that. Thanks to Dan, and John, and the entire crew at the railroad for making me feel welcome and actually finding something I could do to help. It was a memory I won't forget. 

More Missabe

On Wednesday afternoon, I had to leave Hibbing for the Metro area. Since I had no deadline of when to arrive, CR 7 seemed to be a good alternative to Highway 53. The sun was out and it was beautiful afternoon.

As I approached Forbes I could see loaded cars moving west. For a minute I wondered why a T-bird train would be moving away from the plant while loaded. It took me a bit to realize I had lucked into United Tac loads headed for the docks.

I was quickly able to get ahead of the loaded train, powered by a matched set of tunnel motor units. I don't know the place names, but here's the shot of the train as it rolls south.


Even though it was a pleasant afternoon, the pellets were still giving off a wisp of steam as the train passed. I stopped and shot him a couple of more times as we traveled south together. Then all of a sudden, I noticed my low gas light was on. Out in the middle of nowhere. I decided my best chance of making civilization was to head for Meadowlands, so I left my lucky train and struck out west.

I made it to town and found the only gas pump was at what appeared to be an abandoned gas station. Something moved me to pull in anyway, and a sign taped to the window pointed me to the brown house with a green roof, to the right. Before I could even find the house, the friendly pump jockey came out and asked if I needed something. What a relief! I was running on vapor. With only $13 cash to my name, I bought all I could afford, thanked my rescuer after a pleasant visit about the upcoming Empire Builder trip he and his wife had scheduled, and continued my journey. Next thing you know, I was on Highway 53 at Independence. After a short jaunt down MN 33, I spotted the tail end of my loaded train disappearing as I crossed the tracks. A quick about-face and I was off again. This was all new territory to me, down Saginaw road and Highway 2 to Proctor. I snapped off a couple of poorly lit photos on the drive, and wound up the day's fanning with a shot off the overpass at the end of the Proctor yard. Limestone was stage to head north.


After topping off my tank at the Proctor Holiday station, it was on to I-35 for the rest of the trip. I spotted what looked like a northbound empty all rail some miles down the interstate but didn't even think about chasing, since there was no exit nearby. So, these two shots are all I have to offer from my trip down the Missabe.
Jim

An Hour at Iron Junction

While I've never had the opportunity to do a lot of railfanning of the DMIR, my occasional trips to the range area are always interesting. I lived in Virginia when I was just a youth, and can clearly remember high nose SD's and beautiful wide vision cabooses working the industrial area, sometimes delivering coal hoppers to the municipal power plant across the street from the Junior High and Roosevelt High School. Oh to have had a digicam in those days!

Iron Junction is also the site of the first real railfan trip I ever took, which lasted a total of about 2 hours due to other commitments that same day. But I was lucky as the Missabe put on a show, with one of the then fairly fresh tunnel motors teaming with a pair of SD-M's on Minntac loads bound for Two Harbors. I still have that photo somewhere.

So when work takes me to the range area these days, I always try to find a little time to visit the Iron Junction area again. Today was one of those times, as I finished up with my responsibilites in Hibbing about 3:30 and left the building to an actual sunny spring day. I was off.

My wait for a first train was short as I soon heard a horn to the north. A short three car train behind a pair of units came off the Two Harbors main (I can never remember what is what in that area, sorry) and crossed over to the west main at Iron Junction. Hey, a GT unit and a CN unit. No maroon here.


It was only about a 15 minute wait for the next train. This one was a loaded T-Bird, with an IC "death star" up front and the 403 trailing, still in maroon! So far I've seen four engines, in four different paint schemes.


If you take a close look at those two pictures, you can see that a northbound green signal lit up between the appearance of the two trains. I figured I would soon see more action, and sure enough, here came a T-Bird empty behind a pair of repainted tunnel motors. Backlit, but there was some dust being kicked up. I've barely been there a half hour and already have three trains bagged.


For some reason (actually, because I had work waiting in my hotel room), I decided to head out. Just as I crossed the tracks on Highway 7, another headlight showed up. Off I went, to shoot my first J-ball, the EJ&E 674, on the point of some morphodite train. A few gondolas, three covered hoppers, and a long string of old low-side ore cars. There weren't enough for a whole train, though. I wondered if they were being taken to a scrapyard somewhere, given that new cars are showing up.



And with that, I did head for the hotel, albeit with a short detour to Shelton Junction in the hopes a southbound CN Manifest would roll through. No such luck, so back to Chisholm it was. And now that I have done my preparation for tomorrow, I found enough time to sort-of edit a few photos and make this post. It was a great evening, with less than an hour between the first shot and last. Now you know my story of an hour at Iron Junction.

Jim

Fallen Flag Extravaganza

The past week found me in Two Harbors for a couple of nights. I occasionally get a chance to find my way into an unusual location, and this week was one of those times. During the day on Wednesday, I had occasion to visit the ore dock area in Two Harbors. I was lucky enough to find DMIR 211, which has to be one of the last remaining SD38's in maroon, busy shoving cars up onto the dock to be dumped. I took advantage by grabbing a photo out the window of the truck.


I didn't want to make a pest of myself by prowling the area for a better angle or location, so what you see is what I got. It was fun to see a maroon unit at work. There were a few other units sitting in the yard, but since they were all repainted tunnel motors or IC units, I didn't try any shots of them. It's good to see activity in Two Harbors. The locals told me they have never seen the stockpile area as bare as it was a few weeks ago.

I left for home Wednesday afternoon, with hopes of catching a coal empty to chase across the Brainerd Sub, but no luck. There was track work going on near McGregor which may account for the lack of trains. My luck turned in a hurry, though, as I drove into Brainerd and saw a headlight near the former NP shops. A quick right turn got me in position to catch the Brainerd local doing his street running up to the paper mill, a first for me. I was surprised that they move right along in the street, and no one seems to be the least bit affected. Cars get out of the way and continue down the street. I got a few shots as he approached, and this is likely the best in some tough lighting conditions.


Shot the GP pair, in Cascade Green and Bluebonnet, as they passed the cemetary as well. It seemed appropriate for the paint schemes.


So I saw three locos moving between Two Harbors and Staples, one maroon, one cascade green, and one in the Santa Fe blue and yellow. Quite a day in this age when we lament the "sameness" of things. The street running was frosting on the cake-another throwback to an earlier age of railroading. A great day to remember.

Jim

A Couple from this Week

Lots of miles this week, but not so much train action. I have already shared my first shot from the week, and it was probably the most surprising one as well.

On my way out of Virginia on Tuesday, I drove by the former DWP yeard and found a DMIR tunnel motor (in CN paint, darn) all alone at the front of a string of loaded ballast cars. Even though the high sun and overcast made photo conditions less than ideal I took a shot of it.


I was in Hibbing until after lunch on Wednesday, when I had to leave for a meeting in Fosston that evening. I didn't see any action along the Lakes or GF Subs until I was west of Bemidji where there were two MOW crews out working on the tracks. I figured that meant no trains for me, but between Bagley and Fosston I spied a headlight and made the first U-turn I could find. The Cass Lake local was speeding east with a whole bunch more swamp mats and I barely got ahead of him for a shot out the passenger window at a crossing. It turned out poorly so no image.

Friday I headed for Perham a little after 0730, and before I even got out of town I heard a train pass the detector at 174.1. I decided to wait for him at the loading dock on the west side of Wadena, and in just a few mintues he showed up with an ES44AC leading.


Last night's shots are nothing special due to the clouds, although traffic was heavy with what I assume was a MOW window for tie replacement having just ended. Mrs. L4T and myself saw 8 trains and I attempted photography on 7 of them.

Hopefully this long weekend will give me a chance to get out and do some serious fanning rather than the hit and miss stuff I get while travelling. I'll be looking.

Jim

A Cold Afternoon at Iron Junction

Greetings, folks. This one is from the "should have posted it weeks ago" file that so often piles up.

My destination for the week of January 12 was the Hibbing/Virginia area, carrying hopes for some CN action. I stayed in Hibbing Monday evening, and a trip out to Kelly Lake revealed nothing of interest that afternoon. However, after completing my assignements in Hibbing on Tuesday, there was enough daylight remaining to visit the Iron Junction area.

The scanner tipped me off to a light engine move in the area. This three unit set was my first catch of the very cold afternoon:


Sounded like they were headed south to grab a loaded train, but I don't have any other details.

After waiting half an hour or so, I heard another move-this time they indicated they would be heading for Two Harbors, so I ran east and waited near Ramshaw. The shot was backlit real bad, but it was my first live experience with steaming pellets in below-zero weather, so I had to try and do something with it.


The last detector I had heard had said it was -9, and it felt every bit of that. The low for the night turned out to be around 25 below. That was a real cold week.

I was running out of light, but just on the off chance of another train I meandered back to Iron Junction. Sure enough, a CN southbound manifest made its way by, but by this time the light was gone, and I was getting cold. So that's all I have to share from my outing at Iron Junction.

I'll try and get some of my other miscellaneous shots from the last month or so up in the next couple of days. I also have some from another Hawley trip to post. Til then,

Jim, out