Yesterday morning I set out under mostly overcast skies and pointed the Escape west. The first train popped up before reaching CR 75-a manifest led by a pair of MAC's. After pulling over to the side of the road and jumping out the following photo was made:
Back on the road, no more traffic was spotted until reaching the other side of Perham. When a headlight popped up on the long straightaway, I made my way to the far side of the tracks at a crossing to await the train. The short wait was worth it, when a repainted Dash 9 in the H3 scheme showed up as leader.
And then, before reaching Frazee, another headlight appeared. Once more a path to the light side was found, and a very short wait yielded the "slot machine" behind a matched set of SD60M's.
Lots of radio chatter on the CP channel indicated a busy DL sub, but I didn't have time to go looking for the trains. A massive MOW crew west of Audubon was tieing up Main 1 as well, and I didn't see anything else until the afternoon.
I heard KAW on the radio talking to BNSF 7828 at Aldrich, and decided to sit and wait by the crossing in Wadena for him. In less than 5 minutes the headlight appeared and the silent "hot rail" call was made, and soon after I got this:
With that, it was time to call an end to a long railfanning day.
