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. 

After Effects

After spending a few days in the Twin Ports and along the North Shore, Wednesday evening found me headed for home. I was curious about the level of rail traffic that the Brainerd Sub might carrying, and not sure what to expect after the recent derailment. Maybe trains weren't even running yet? Suspicions grew as the miles ticked by with no rail traffic in evidence.

I was just getting out of the Escape at the Holiday in Deerwood (a favorite stop of mine on 210) when a throaty EMD roar jerked me out of my trance. After a glance east I was back in the car and on the road in a jiffy. A pair of green GP's were smoking it up as they worked hard on a long Brainerd local. I easily outdistanced the train by the edge of town and hit the ground running to grab this shot:


A long string of loaded coal gons must have been leftovers from the recent derailment that had been pulled back towards Brainerd to open the line for other trains. They needed to finish their trip to Superior one way or another and fate had chosen this pair of Cascade Green veterans as their appointed power this day. I couldn't help but think I was seeing an unusual occurence as the local power moved 16 loads of coal along with the normal consist of covered hoppers, tanks, and boxcars along the Brainerd Sub. Next stop-a curve along the highway.


After that shot I set out for the S-curve near Aitkin, a spot I've passed by many dozens if not hundreds of times but never shot a train passing. Obviously the light was far from ideal but what the heck. Here comes the train, snaking through a series of curves as it winds along the shore of a small lake.


And one more shot, as he passes me. The conductor gave a wave, probably wondering what kind of strange railfan was out shooting on a cloudy, rainy Wednesday evening.


I counted 16 loaded coal cars as the train passed. I'm almost sure these are the cars from the recent derailment, which seemed interesting to me. Made the trip a lot more enjoyable to finally see a train. Keep looking.

Springfield Short

Thursday August 27 found me making my way through southwest Minnesota farm country. I zig-zagged my way through back country due to detours along Highway 60 in the area and finally reached the DME near the Harvestland elevator at Springfield.

Harvestland was loading a shuttle train, and I grabbed a shot from the road crossing east of the elevator.


This is the same location that I visited last year, when I was invited up into the cab and got a mini-tour of the loading facilities. Luckily, the engineer this day was again George, and I got a chance to visit with him while he waited for the scale to be checked under the car loader.

After a short visit, I had to move on, but just as I left, the New Ulm switch engine showed up headed back to New Ulm. It was a GP40 running long hood forward, bringing empty fertilizer cars back to New Ulm for pickup.


Not a busy day train-wise but a chance to see what to me was unusual action, and to renew an old acquaintance.

Jim

Shows What I Know

After spending some time a couple of days ago putting together a post lamenting the lack of locomotive variety we now commonly see on the Staples Sub, it seems obvious in retrospect that fate would reach out and show me the error of my ways in drawing conclusions, and today that happened.


I spied the rear of a moving train as I approached Gregory. He was moving quite a bit slower than me, and I had no problem overtaking the power. What the heck-a rare GP40X (and it looked familiar to me), a pair of cascade green SD40-2's, and and H1 GP? Kind of blows my theory about old units on the main, I guess.

And not only that, but there was a westbound sitting on Main 1. Of course he was led by a GE wedgie, but that was the only new paint scheme to be found of a group of 8 engines, which between them sported 5 distinct paint schemes. The shot isn't much (actually, it kind of sucks) but you can't claim to get 5 different models of locos, from 2 different manufacturers, in 5 separate paint schemes in a single photo too often these days along the Staples. So I'm posting it.


I was so flummoxed by the first train I stopped again after I had passed him to grab another photo of the power just north of Royalton, with a touch better nose light and no billboards.


Well, that certainly had my attention. And since I seemed to have been issued a GP hunting license for the day, BNSF obliged me by setting up a couple of more targets of opportunity sitting on Main 2 at Becker, just after a stack train had run around them on Main 1. I figure this must be the returning St. Cloud local. Sure was a pretty GP leading with a shiny H3 paint job.


One more shot-a sneak peek at what I will try and fit in this week. Here's the DPU on a UP manifest I shot on my way to supper this evening. With any luck, I will get a chance to run out to the new Kate Shelley High Bridge tommorow after work.


A pretty good day of looking for trains while I drove 400 miles for work. I'm a lucky guy.

Jim

You Just Never Know...

...what you might see along the tracks.

Business this week has me travelling along the Noyes Sub in far northwest Minnesota. I have been lucky enough to catch the local working this branch a few times in the past, which gave me hope of seeing some action on this trip as well.

Tuesday turned out to be the day of no trains as my trip up revealed nothing all the way from Wadena to Hallock except a MOW crew around Donaldson. Kind of strange to travel all that way, paralleling lines the entire trip, and not see a train.

Wednesday I was in Hallock when I heard a horn, and ran outside to see the train. It was a mixed northbound, and wonder of wonders, the leader on this train was one of the ES44C4's. BNSF 6608 was proudly heading north with Dash 9 trailing. I grabbed a photo under completely overcast skies to capture the moment.


As the train passed, I thought "that picture could have been taken in countless places. I need something to show where it is." So here is a going away shot with the old and new Hallock water towers in the background.


This is one of those experiences that makes railfanning special to me. If you had asked me the likelihood of seeing one of these unique locos on the Noyes sub when I left home Tuesday morning, I would have given you extremely good odds on my not seeing one. I know all the reasons they shouldn't be here. Yet, in spite of the facts that I have never seen 6 axle power on the Noyes local, that there are only 25 of these engines in existence, and that it has been rumored they were bound for high speed service on the southern transcon, here it was ambling north along a dead-end BNSF line on a manifest. You could have knocked me over with the proverbial feather.

That was the last action I was to see on the Noyes sub today. I swung through Grand Forks this evening to have supper with the heir to the L4T fortune, and we drove around town a bit to view the locos at the BNSF terminal. It sure doesn't look like this new GE was assigned due to a lack of 4 axle power, as there were 8 or 10 GP types parked in Grand Forks.

I met a westbound on the GF sub as I headed to Crookston for the evening, but the clouds and my yawning convinced me to continue on to the hotel. So here I am, posting this tale.

And the moral of today's little story is: keep looking for trains. You just never know...

Jim

Slim Pickings in Southern MN

Duty called-and again, I answered. The week started out with some work at home on Monday, but I had to be deep in southwest Minnesota at 0830 on Tuesday AM so I left home after supper with the intent to go as far as possible that night and "tie up" for the evening.

My journey southward was train free until I reached Benson just after 8 PM. As I crossed the tracks a glance to the east revealed the smoke column of an accelerating train but no headlight-must be an eastbound. Since I have zero shots from this area a quick chase allowed me to overtake the local and grab what was supposed to be a glint shot in failing light. This train was led by a pair of EMD lease GP's with consecutive numbers.


I overnighted at Montevideo and when I left in the morning, just before 0700, road construction routed me along Hwy 212 for a short way. No trains, but I did notice that there is a small intermodal facility there-must be on the TCW. I didn't know about this before. No pictures, but I would dearly love to chase a train along the river someday. Another item for my bucket list.

My assigned tasks for the day completed, I headed for Windom, where I planned to spend the night. I travelled along Hwy 14, roughly paralleling the DME. I had seen a train pass by earlier in the day eastbound while I was working but figured it had a couple hour head start and was long gone. Imagine my surprise at finding it tied down on my arrival in Tracy. I initially hoped it was waiting for a meet but no luck as it was unoccupied. I grabbed a head on shot at the crossing east of town.


Just a few miles down the road, near the sight of the still under-construction Highwater Ethanol plant, I spotted a BNSF shuttle train being loaded at the Lamberton elevator. A pair of trackmobiles were handling the cars, one shuttling loads out to the edge of town while the other spotted empties under the loading chute. Here is the "shuttle" unit:


It was handling about 15 what I assume were loads as they were travelling away from the elevator, and working very hard doing it. Speed was not impressive to say the least.

The power for the shuttle was resting on the east edge of town, and I grabbed a couple of photos of the three unit set.


Obviously I was getting desperate for something to shoot, as this photo demonstrates.


On arrival at Windom I spent a little time trackside in hopes Uncle Pete would run something into the sun for me, but no dice. So I have exhausted my complete ration of Monday and Tuesday shots for your entertainment. Wish I had more to offer, but this is it.

Jim, out.

Finally Back on Line

With the recent attacks on Coppermine photo galleries and the severe damage that my old photo site suffered, I have gone without much of a web presence for nearly a month now. After researching what it would take to clean up the mess I had, and reading about the difficulties others were experiencing, I decided a totally new approach was in order.

After seeing signs this evolved from near grade crossings, I always thought there was something cool that could be done with the "Look for Trains" phrase. I decided it would make a good domain name and checked to see if look4trains.com was available. Since it was I grabbed it and set up a blogger account pointing to it. The rest, as they say, will some day be history.

Having spent the first 4 days of the week in the Warren and Hallock area I have a couple of shots that I wanted to share. The first one is of a GP38-2 in the H3 scheme. This engine was on the point of a southbound Noyes local Wednesday as I travelled north between Warren and Argyle. Work was keeping me jumping but I made time to stop and shoot this while the sun was out.


The second shot is of an industrial switcher at Northwest Grain in Warren, where there is a loop for (I think) both loading unit grain trains and unloading unit fertilizer trains. This is also where the Noyes Sub crosses the Northern Prairie Railroad. I enjoy finding these old switchers that have discovered a new life in industrial service.


Another interesting tidbit I heard while I was up there was that the loop at the Argyle grain facility is going to need a complete rebuild due to poor subroadbed. Apparently when the contractor built it they used rounded river rock in the "foundation" and it never locked together like crushed rock would with its sharp edges. Local word was that this has resulted in at least one derailment on the loop. When, I don't know.

Hey, it's a start, and I have lots more photos to get reposted over time. I just hope I figure out how to use this to the best advantage. Comments or suggestions on how to best present information are always welcome.