Fall's Last Gasp

 It's been a lovely autumn here in the Twin Ports, with leaf color that has brought people from all over the state to take in the view. This has inspired me to get out and chase trains every time the opportunity presented itself, and Sunday afternoon was one such opportunity. 

ATCS showed a train headed toward Carlton from the range. I figured there was plenty of time to intercept it there, and possibly chase it for another shot or two. By the time I arrived at the crossing in town, and looked at ATCS again, I was pleasantly surprised to see a train waiting at a red light somewhere in the Cloquet area and another lined off the Brainerd Sub. Off I went, searching for a suitable backdrop for not one but two on the BNSF. The heavy overcast at least kept me from worrying about sun angles. I settled for the crossing at Lerner Road, where a short wait for the coal loads yielded this. (Right click and open in new tab for full resolution.)

I was wishing for the ACe to be up front, but no such luck. So I decided to wait here for the train from the range in the hopes it was pellets, and sure enough it was. Plus, this one had a pair of ACe's on the point.

I had moved across the tracks in order to give chase, and caught the train again at State Line. My framing is rusty but I did manage to catch one of the remaining spots of color here.

With that, Mrs. L4T and myself headed to Superior for a drive through supper at Hardees, home of the the thickburger. After a long spell of CN red and black, it was nice to catch the orange of BNSF once again. And a pair of ACe's always beats a three GE's in my book. This outing probably marked the end of any kind of fall color as a storm moved through the area overnight and knocked a lot of leaves down. So now we wait for the white stuff to add its mark to the local scenery. 

A Pair of ACe's on a Sunday Evening

With the sun out, a Sunday evening drive seemed appropriate. Even though there were no westbounds showing on ATCS when I fired it up after the Vikings game, Mrs. L4T and I still planned on a bit of sightseeing. Our plans were hastened when all of a sudden, the computer showed a coal empty pulling out of Staples yard. We were off.

After missing the train in Verndale, and having to chase him back through Wadena, the best option for a shot seemed to be somewhere a bit of color could be included in the shot. That brief period of autumn featuring vibrant colors is already too far along without any shots to show for it. So as we cruised west, one eye was watching for colorful foliage.

A likely spot popped up near the Deer Creek cutoff, and we had built up enough of a lead on the train to get across the tracks so we were on the sunny side. Here's what I came up with:


With no other westbounds showing, I figured we were done for the night. But after stopping at the store, I took one more look at the computer display and was surprised again, as a train was just coming off the Brainerd Sub and was lined up to go straight west. Off to Verndale it was.

Arriving with plenty of time to spare, the next surprise was an eastbound manifest. Since I was waiting anyway, why not try a shot? Here it is.


The eastbound met the coal empty near the west edge of Verndale. This is probably the most acceptable shot of our second ACe-led coal empty of the evening.


I also shot the ACe that was DPU, but didn't post that photo here.

One more train had crept into the picture, but he was just getting to Philbrook and we were running out of light. We headed for home with a pair of ACe's to show for another enjoyable evening of railfanning.

Jim