Before the Snow

This afternoon I was able to sneak out of work a little early (with permission, of course) and venture out to see what was moving on the CN. I knew there was a northbound coming up the hill, and it looked like something headed south on the Rainy Sub too. 

As I reached Highway 2 at the Morris Thomas Road intersection, I was greeted by the passage of the lone locomotive at the head of the train. After a right turn, I managed to get in position for a shot at Munger, but the clouds made it a pretty blah attempt. 

So I swung over to Simar for a peek up the tracks, which revealed a train on the main with the headlight off. Not being sure what that meant, I ran down to Adolph and considered waiting for another train coming up the hill, but the clouds were still pretty thick. Some blue sky to the west inspired me to backtrack. A glance at ATCS revealed that the train at Simar now had a light so I headed back there for this shot.

Headlight was on now! With that one bagged, I checked the status of the next northbound and found he was close to Adolph already. With the sun peeking through the clouds from time to time now, I decided to try Canosia Road for the final shot of the day. A wonderful sucker hole appeared and I opened fire at long range, getting this.

And then the sun slipped behind a cloud, which resulted in the bland image below. If it was just a couple of GE's I wouldn't mind so much, but a pair of SD75's up front is not so common. Would have liked to have had the sucker hole here.

Feeling frustrated and with nothing close by on the radar, I headed for home. Still, can't be too disappointed seeing 3 in a long hour. It was better than staring at outlook and Microsoft Teams, for sure. Maybe tomorrow there will be first snow shots to get.

Sunday in (all-of-a-sudden) EMD Land

A couple of westbound trains mixed in with Sunday afternoon's lovely cooler weather and the sun peeking out from between clouds created the perfect environment for a trip to the Staples DQ to treat Mrs. L4T to supper. We tried timing the trip to get the food between trains, and were somewhat successful.

The first westbound was passing through Staples as we left Wadena, which seemed to create an opportunity at the Verndale sag. I shot him a number of times but the sun was positioned so that the glare off the windshield was atrocious until the locomotive got pretty close, so here's my image of a lone execu-MAC bringing a "Slot Machine" out of the Wing River dip.


The radio revealed that a loaded coal train had just taken the Brainerd Sub, and a manifest was passing though town staying on the Staples Sub as we arrived. I didn't get a chance to see the power, but a few minutes later I heard BNSF 8184 call the signal approaching Philbrook. Drat!

By this time we needed to hit the DQ drive thru so we would be fortified when the second westbound arrived in Staples. Then, just as we were ordering, I heard BNSF 6821 clearing up at Wadena. Interesting.

So we went back to the depot with our chow to see who would get their first-the westbound or the SD40-2. Turns out the old-timer won the race by a hair, with the meet happening within spitting distance of the depot. First shot is the pair of 40's approaching the depot, then the meet between that pair and a stack train led by an SD75I.





The 8300 was leading yet another EMD product, this one some variety of spartan cab SD wearing a black paint scheme. Let's hope that the eventual mega-merger won't result in us shooting black across the country on a regular basis.

Since we had to be home by 7, a chase back west seemed in order. I beat the stacker to the Dower Lake crossing and shot him just as a sucker hole passed over. The shot 10 seconds earlier is dark, but this time fate smiled on me.


Fate was on my side in more ways than one, since a loaded coal train was working at blocking my shot at the westbound, but again, I was on the winning side. I needed only to turn around to shoot yet another meet.


Since we were headed for home, and in the process once again got ahead of the stack train, seemed only right to shoot him once more. Sadly, I wasn't as lucky with the lighting this time. The high haze combined with my poor timing on the shadow from the abandoned grain elevator did a number on this shot.


And even then we weren't done. A scratchy detector call just outside Wadena suggested another eastbound, and sure enough he came into view just as the stack train passed. Now, since I had to be home at 7, and I still hadn't stopped at the Fresh Freeze, there is no photo of this train. A man has to have his priorities in order, you know. I will tell you this-I waited long enough to see that this coal train was led by an ACe, making for the fourth different EMD model in some type of BN or BNSF paint we had spotted during this short outing. Add that to the radio call from the SD60M and the Staples Sub was thick with various 6 axle EMD's this night. Outstanding!

Jim

"Check, Please."

That's what I said to the waitress at the Spot Cafe in Staples as a pair of warbonnet SD75's drifted west through town this evening. But let's back up just a bit and set the stage.

Mrs. L4T had managed to pry me away from a frenzy of benchwork building, as I strove to complete a mainline run around the half of my basement that has been taken over by model railroading. So it was that we headed to Staples around 4 PM to take nourishment and see if there were any sights to behold. A paucity of westbound trains motivated us to eat as soon as we arrived. We were entertained while we ate by a pair of eastbounds-the first one a manifest train headed up by a pair of SD75's and a third unit in a GP30 body, and the second one a stacker behind a couple of Dash 9's. We were finishing up supper as the stack train passed, and while it was rolling through Staples, the westbound showed up. As I said earlier, this 364 axle manifest train had a pair of warbonnets for power. We quickly got our check, paid, and made chase.

Building clouds were playing havoc with the sun from time to time, so with the chance to shoot the train during a sunny interval I quickly pulled over at the location of the detector at MP 151. Here's the shot:


I had been able to overtake the train due to his slow speed through Staples. By the time he passed the detector this had all changed, and it was a race to get ahead of him again. I finally passed the head end just outside Verndale, but once again fell behind passing through Wadena. The train didn't have to stop for a pair of red lights.

I had hoped to shoot him near Bluffton, but no joy on that. I didn't catch the power again until New York Mills, and decided to chase him to Perham and try a photo on the west bank of the Ottertail River.


I was again lucky with the sun, and we decided to call it a night. Back home it was, to spend a little more time thinking about the best way to build that tricky piece of corner benchwork. All for this time.

Jim

Return of the SD75M

Way back on Tuesday, February 2, BNSF Jake posted a photo of a flock of BNSF SD75's on the move down the Staples Sub. The word on the web was that these engines were to be returned to service in various locations on the system. Sadly, my own trip down the Staples Sub that morning was much too early to get a look at this group of engines as they moved from Minot to Northtown. However, I did get a chance to spot the SD39-2 pair 8012-8018, (working?) behind a pair of SD70MAC's on an eastbound manifest early that morning. This train was stopped near Clear Lake when I shot it just before 9 AM Tuesday.



It's not a conventional or traditional power set, but hey, it's an all-EMD powered freight train. Can't kick about that in the year 2010.

Fast forward to today, or more specfically this afternoon as I returned home from a three day tour of Southeast Minnesota and the Twin Cities. Just west of Becker, a headlight lured me off the well traveled asphalt of Highway 10 for a shot of what turned out to be an eastbound manifest under the charge of two of the aforementioned SD75M's.

Although the overcast ruled out good photos, I simply had to shoot this pair of EMD's. I take it as nothing but a good sign that business is picking up if the railroad is re-activating units that had been mothballed for what seems like a year.



I also spotted a pair of eastbound manifests on my trip home, both led by assortments of Dash 9's in various H1, H2, and warbonnet paint. The last train I spotted was a COLX load just south of Randall. Sadly, they heavy overcast was enough to discourage me from further photography attempts.

Monday I leave for Hallock, so hopefully I will get something on that trip. Who knows, with any luck I may even stumble across that rumored CP windmill train that is supposed to headed this way.
Jim