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.

Short. Sweet.

The title pretty much describes today's railfanning outing. Company at home, including Mr. L4T Jr. and Granny L4T, made me want to stick around as much as possible. The tip from some OMR fans that we may see a late 8 on Saturday was enough, though, to get me to check the status of the Builder. On learning of a morning passage through the area I decided to venture out for a bit and try to catch it. A near 10 AM arrival at Detroit Lakes was the final piece of the puzzle. I decided to try the curve at New York Mills:


As you can see he was meeting a westbound coal empty at the crossing so I got two trains for my half hour invested in railfanning. The Builder was flying when I shot this-I only got one chance at it. Had to be close to the speed limit on that section of track.

Then I spent some time modeling this afternoon, and with a little long distance help from Chris was able to get my third DCC engine (and first with SOUND! Toot Toot! F1 baby!) up and running. I can see this DCC business is going to make some long cold winter evenings pass a little faster, what with speed tables, ditch lights, and the like.

So that's my day of involvement in the railroad hobby. Thanks for looking, and hope all of you had as productive a day as I did.

Jim

The Long-Lost Staples Saturday Morning

In the past, fairly frequent reports of Saturday morning sojurns to Staples have been a look4trains.com "staple". However, this year it seems there have been other priorities which have limited Saturday morning activities. Last night it sounded like the weather might be agreeable for such a trip so before drifting off to sleep Mrs. L4T was informed that I just may crawl out of bed early and head east.

Sure enough, the morning dawned clear and bright, and the relentless humidity had eased. What better way to celebrate the improving weather than to go out and document the action along a section of railroad? And so the previous evenings warning was made good. Sort of like Gilligan, I set out on a three hour tour.

I was out the door before 7:00, and crossing the tracks on Jefferson Street a headlight to the west gave indication of a train headed into the sun. The power was an exciting sight and seemed worthy of a bunch of photos in a number of locations-there is even some video to be shared later. Here's what got me so fired up early in the morning:


5 engines (and four of them EMD's) in 5 different paint schemes. Not something you see everyday along this stretch of track. Heck, let's leapfrog up to Staples and shoot him as he approaches the depot, too:


That's not exactly the shot I had in mind driving over, but then I didn't know the yard would be a parking lot this morning either. Notice that CN unit poking his nose out? That's one of the SD70-2's I spotted yesterday, on my way over to Perham. Must have had a quick turnaround somewhere!

While I was waiting at the depot, a guy showed up to clean up the grounds and inside. He was part of the depot committee for Staples, and after visiting with him for a few minutes I learned that the Staples depot is in good shape financially and should be seeing continuing improvements in the future. With the new roof, they can concentrate on other needs knowing the structure is protected. Sounded like good news.

Here's an interesting tidbit-there is a jigsaw puzzle on a baggage cart in the waiting area, and every day he disassembles part of the completed puzzle-maybe a hundred pieces or so. He told me that every morning when he stops back, it's been completed again. While I was wondering if ghosts were responsible, he mentioned that waiting passengers seem to enjoy having something to pass the time. All this interesting converstation caused me to miss an eastbound stack train, but since it was behind a pair of H2 GE's I wasn't too upset. Better things were coming.

The next train was a coal empty off the Brainerd Sub. Ho-hum, another peach MAC. Nothing to see here. But wait, turns out it was the same train I shot on my way home Thursday, when a loaded coal train posed in the Staples yard against a dramatic sky. Here's todays shot:


And then, the treat of the day. ATCS tipped me off to a westbound, which I was trying to figure out how to handle given the fact he would be coming out of the sun. I decided to try and catch the train coming up from the south by shooting him from near where the Brainerd Sub switch is. I figured a "down the throat" shot might have at least some nose light. So that's what I did. Imagine my surprise when I zoomed out as far as I could and saw this approaching:


And it wasn't just one of the Green Giants, but a pair:


(Note: I forgot to tell you that the coal empty had a Grinstien pusher, which made for BNSF paint scheme #6 for the day, so the appearance of the 60M's pushed my paint scheme count to 7, in just over an hour.)

Anyway, the appearance of the 60M's definitely called for a chase. Racking my brain for a way to get a decently-lit shot, I somehow settled on trying a few pans. I shot this set in about 4 locations between Staples and the Highway 10 overpass, and I think this is the one that turned out the best:


After a call to Mrs. L4T to let her know I was going to wait at Perham for a couple of eastbounds, it was back to work. Just after filling with gas, a grain train with a foreign unit second out closed in on me. I got him just east of the overpass:


...and then once more, this time as the GE's on the front worked to lift the train out of the Leaf River Plain:


This train had a long string of brand new covered hoppers in the middle of it and I had to grab a few photos for historical reference. Here's one:


I was about ready to call it a day, but the detector at MP 174.1 announced the arrival of another eastbound. Who can resist the attraction of one more train? Not me. This time, the canadian visitor was from the other road, and was also familiar, being part of the CN power set I had shot yesterday on the coal empty.


And that was it for my Saturday morning outing. I was more than pleased, with the 7 paint schemes, 5 trains, and nice weather as entertainment. Time between first shot and last shot-3 hours 7 minutes. For those of you who convinced yourselves to read the whole thing, thanks! If only every trip trackside could be like this.

Jim

Friday the 13th, Under the Overcast

After my trip to Virginia, I had one last little jaunt for the week. I needed to pick something up in Perham and bring it back to Wadena. So Friday morning, I was off under a leaden sky. I still brought the camera with, because who knows what you might see?

With no ATCS on the track between Detroit Lakes and Wadena, I was at the mercy of the BNSF as far as trains. The track and the highway separate so Highway 10 can loop around the north side of New York Mills, and darned if I didn't spot a stack train headed east as I neared the tracks on the west side of town. The light was funky, and I wanted to try a shot, so a quick u-turn put me in hot pursuit of the eastbound. I caught up with him before reaching Bluffton, and got this shot.


Now there is one complication to this that I haven't yet mentioned. While I was running this train down, I met a standard coal empty east of Mills, in one of the spots where it's hard to see the power. I got a glimpse of the GEVO leader, and passed him up. But as he passed I swore I saw a CN unit in the consist, and it seemed to be too far back to be the second or third unit. I filed this under "interesting things I see along the tracks" and continued my pursuit of the stack train.

After resuming the trek to Perham, I caught up with the MAC that was pushing on the coal empty. I whipped the Escape to try and run down the lead units, and sure enough something was strange, although I couldn't tell exactly what. Since it was Friday the 13th I sailed past Perham on the bypass and caught the headend on the other side of town. After a couple more miles, I was able to get to the north side of the tracks for a shot.


Of course I had the wide lens on, and you can't see what I wanted to show, so I grabbed a going away of the rear 3 units in this consist-a CN GEVO and a pair of SD70-2's. Now that's odd-unusual-strange or whatever you want to call it.


I know these are terrible shots, but I had to post them as there is a "to be continued" element to this post that requires me to include the story of the CN locos. You'll have to wait for the next report to hear the rest of the story...

Jim

A Few from the Road

I am lucky(?) enough to have a job that gives me the chance to travel the state. At the same time there are places I have to be at given times, so frequently I am along tracks with no time to stop and wait for a train, I just grab whatever targets of opportunity present themselves. This past week was a good example of that.

Monday morning I headed northwest with a destination of Warren, MN. I followed the Staples Sub from Wadena to DL, the CP Detroit Lakes Sub north to Erskine, picked up the BNSF Grand Forks Sub west to Crookston, and the Noyes Sub north to its crossing with the NPR at Warren. Yes, I am like that, and do plan my routes with railroads in mind.

Anyway, there was no traffic until I passed through Erskine and met what I believe was the Cass Lake local working the propane plant in Mentor. The sun was high, but I stopped and grabbed a couple of quick shots before moving on. This is probably the best one. (NOTE: I have changed the formatting of photos on the blog. Starting with the last couple of posts, clicking on the pictures should make them open in a new window, rather than the existing window like they used to.)


Looks like the swamp mats are still moving somewhere. I also noticed that the shuttle elevator at Erskine had a train stored on the loop. I found another stored train on the loop at Argyle the next day.

Now, I have had pretty good luck along the Noyes Sub in the past. Not a lot of trains, but one train a day each way has given me a chance at a shot almost every full day I spend up in the area. The flooding north of the border had really clamped down on the traffic this week, though. Seeing or hearing nothing for the first couple of days (with the exception of an eastbound NPR train in Warren that work prevented me going after), I figured the Noyes was as good as closed. But on Wednesday, I heard a horn while in Stephen and almost crippled myself rushing out the building, with just enough time to see a string of yellow rock cars of some sort head north. I never saw the power.

I was in Hallock that night, staying at the Caribou Inn and dining across the parking lot at the Caribou Grill, when what I think was the same train sailed through town southbound. All I saw from the window were the tops of two orange locos passing by. My view was obstructed by buildings and I wouldn't have seen the cars if they were along for the ride.

So flash forward to Thursday, on my trip home. I noticed that the unit trains stored on the loops at Argyle and Erskine were both gone. However, once again, traffic was light almost all the way to Perham. Finally I spotted the headlight of a westbound and pulled over to the nearest crossing to grab a shot of an ES44DC leading three Dash 9's on an intermodal.


Continuing east, I spotted another westbound just as I left New York Mills. I had a few minutes to spare so I made a u-turn and raced west, considering a shot from the Highway 10 overpass. I decided to try a shot at the Perham curve instead. This train was really flying, and I had hardly any time to get out and run through the ditch before grabbing this shot of him just entering the curve at Perham.


So, having travelled almost 600 miles (including daily trips along portions of the Noyes Sub as I worked in that area), and paralleling railroad tracks the entire way, I came home with a grand total of three shots. This was not my most productive railfanning week by any means. Strangely, on Saturday Mrs. L4T and myself were up and out early as we headed to Fargo to help the Son & heir move from Fargo to Grand Forks, and I met 5 eastbounds between Wadena and DL, along with passing a westbound. So there are still trains out and about. You just have to get lucky.

Tonight we will probably head out after supper and see if any traffic is moving. The skies have cleared and the temp is a very pleasant 60. Next week, I will be travelling the Staples Sub, the UP in southeast MN, and some DME and ICE trackage, so with any luck, I will get some shots to share from that part of the state. Thanks for looking!

Jim, out