Heading Home

The last couple of posts on this blog have hinted at a new customer on the BNSF Noyes Sub. Well, here's a look at what is under construction as we speak-something called Northstar Agri-Industries:





As the link explains, this new facility will have the capacity to process 345,000 tons of canola per year. Word on the street in the area says that the plant will be able to empty both 300,000 bushel bins every week when operating at full capacity. This is a big plant, which is currently keeping 150 construction workers busy and promises 50 permanent jobs for far-northwest Minnesota. All of which is nice, but the really important part of the story for this blog is the rail business that will be generated. I don't know the exact composition of the traffic but any plant that is spending the money to install a loop track has to anticipate significant volumes moving by rail.



This story actually begins on Monday, when my first indication of anything unusual in the area was the sighting of a pair of RJ Corman sidebooms passing through Argyle headed north. In fact, this was so unusual it necessitated a phone call to MN Chris, to see if there had been a derailment in the area. With no news of any such event, the mystery deepened. After a couple of hours, though, I received word that the equipment had turned into the canola plant construction site. Leaving for Hallock in mid-afternoon, I spotted a pre-built switch in a gondola sitting in the siding at Kennedy. Things started to come together. I bet they are going to install the switch for the canola plant!



Fast forward to Friday, when I again passed the site headed south, and sure enough the Corman cats and some BNSF equipment, including a couple of ballast cars, were on site. The location of the switch is way out in the middle of a field so it was impossible to get very close for a photo, but I got this:





Since I was stopped I decided to grab a shot of the construction site as well, shown here. The plant is well along and it will be exciting to see them roll into action. FYI, four wheel drive John Deere seen at the right edge of the frame is working on site prep for the loop track. Some of the loop already has a sub-grade of what looks like gravel installed, while the remainder is being graded. Finally I knew where all the ties I had seen stacked in Hallock were going. There is also a big stack of stick rail along the tracks in town, that has been there for a couple of months at least, which must also be canola-plant bound.





Since I'm going on about this plant, and managed to connect this stop to work, I'll share a photo of something other than a train. The pipelines that create my day job are usually buried, but the gas line serving this plant is under construction, and offered up a photo op during the stop. If you've ever wondered what butt fused 8" HDPE looks like, here's your answer. Someone's got some backhoe work ahead of them.





After lunch and an afternoon's work in Stephen, it was back on the road for Wadena. I believe I neglected to mention the unit train sitting on the loop at Argyle Monday, but it was still there with no power anywhere to be seen. I was wishing some GE's had shown up to take it east (south) along with me, but no such luck.



However, somewhere just south of Warren those GE's did show up. A pair of Dash 9's appeared, running light and headed toward Argyle. I've no way of knowing whether that was where they were going, but it seemed like the sensible destination to me. The crew noted a lone railfan with some bell and horn action as they passed by.





Being as how it is harvest season, and I've already deviated from the pure rail theme of this blog in this post, here's a second non-rail shot. Around Callaway a farmer was working at getting the wheat crop off and it was such a lovely scene it seemed like a photo was required. And who knows, the bounty of this field may well end up at the Callaway elevator and start toward its final destination on a CP train.





Finally, my scanner tipped me off to a Staples Sub westbound as I arrived in DL. The detector at MP 203 announced the imminent arrival of a train, so I decided to shoot him. Here, he's rolling into town, just across the highway from Lake Detroit and the Holiday Inn.





That's the story of my trip home from far NW MN. As is so common, the lack of train volume was balanced by interesting sightings. Always a great area to go and look for trains!

To Noyes...

...by way of Hawley, Ulen, Fertile, Crookston, and Warren. Should be a great railfanning opportunity, given the cooperation of the National Weather Service, the BNSF, MNN, and NPR.

None of them were very cooperative. Still, it wasn't a total washout.

My periodic trip to extreme NW Minnesota took a bit of a different turn on Tuesday, in that I had to stop in Hawley on the way up. This eliminated fanning that part of CP's DL sub between Detroit Lakes and Erskine, but to make up for it I got to parallel BNSF's branch that runs from Manitoba Junction up to Ulen. Trains are not very frequent, as the only customer I am aware of is the elevator in Ulen where they load shuttle trains.

But today was a lucky day, as a train was in town. Just like the last time I caught a train in Ulen, the power was parked just north of the derail on the south side of town. And just like the last time, there's not a whole lot to work with from the photography side of things, but here's an effort:


I can say that, even though the lead unit is in the shade, at least the sun was out. That's a distinct advantage over much of the time I spent on this trip, whether working or chasing a train after work.

For example, the sound of a train blowing for a crossing had me leaving my motel room at the fabulous Caribou Inn in Hallock like a fireman leaving the station at the report of a 3 alarm blaze. I figured there was a need for speed. In reality, I had no problem beating this train to the Two Rivers bridge just north of Hawley as he must have been running the jointed rail at restricted speed. An example of the kind of lighting I was enjoying.


It was tempting to throw in the towel due to the cloud cover, but a sliver of blue to the northwest was enough to keep me chasing this train. I decided to cut west on a gravel road in the hopes of getting a panoramic image of the train on the flatlands, but the road condition scared me enough that I gave up in the first location. What passes for gravel in Kittson County is not fit to build an all weather road. Instead, I found a paved county road and shot the train again as he passed.


Smoke from the GE said the slow order might have ended, and sure enough the train sped up. I chased with all my might and managed to get on the sunny side with a minute to spare. Too bad that minute only contained 55 seconds of sunlight. With a heavy heart I watched the approaching train run into the shadow of a huge cloud bank that had moved in. I managed one shot just before he reached that shadow.


I figured we had to be getting close to the border, and the train began slowing. I pressed ahead with the mission of seeing what a "Noyes" looks like. A right turn at the border and a short upgrade offered a view of-not much. For some reason, a lonely CN EMD was resting at some kind of a structure that does things I have no concept of.


And then, just as evidence that I have, in fact, been to Noyes, a tele shot of the depot that should have been wide angle shot.


And so, my bucket list is one item shorter, now that I've seen Noyes. I've spent the majority of my adult life living within blocks of the Canadian border, and enjoyed those places greatly, but I can safely say that while Noyes is a nice place to visit, based on my first impression I wouldn't want to live there.

Jim