A Cold Afternoon at Iron Junction

Greetings, folks. This one is from the "should have posted it weeks ago" file that so often piles up.

My destination for the week of January 12 was the Hibbing/Virginia area, carrying hopes for some CN action. I stayed in Hibbing Monday evening, and a trip out to Kelly Lake revealed nothing of interest that afternoon. However, after completing my assignements in Hibbing on Tuesday, there was enough daylight remaining to visit the Iron Junction area.

The scanner tipped me off to a light engine move in the area. This three unit set was my first catch of the very cold afternoon:


Sounded like they were headed south to grab a loaded train, but I don't have any other details.

After waiting half an hour or so, I heard another move-this time they indicated they would be heading for Two Harbors, so I ran east and waited near Ramshaw. The shot was backlit real bad, but it was my first live experience with steaming pellets in below-zero weather, so I had to try and do something with it.


The last detector I had heard had said it was -9, and it felt every bit of that. The low for the night turned out to be around 25 below. That was a real cold week.

I was running out of light, but just on the off chance of another train I meandered back to Iron Junction. Sure enough, a CN southbound manifest made its way by, but by this time the light was gone, and I was getting cold. So that's all I have to share from my outing at Iron Junction.

I'll try and get some of my other miscellaneous shots from the last month or so up in the next couple of days. I also have some from another Hawley trip to post. Til then,

Jim, out

(Partial) Success

DME 6056 leaving Blooming Prairie
Originally uploaded by look4trains

It's funny-living here is west-central Minnesota, with access to one of the busiest rail lines in the state, strangely enough seems to make it harder to get a shot of a train coming through a snowdrift. First, the train frequency and speed tend to keep the right of way clear, and second, even if a drift forms, there will be a train along in a matter of a few hours at the very most to clear the line.

So oddly enough, my travels to the furthest corner of the state gave me the chance to get this shot. I happened to be in Austin last night, and as I headed for home today under beautiful blue skies, I noticed a train on the main just north of Blooming Prairie. Having travelled this way a number of times I knew that trains were scarce, and this one had a FRED on the north end but no locos on the south. I suspected they were in town doing some switching and a quick u-turn revealed that was indeed the case. I found out from the conducter (setting the derail) that they were headed south again in a few mintues, as soon as they were coupled back up and the air pumped up on the train.

I checked out a couple of crossings south of town, and picked one for a first shot. After a wait of about 20 minutes I shot the train at the first crossing. Since they were travelling so slowly (about 15 mph) I was able to run to another crossing and get this shot. The train was still meandering along at the same speed so there wasn't too much excitement but it's a start.

After all, a day when you get to shoot a train in good light is a day worth remembering, whatever color the train was. And this day certainly fit the bill, and goes into the memory banks on the plus side. Here's to trains, and sun, and snow.

Jim, out