Saturday Morning Mash Up

 The title of this post is based on the first moving train I shot this morning. You might understand why after I share a photo of it. But before we get to that, my first photo of the morning was at Proctor. The Polar Vortex has loosened its grip on Minnesota, but it was still cold (and humid) enough this morning to get the pellets steaming.

With that out of the way let's move on to the story of the mash up. ATCS told me there was a meet set up for Alborn. In the hopes that the southbound was another taconite load, I headed north with the intention of catch the meet from the air and chasing the southbound, well, south. When I arrived I was disappointed to see a dinky little train that will show up later. Still seemed like the thing to do was wait for him to go south and try to make the best of the situation. But first the northbound had to clear. It was a long train that had been leaving Proctor when I got the shot above. I hadn't seen the power so I wasn't expecting this.

Good Lord, I said to myself, that ain't ordinary. I haven't seen the 215 stray from Proctor since, well, I don't know when. A long time. With the rumors of the standard cabs going away circulating I leapt to the conclusion that this could be the end of maroon paint on former DMIR rails. I guess time will tell. 

Now for the southbound that guy above met. I headed to Culver for a shot at the curve. The short train was making dandy time so my wait wasn't long. I banged away as he approached and passed me. 

I caught up for one last shot at Jeffrey Road.

Another southbound got a light to Coons, so back north I went. Since it was a balmy 6 above by this time, I busted out the drone for a flight at Bear Trap.

He was just getting ready to pull after a meeting an intermodal at Coons, so I pulled over and fired off a few more frames. I'm a sucker for those Oakway SD60's. 

By then it was time to head for home and a fresh cup of coffee. A good morning of railfanning. 

Mish Mash

 The first Sunday of 2021 found me trackside on a sunny day. The hint of a southbound on the Missabe sent me searching for a nicely lit location and I settled on the curve at Jeffrey Road. Before long the IC 6261 showed itself and put my shutter release finger to work. 

I had a hard time deciding where to head next, and after some poor decision making I ended up at Ratika Road in the hopes of getting something usable on the former DWP. I wasn't overly successful, and wound up with this:

Further away from the lake the frost was still hanging on, so I headed back up 2 when I noticed a train lined into Proctor. Maple Grove road let me get the limestone GE's returning to Proctor.

With that I headed home. In the afternoon Mrs. L4T agreed to ride shotgun on an outing that took us over Superior way to the other railroad. I had the drone charged up for taconite loads at State Line. 

So that's my mish mash of photos from the first Sunday of the year. 

A BLE Kind of Morning

With a vacation day scheduled for the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend, what better way to spend it than heading out trackside. After a look at ATCS showed both north and southbound trains on the Missabe Sub this morning, that's where I went. 

First stop, Proctor. The first northbound turned out to be a transfer coming up the hill from Pokegema. The southbound was approaching Coons. But upon arrival the switch job was working, offering a nice view of the 215.

We have that, even if the CN doesn't paint a DMIR heritage unit. 

It was only a short wait until the transfer showed up, rounding the curve and approaching the yard. Judging from what looks like HelperLink hardware on the nose of the loco, one of the helper sets was doing transfer duty on this Monday morning. 

Finally the southbound shows itself, and it turns out to be a loaded pellet train led by a BLE unit. It was just cold enough to show a little steam from the hot pellets. 

There looked to be another meet coming up at Coons, so I headed north to catch whatever it was coming down from the range. Thought I'd try a drone shot at the Saginaw depot, but I think I got a little too high. Here's the result:

Another BLE leader makes two in a row for me. The northbound manifest rolled by at Coons but I didn't get a shot. One more stop at Jeffrey Road was kind of a bust, nothing from there to post. Then it was home for a cup of coffee and lunch. Tomorrow it's back to the grind. Woe is me. 

Like Old Times

 The days are getting short. We lose daylight both morning and evening, which means it's usually dark when I get up this time of year. This morning was no different. 

A glimpse out the window as the sun peeked above the horizon showed a fresh blanket of snow, maybe 3 inches, and with flurries continuing. ATCS told me that a northbound was heading out of Superior, so with the OK from Mrs. L4T I bundled up and headed out into the snow. The roads were less than ideal, but I figured I had plenty of time to catch the train somewhere north of Proctor. That idea was dashed upon reaching Jeffery Road, as the train was speeding north. Pressing on, I made it to North Coons with but a minute to spare, and grabbed a shot of what I figure was the Ranier local based on the fact that the train had a pair of SD60's for power and only a few cars. 

With one headed my out of Superior, I backtracked with the intent of catching the next northbound somewhere closer to Proctor. I decided to swing by the yard on the way and managed to get a limestone train being made up while the customary switch engines stood by. A pair of DMIR leaders is always a win. 

Then it was off to Stark Road to wait for the northbound. Didn't take too long, but I heard him blow for at least 3 crossings before seeing him. Anticipation was killing me. Then this:

I planned to head home after that train, but with a southbound showing approaching Proctor, I texted the Mrs. telling her I would be a few minutes late and was rewarded with pellet loads.

 Made it home in time to get a text from Mr. Mackey informing me that the WC heritage unit was headed my way. Well, clouds and fog or not, that merited a return trip. Munger seemed like a safe spot to intercept that train. But first, the CN had to run this limestone empty to Proctor so why not shoot that too?

Then it was the moment we have been waiting for-the arrival of the WC heritage unit. I spent a little battery on that.

And that was that. I headed home with a good day's railfanning in the bag. Thanks to Dan Mackey for the heads up on the WC unit. Would have missed it without that tip. 

The title of this post is Like Old Times, because this outing reminded me of many trips I made to Staples while I lived in Wadena. It felt like I am starting to become familiar with locations in the Twin Ports area, and that reminded me of how I used to feel along the Staples Sub. Good memories. 

Fall's Last Gasp

 It's been a lovely autumn here in the Twin Ports, with leaf color that has brought people from all over the state to take in the view. This has inspired me to get out and chase trains every time the opportunity presented itself, and Sunday afternoon was one such opportunity. 

ATCS showed a train headed toward Carlton from the range. I figured there was plenty of time to intercept it there, and possibly chase it for another shot or two. By the time I arrived at the crossing in town, and looked at ATCS again, I was pleasantly surprised to see a train waiting at a red light somewhere in the Cloquet area and another lined off the Brainerd Sub. Off I went, searching for a suitable backdrop for not one but two on the BNSF. The heavy overcast at least kept me from worrying about sun angles. I settled for the crossing at Lerner Road, where a short wait for the coal loads yielded this. (Right click and open in new tab for full resolution.)

I was wishing for the ACe to be up front, but no such luck. So I decided to wait here for the train from the range in the hopes it was pellets, and sure enough it was. Plus, this one had a pair of ACe's on the point.

I had moved across the tracks in order to give chase, and caught the train again at State Line. My framing is rusty but I did manage to catch one of the remaining spots of color here.

With that, Mrs. L4T and myself headed to Superior for a drive through supper at Hardees, home of the the thickburger. After a long spell of CN red and black, it was nice to catch the orange of BNSF once again. And a pair of ACe's always beats a three GE's in my book. This outing probably marked the end of any kind of fall color as a storm moved through the area overnight and knocked a lot of leaves down. So now we wait for the white stuff to add its mark to the local scenery. 

Sunrise at Proctor

With a couple of weeks vacation carried over from 2013 to 2014 and the requirement that it get used up ASAP, I took the first couple of workdays of the year off. This morning, Mrs. L4T and I polished off a pot of coffee, and after a peek out the window I decided to head to Proctor to enjoy the sunrise. 

The yard switch job with DMIR 215 pointed north was puttering about when I arrived, well away from my vantage point. That didn't stop me from capturing the sun as it rose in the southeast, preparing to illuminate the yard. 

There was another train tucked back in the yard as well. Limestone loads behind a quartet of SD40 variants were working their way out as the sun climbed in the morning sky. I felt for the conductor who was handling the switches as the train progressed through the yard trackage. It was -21 when I drove up and didn't feel like it was warming up any. 

One more shot as he approaches the bridge. Every time the train throttled up the exhaust formed an almost steam engine-like cloud. Very impressive. 

A loaded pellet train was sitting at the scale, and I wanted to work that into a photo. Got my opportunity when the limestone loads stopped to get a switch before heading out. Oh, and there is our old friend the 403, trailing today. That means that technically the first shot in this post has both remaining maroon Missabe units in it, although you sure can't identify them.

It was about this time one of my pinkies was ready to snap off, so I headed to the Holiday in Proctor to warm up for a bit. Also needed to pick up milk. After that was done I stopped back to see if the sun had climbed enough to illuminate the pellet train, sure enough it had. I grabbed a couple shots of that, even though the wind was preventing any spectacular steam clouds from lingering.

All in all, a productive hour or so. Might get the chance to do it again before I have to head back to work Monday.

The Range on a Frosty Sunday

Faced with the prospect of a return to work following a 10 day hiatus over the Christmas holiday, a railfanning trip seemed in order. After casting a trained eye on the weather forecast a couple of days ago, Dan Mackey had contacted me with the idea of heading out on Sunday morning to hunt for some loads of steaming pellets under code blue skies. Who could turn down such an offer? Certainly not me. And so it came to pass that I found myself in the passenger seat of a 4 wheel drive Ford headed north on roads that looked to have been treated by a Zamboni as the sun rose this morning. 

Before long a phone call from Scott Carney indicated that our party was about to get bigger. First things first, though, a southbound behind a CN SD40-2 was calling our name and fell under the spell of our lenses at the S-curve near Kelsey. I was disappointed that this wasn't a pellet train, but Dan encouraged me to hold out hope. 

Next stop was supposed to be the gas station at the junction of 7 and 37, but that was interrupted by the sound of a train somewhere close. After fits, starts, and u-turns, we managed to pin down this taconite train bound for Two Harbors. It was cold on the range, and the ice fog combined with steam from the pellets to obscure all but the power as they pounded the diamond at Ramshaw. 

That train was hardly moving when it passed us, due (we surmised) to some unknown speed restriction related to the cold. Surely there was time for a stop at the Lucky Seven in Biwabik, before heading on to catch the train in dandy light. 

Except....there wasn't. As we approached the overpass after a quick pause, the train flew under the road, much to the chagrin of a truckload of fans. Time to regroup and carry on, or as the Brits say, "Keep Calm and Rail Fan". We headed back to Iron Junction. 

Where we found a gaggle of trains. A manifest with an SD70 leader was waiting there, behind another manifest led by the squeaky clean GEVO shown below. 

The train in the photo above had no crew. After a short wait, a northbound led by yet another shiny GEVO passed by. The paint is so fresh it still reflects the other engine.

Next up was the EMD led train that had been waiting at Iron Junction. I got this one passing the crewless train at Keenan Road.

We headed south and stumbled across a T Bird that was just finishing the unloading process at U Tac. Power for this train was a pair of Dash 8's, with the 15 year anniversary graphics on their flanks. Mr. Carney grew quite excited at the sight of these former CNW units. 

After talking him off the ledge, we managed to make it to Alborn and witness a meet between the 2847 (the shiny southbound we had shot earlier with no crew) and limestone loads for the range. Needing to get home, we elected try one more shot south of there, and picked a crossing north of Bear Trap. The blue sky in these last two shots doesn't convey how cold it was by this time. The wind had picked up and a couple minutes outside was literally uncomfortable. But we GTS.

'Twas a great day, with lots of excellent memories. Thanks, men, for the tour. Let's do it again on another clear, cold winter day when the ghost of the DMIR is busy once more. 

"I'm an Idiot"

I know that there are people who would agree with the post title, or at least say it's true about me sometimes. And they would likely be right, but that's not where the quote came from today. But more about that later. 

This week's big snowstorm went on without me. In Michigan for work, I dreamed dreams of shooting trains in the snow. Dan Mackey even texted me to find out if I was willing to venture into the teeth of the blizzard with him when work got out early one day. When I told him I was out of town he mentioned heading out over the weekend to take in the fresh blanket of white and predicted code blue skies. Sounded like a winner to me, so Friday evening I texted him and finally, with Scott Carney's assistance, was able to goad him into heading out. So after a hearty breakfast at Big Daddy's we headed to Superior to meet Scott, where we promptly came to the conclusion that the confluence of sun, snow, Saturday, and free time led every area railroad to take the day off. 

After some fancy driving, fancier planning, and world class scanner interpretation, we found ourselves in the path of a CN stacker climbing Steelton Hill. With poor sun angles for a wedgie, we settled on this broadside as the train climbed out of the St. Louis River valley. 

FYI-there is a lot of snow out there. Feet and feet of it, as a matter of fact. And the temperature was in deficit territory, likely double digits at the time this was shot. The clothes required combined with the snow depth and a short jog darn near gave me a heart attack.

With a set of GE's in the bag, we were alerted to traffic on the Hinckley when a detector announced the arrival of something with 500 plus axles approaching Boyleston. Turned out to be an all rail empty headed for Allouez. Oddly, when I looked at ATCS, the train was lined into 28th Street while we headed east for the intercept. Shortly after I announced this to the gang, the train crew piped up and asked the dispatcher if they weren't supposed to be headed to Allouez. His response has to be an all time great, "I'm an Idiot". Sure enough he had them lined wrong. 

The delay gave us a chance to hike in and get this as he crossed Sawyer Creek. Lots of nice creaking and groaning as the power crossed the trestle. 

I widened up a whole bunch to get him once more. Gotta say there is still something special about them MAC's to me.

After that we headed back to town, and Dan headed home for a day of domestic chores. Scott agreed to give me a lift home, and on the way over the bridge we decided to stop and check on the paper mill switch, which luckily enough was just coming out of the plant while we watched. Sort of like crossing the tracks and seeing a headlight. It's a bonus BNSF shot.

Really was good to get back out and do some semi-serious railfanning. Weather was spectacular, there were a few trains, and best of all, the company was great. Thanks, guys, lets do it again soon!

Along County Road 7

Today Mrs. L4T and I had to head north for a graduation party in International Falls. Since there has been a tremendous dearth of railfanning in these parts recently I cleared a deviation from the Highway 53 routing and we headed west to follow the former DMIR right of way.

Made it as far as South Coons before we spotted our first victim, a loaded pellet train sitting at the signal.

In a flash we were northbound once more, uninterrupted by any trains until we passed Kelsey. Another loaded pellet train was headed south and a quick u turn got us in position for a shot as the power rolled over the bridge crossing the Whiteface River.

Third unit in that consist was a beauty.

That was it for the trip north, the Peg was quiet all the way to the Falls. We did see a train pass through Orr on our return trip but I was gassing up and had no chance for a shot. Highway 7 was our intended route at least part of the way home again, though, and the gates were dropping just east of Iron Junction as we approached the crossing. I guess this could be called a "leaping" shot, as I lept out of the car to shoot it at the very last minute.

We continued south in the hopes that something else would show. Sure enough we were not far south of Zim when a headlight appeared and I pulled across the tracks at a handy crossing. A long CN Manifest was making its way north behind a trio of EMD's. I got a friendly toot-toot from the engineer as they passed.

That was it for trains. The photos are not much to brag about but it was fun to get out along the tracks and do some railfanning. It's been way too long.

Looking for (and Finding) Trains

Today after church, Mrs. L4T and I arrived at a consensus. The time had come to go looking for some trains. The sun was out, ATCS showed some movement, and it was a gorgeous afternoon, so off we went. After a quick stop for gas and food, we headed across the bridge to BNSF's Superior engine terminal to see what was waiting for assignment. Got a pretty nice selection of EMD's.

 



I suspected an inbound taconite train, and so we headed south out of town. I passed what looked like another railfan near Saunders, and found the pellet train was already past Boylston. A quick u-turn brought me back to Saunders, where I was soon joined by the Carney clan. Interestingly, at this very moment the CN decided it would be only proper to run a stack train through the area. Scott and I both made comments about how close we came to duplicating the situation Kevin recently got here, with a beautiful over/under.

 'Twas not to be, though. The BNSF train was couple of minutes late, and coming from the wrong direction anyway. Still a fun site to see.

Scott had informed me of a UP train off the Hinckley right behind the pellet loads. For once my ignorance of the area served me well. I was waiting at Saunders for the train that would never arrive (he was going into Pokegama instead of Itasca) when Mrs. L4T looked east and announced the arrival of the train. After explaining to her it wasn't coming from that direction, I finally looked and sure enough she was right. As usual. Here's a transfer with an SD75 running long hood forward. The Mrs. said this didn't really count as a train but I set her straight in short order.

 

 Next stop was Stinson, where the only shot to be had was a long range attempt at a nicely painted GP that didn't really turn out well. After that I decided to swing through the BNSF yard once more in the hope of a transfer leaving. Instead I got this, approaching 28th Street in nice light:

And then back to the engine servicing facility, where the switch engines featured in yesterday's post were found today. They're such a cute pair I couldn't resist one more shot.

Since it looked quiet on the BNSF, I proposed we work our way home via Proctor. I noticed a pellet train on the dock when we crossed the bridge and so a detour was called for, which allowed me the chance to catch the PRS as it waited to back the slightly steaming loads out onto the dock. It's hard to get tired of this view.

 

And then it was off to Proctor, where a pellet empty was creeping up to the overpass as we arrived, while the yard switch job paralleled him. I'm counting this as two trains in one shot, for the second time today.

Finally, having heard a train blow for the Midway Road crossing while on the overpass, we chased a CN manifest north to Munger, where I was pleasantly surprised to find a BC Rail cowl the second unit on this long train. The gorgeous blue skies are something I have come to treasure living in Duluth. Seems like clouds are more often the order of the day.

And that's the story of a couple of hours along the tracks in the Twin Ports. There seems to be no end to the excitement if you are just will to get out and look.