Frosty Days

Usually we associate the word "frost" with cold. The last couple of days have been sweatshirt weather in these parts, yet the frost has been about as glorious as it gets. I like shooting in the frost as it adds something rarely seen around here. It's even better if the sun comes out, as here, but it's even neat in the clouds. Yesterday and today fit into the latter category, even sneaking toward fog yesterday. For example, here's an intermodal I happened across shortly after leaving on a trip to the Cities Thursday afternoon. I also got a couple others on the trip, the first at Aldrich:


And the second one I managed to intercept at the old Highway 10 bridge near Lincoln. This train had a pair of GE's and a long string of freight cars stretched out behind.


I scored in the same location again today on the way home. This time it was Dairyland Power loads, headed down the Staples Sub behind a GE and a MAC, with yet another MAC shoving. This train has some frost on the MU hoses to go along with what was coating the trees.


I wish there was a better way to actually capture the beauty of these conditions but I just don't have the knack. It's fun to see though.

The Missing Railfan Returns

I've spent the more than a month since my last post doing who knows what? Well, work got in the way, and family issues, and the Holidays, and....

As someone who has gotten used to seeing trains many times a week at a minimum, this interval has been pretty train-free. That's not by choice, but simply a result of where my travels have taken me. However, I did get the chance to shoot a few pictures, this first one in International Falls on November 29. For once, the sun was out, and the MDW was kind enough to park one of their new switch engines where I could get a shot with the engine house in the background.


On December 13, the fog and overcast was back on a day I travelled to Randall for work. As the day went on, the fog just seemed to get thicker. A westbound Z train stopped at the Randall siding just as I left town, and I figured it wouldn't sit for long. I noticed a track inspection truck getting off the tracks at Cushing and decided to wait for the Z in the gloom at the old Highway 10 overpass. It was so dark the shot suffered, and this is the best I could do with the shutter wide open and the ISO cranked up too high. About 2:30 in the afternoon.


And then on December 20, after a quick trip to Perham, I caught up with a rail grinder on the way home. Another of those rare sunny days, and he decided to stop at the west crossing, so why not shoot him? So, I did.


We spent Christmas weekend in International Falls, and I came home the day after with my son. He needed to head back to Grand Forks. A friend was in the hospital in Wadena, and on my way to visit, sure enough, I spotted a headlight. I decided to get a profile of the power as the light was 90 degrees to the track. I wouldn't bore you with it if not for the repainted Dash 9 trailing.


Finally, Wednesday I had to go to New York Mills for work, and I was lucky enough to catch a couple of trains after finishing up. First is the Ferromex unit I shared earlier on Flickr, this time two shots instead of just one.





And then a MAC that has seen better days, but still hard at work doing what it was built to do. That's haul coal out of the Powder River Basin. Regardless of the paint, I'll never get tired of seeing this work done.


So now you are caught up on what this railfan has been up to. Not a lot, from a train perspective, but hopefully the new year holds some new adventures along the tracks.

A PUSHER?

Actually, I saw a few pushers today. Most of them were what we have come to think of as conventional pushers, or Distributed Power Units. These are the locomotives on the rear (at least in this area) of the train, which are controlled by the engineer up front. This coal train, which was photographed going east through the Verndale sag, had a pretty nice looking MAC pushing. Since the tail end unit was facing the wrong way I only shot the head end power.


After a stop north of Eagle Bend, the journey continued on toward Randall. Since it was lunchtime, a detour down old Highway 10 near Lincoln was possible, and another train popped up, this time what looked like oil cans. I missed the head end, but got the "pusher"-a fairly new GEVO. This was an absolute snap shot as I lumbered up the hill just as the loco disappeared around the corner.


And now on to what I hinted about on Facebook earlier today-a "manned helper", something that should be unheard of on the Staples Sub in this day and age. It seems like those tie cars must be getting loaded pretty heavy, though, as this train showed up passing under the old Highway 10 bridge:


Yes, there is a second hi-rail on the rear, and it's manned-as a matter of fact the two guys in it gave me a funny look as I shot them passing by. Here's a going away shot after they passed under me:


It can't be that they needed the power, as I've seen these trucks move 10 cars on their own. Maybe by tieing everything together they can travel as one "train" and get to where they are going faster, I don't know. Whatever the reason, it was one of those things that really gets your attention. An oddity.

And when I got back to Wadena, sure enough, Chris, I looked down the tracks as I crossed to go home and saw a headlight. It seemed a waste not to try and shoot him, even though the light was terrible. More crude oil tanks. With three units up front this one had no DPU. You can almost smell the creosote boiling off those ties in this shot.


And then it was home, and back to work. I sure wish I could get caught up. For now, I'm thankful for seeing some trains, and the manned helper of July 2011.

St. Cloud and Back

The trip to St. Cloud and back for the Granite City Train Show offered the chance for some more cloudy day railfanning. As we passed the west end of the Staples yard, a parked train caught my attention. A 6600 series GE was the leader on a manifest parked in the yard. U-turn time!


Oddly, the tracks were quiet the rest of the way down. After getting my fill of model railroading at the train show (and some quality shopping time for Mrs. L4T), we were once again northbound. And still the trains seemed to be hiding from us.

Finally, during a brief stop in Randall, I spotted an eastbound between Staples and Philbrook on ATCS. We headed straight for the old Highway 10 bridge near Lincoln and waited only about 10 minutes for what I suspect was a Becker load with a MAC leader. The leaves are starting to pop, giving us hope for some more scenic shots in the near future.


I still think whoever made the decision to peel off all the nose logos should be punished, but as a famous train blogger once said, "whaddaya gonna do?".

Shortly, a second eastbound popped up on the screen, and we decided to try and beat him to the Quicken Road crossing south of Philbrook. I've always wanted to shoot an eastbound here, and today was my (somewhat) lucky day-I got the eastbound, although it was under heavy overcast and in a light drizzle, none of which lessened the impact of seeing a train round the corner at speed.


These NS units are a particular favorite of Mrs. L4T for some reason. She says it's not the paint, but the name sounds neat-"Norfolk Southern"-and she maintains that the orange engines all look the same. You should have heard me try and explain why we needed to stop and shoot the C4 in Staples."But it looks just like all the rest" she said, as I tried to explain the concept of replacing 6 DC traction motors with 4 AC motors, and adding equipment that has the ability to raise the center axle on each truck to increase the weight on the driven axles. I gave up when her eyes glazed over in response to my explanation. Oh well, I'm lucky that she enjoys the ride.

Jim

Three from the 13th

It's been a busy weekend. Today we celebrated the birthday of the heir to the L4T empire and Saturday was filled with chores around the house. The only railfanning I managed to fit in had to come early Saturday, between about 6:30 and 9:30 AM.

The BNSF wasn't overly cooperative, but I got a couple of shots I enjoyed. I started out by heading west until I met a train, which was all the way to Ottertail CR 75, about a mile and a half outside Wadena. I immediately turned around and gave chase, shooting him passing the Wadena depot, passing through Vernadale, and passing a loaded coal train sitting in the Staples yard. I wasn't real happy with any of these.

Another eastbound was right on his heels, and I decided to run a bit further east and try some new shots. I ended up between Cushing and Randall, where I barely caught the first train as he travelled down the Staples Sub. This was actually shot out the passenger window as I didn't have time to dismount before he arrived.


Right behind were coal loads with (you guessed it) another MAC up front. This is from the exact same location, but the angle is a little different. I think this is my favorite shot of the day. With some experimentation this area should offer some nice photo ops in the future.


I decided to work my way back to Wadena, and paralleled the tracks as much as possible through the Philbrook area. The only train I saw was a vehicle train that caught me by surprise. I really need to address the scanner situation as there is either a radio or antenna problem that is screwing up reception and making chasing tougher.

When I made it to Staples I found a wireless signal, fired up my laptop, and saw on ATCS that an eastbound was just passing through Wadena. I headed west and made it past Aldrich before I spotted him. A quick u-turn and dash through the ditch yielded this shot:


I made it home with no further action. That was the end of my fanning for the weekend. I am looking forward to the Verndale get together this coming Saturday and hope that some of you are able to attend.

Jim

Changing Times on the Staples Sub

Given the variability in my workload, other obligations, and weather, I tend to railfan when I can, not always when I would like to. There are times when I will go for weeks with only a glance at the tracks to satisfy my curiosity.

This can cause me to not notice a change on the railroad until it darn near reaches out and slaps me. The most recent example I can think of is the disappearance of the once-common SD40-2 locomotive on trains travelling the Staples Sub. I made a post to the Outstate Minnesota Rail group observing that I hadn't seen many 40's recently and it came to light that they are either stored or being returned to the leasor, due to the economic downturn and the arrival of new power on the railroad.

Having been tied up for much of the fall with work issues, I had done very little fanning after we returned from our trip to Glacier in September. I decided to look back at the few photos I had shot to see when I had last photographed an SD40-2 on BNSF rails. Surprisingly (to me), it was while on vacation in Montana. The last 40 I shot on BNSF rails was BNSF 6994, which I caught as it passed through what Google maps calls "Badrock Canyon" just east of Columbia Falls, Montana. This is where the Flathead River, the railroad, and US Highway 2 all pass through a narrow valley.


At the time I had no inkling whatsoever that this would be my final mainline BNSF SD40-2 for, at best, quite a while. So the fact that Mrs. L4T and myself chased the train to Olney was purely coincidental, although now that the 40's are gone it seems only fitting that the last one I got to shoot deserved a chase.

We beat the train to Olney and I grabbed a going away shot, not for the historical value, but because the scenery was very un-Staples Sub like. I guess the fact it is going away is symbolic, isn't it?


Now I know that as that train curved out of sight on September 19, 2008, I had just released the shutter on the last BNSF SD40-2 I would see in mainline operation for what now looks to be a long time.

This all made me go back and take a look at some of my favorites SD40-2 shots. Here are a couple of them. The first one is a Z train approaching Lincoln in the fall of 2006:


Here's one passing through Wadena in a snow flurry:


I miss them and I hope we see the need to get them back on the high iron soon.

Jim

Hazy Staples Morning (and one Afternoon shot)

Work took me south on Wednesday morning, offering the chance to pass through Staples just after sunrise. With a high humidity haze in the air, I was wondering if there would be any photo opportunities as I passed through town.

Sure enough, I spotted a couple of headlights as I passed the Dower Lake station sign. There were a number of coal trains parked in the yard, and a couple of them had units pointed west, away from the sun. Turned out they were EMD DPU's, waiting on the rear of loads for the word to head east. The high humidity created hazy conditions so I jumped out and crossed the ditch for a backlit shot.


With all the trains in the yard, I figured there might be some power up front and swung around to the south side of the tracks to take a look. There sure was power lined up! I shot four side by side loaded coal trains, all with EMD AC units on the point. I was wishing that I had a little more time to wait for better light, but duty called.


Nothing else gave me a chance at a photo on the way down. I was in the Metro overnight, and spent some time snooping around Northtown yard, as detailed in another post. On the return trip the following day, action was fast and furious after I got past St. Cloud, but I needed to get home and only had a chance to photograph a single train, which I chose because of an unusual motive power set. This merchandise train was behind and SD70ACe, SD70MAC, and an NS GE. The EMD AC units are almost always on coal in this area, so I thought I should record this unusual instance.


The train is shown here rounding the curve just east of the Highway 10 overpass at Lincoln. The WFAX coal loads are waiting for a parade of at least three westbounds before they can continue their eastward journey on this single-track portion of the Staples Sub.

That's all for now. Till next time-

Jim, out.