Alive!

The first ten days of the month went by in a blur, with a trip to Michigan for work followed up by the movers coming and packing up our household goods the following Monday and Tuesday and delivering to our new home on Wednesday. I managed to fit a couple of fun-filled unpacking days in last Thursday and Friday before getting up at 4 AM Monday to head, once again, to Michigan. Now I'm back at my new home in Duluth and Mrs. L4T is here with me, and all is well with the world.

My Mom and Dad stopped to see our house on the way to Florida for the winter on the same the movers arrived. We decided to go for a drive so I could show them where I work and sneak in a little railfanning, which is how I caught this "critter" at the end of the day, working the storage elevator in Old Town Superior. Since we were in a bit of a hurry I had to settle for this shot, someday I would like to get him out in the open.

The heir to the Look4trains fortune was next to visit, and help unpack over the weekend. Since he also needed to see my office, and do a bit of touring around the area, I again managed to sneak in a train photo. This time we were passing the west end of the BNSF pellet yard at Allouez and found a DPU sunning itself while I suppose the train waited to dump. Out came the Pentax and captured the sight.

What a difference between Friday evening (above) and Saturday, shown below. Coming back from Superior, a transfer was leaving Rices Point and a short trip down I-35 let me catch him as he passed through the gloom on the way to Grassy Point. Can't be sunny all the time.

Finally, one more at Allouez, another DPU sitting at the entrance to the yard. This time it was an ACe, but even though the power was nicer the weather wasn't.

That's it for the month so far. Pretty slim pickings but it sounds like the weekend might be at least partly decent so there's that. Wish me luck in my new digs.

Killing Time

This afternoon I got the bug to tinker with an old blue box SW1000 I bought used a while back, just when I was getting back into model railroading. With the arrival of newer and fancier power, along with DCC, it had been relegated to a shelf spot. It was time to change that.

The materials were on hand-a decoder, the tools and material for installing it, and decals to patch the unit from BN to BNSF. After pulling off the shell, I cut off the original headlight assembly and tore out the electrical clips. I soldered in a DH123 decoder using the supplied harness, and installed an LED for the headlight.

While watching the Packers and Giants, I turned to the shell. (It's hard to solder in the living room.) The decals had some green trim film that was used to cover the old road number, logo, and road name. After these set up the "BNSF" initials and new road number were applied.

I tested out the chassis, and it ran. After the game I went down, installed the headlight in the shell, mounted the decoder in the shell with double sided tape, and slapped it all together. Wonder of wonders, it still ran! Here's what it looks like now:





It's got the distinctive blue box "coffee grinder" sound, for no additional money. I also haven't figured out what to do about a rear headlight yet, but suspect it will involve a tiny SMD LED. You can see it still needs MU hoses and cables, along with couplers and weathering. And I know the road number is for an SW1500, but it's what Microscale included on the decal sheet I had. It doesn't bother me.

While not finished, I am surprised that I was able to decide to do something after lunch on a Sunday, start on it, and have the darn thing running by 7:00 PM. Most of my projects take multiple times longer than I anticipate, this one went by many times faster than I had figured on. I guess that's a good sign!

A Turkey of a Day

If a railfan were to tell you that he spent all of three hours along the track on a day when "code blue" was a great description of the sky, and when the sun was finally low enough in the sky to reduce the high sun issue, AND that he saw 10 trains during that less than three hour period, you would likely think he ought to have some passable photos to share.

Sadly enough, in the case of today, at least you would be wrong. As Exhibit 1, I offer up the most interesting "turkey" of a shot from today. At least it inspired some horn action from the crew of this stack train, in the hopes of not having to squeegee someone's future Thanksgiving dinner off the windshield of their ride.


Just another one of the eight-yes, that's correct, eight-eastbounds BNSF fleeted through Staples late this afternoon. Mrs. L4T and I had made a trip to Brainerd, and with no pressing need to get anywhere, we decided to take the long way home through Randall and follow the tracks back to Wadena. During an early supper at Kim's on Pacific in Randall (highly recommended), an eastbound Z was the leader of the pack. ATCS showed a couple more behind him, so we headed for the Lincoln bridge only to find the train had beat us there by about 30 seconds. Same story at Pulaski Road. Then we spotted a headlight from the Philbrook crossing, and after a short wait got a shot of the train passing the signal bridge.


The stack train in the first photo, a Becker coal load passing the depot in Staples, another stacker near Aldrich, and finally a manifest between Verndale and Wadena rounded out less than two hours with 8 eastbounds on the Staples Sub. Backlighting galore!

And it had all started out with at least a little promise. Passing through Staples on the way to Brainerd, this cried out to be photographed. Must be the switch engine Jake mentioned on the list a day or two ago, now sitting in a train in the Staples yard.


When we arrived in Brainerd, another headlight beckoned from east of the 371 crossing. I couldn't help but swing down that way and grab a shot. I thought the lighting was pretty poor but it turned out to be a gem compared to the remainder of the day.


So, I saw a whole bunch of trains, took a few rotten pictures, and drove a bunch of miles. Still, it didn't change my thinking that a bad day railfanning is better than a good day of just about anything else.

Sampling some Switchers

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like any railfan who wakes up in Thief River Falls, looks out the window to see sunshine, and has a half hour to spare should be obligated to take a swing by the CP yard to see what else is up and about.

So that's what I did this morning. After shooting some pictures of the Farmer's Coop concrete grain elevator (one of my new obsessions) I tracked this down sitting what I think is south of the roundhouse.


It was the beginning of a long day, a day that would interestingly enough involve the sightings of a number of switch engines. The CP engine above was the first, but after reaching Crookston sometime after lunch a little exploration revealed a couple of others. The Minnesota Northern engine is hidden behind this little gem, and there didn't seem to be a way to get a shot that included them both. The heat distortion is really getting to be a problem when combined with the high sun.


Since the day seemed to be developing a switch engine theme, and the trip up offered a look at the unit that lives in Callaway, a return route through Ulen seemed fitting. This engine is hard to get from a good angle AND in good light. I finally got a little better light today, although it was high sun, but the angle was awful. Too much "elevator" stuff around.


While doing a little more snooping, I thought I spotted a crew van in Ulen, although there was no grain train present. This instantly alerted the railfan senses, and after heading south sure enough headlights were spotted leaving Hitterdall. This train is an easy chase, as I think the track is only 10 mph and they absolutely don't speed, so I shot him in a couple of spots between there and Ulen. Since this post is about switchers, though, I will save those for another day.