Staples Sub Redux

I lived along the Staples Sub for 8 years. Spent a lot of time railfanning the tracks in the Wadena area over those 8 years, in fact, the majority of the posts on this blog are related to the Staples Sub. In a way, it was and always will be my railfanning "hometown". All this means that cutting ties with the area is bittersweet. And yesterday Mrs. L4T and cut our final material ties with Wadena when the sale of our house closed.

That meant a trip over to Wadena, with the attendant visit to the Staples Sub. MN Chris has joked I don't know how many times about my comment on crossing the tracks and seeing a headlight. Well, yesterday I didn't even make it across the tracks before a headlight showed up, just as we were approaching the Staples depot. After some fancy driving I found myself in position to fire off three quick poorly lit, badly composed frames, which caught the entire consist of a track inspection train headed east on the Staples.

I made it all the way to Dower Lake before being distracted once again. This photo was shot on the trip home, but is an overall view of what that distraction was. What strikes me about this is change-whereas it used to be expected to see a number of coal trains staged in the yard at Staples, currently you are much more likely to catch it with oil trains in residence, as we did yesterday.

That north train had interesting power as shown here. I haven't had the chance to feast on NS heritage units as many of you have, so this was a must-shoot for me. Viva Penn Central!

We arrived in Wadena with a bit of time to kill, and one way we did it was to get a shot of the pair of GP50's on the Wadena local. Not sure what was going on that kept them tied up the entire time we were there, but something unusual was in the works. Anyway, here is the mismatched couple:

And then our closing was pushed off for an extra hour and a half. With nothing to do, a ride west seemed to be in order. We made it to New York Mills and were on the way back when we encountered a classic Staples Sub coal empty passing through Bluffton. A true reminder of times past.

Then it was time for business, followed by the long drive home. A couple of poorly lit eastbounds accompanied us to Staples, where we took the diverging route the follows the Brainerd Sub east. That was quiet with the exception of a loaded coal train encountered near Deerwood, which we chose not to shoot. 

It was a day that brought back many good memories. I will always look back on the time we spent in Wadena fondly. While I know I will railfan the Staples Sub again, it will be as a visitor, not in my backyard, and that will be different. 

Talk Like a Pirate Day

"AAARGHHH!"



Yep, it was today. And lucky me, I got to spend it with a few scoundrels who had sailed in from up north. Mike, Craig, and Dave had rolled into town a couple of days earlier and brought their usual good luck when it came to catching trains. These guys are hard-core fans and when they come to town they are disappointed if they leave with a train count not in the triple digits.

So this morning I headed uptown (first day of vacation!) to look for the crew. They turned out to be over NYM way, but headed back to Wadena for breakfast. After taking sustenance at the Boondocks, ATCS told us to look for some trains so we set up at the depot. I'm not posting all the photos from the couple of hours I spent there but this is a sample of what they see.

First up is the DPU of a coal empty headed back for a reload. Just like you'll see in other shots, this train is being captured not only by still photo but also on video. The technology is also impressive in that these fellows have the speakers out on the truck, multiple scanners running, and ATCS fired up at all times.


Next we have an ACe-led coal load. I believe this was a COLX train, one of the first I have seen in quite a while in Wadena. The last one was actually the empty shown above. Before that I think it's been months since I have seen a COLX on the Staples Sub. Not that they weren't there, but I sure didn't see any.


We were lucky enough to catch the local coming into town. On this day he was pulling 8 tank cars, which I think were carrying fertilizer going by the placards, but I can't say for sure. None of them were for Wadena, but they had to run around their train down on the K line to head back to Dilworth. They also picked up an empty gon that was sitting on the Drywall Supply spur as a memento of their stop in Wadena.


While they were working, what looked for a while to be a grain train drifted through town, crossing over from two to one to avoid the local. It turned out to be a long manifest with all the mixed freight tacked on at the very end.


And here's a shot of the local as it passes the depot headed for home. That big BN logo on the nose of a green engine never fails to impress.


Actually it turns out I'm not the only one with a soft spot for the BN. Someone even went so far as to express his true feelings about the situation on a BNSF covered hopper, shown here. I especially like the little BN in a heart. True, that.


Thanks for the good times, guys, and I look forward to seeing you next year!

Over and Over

This morning found me in Perham to conduct a morning training session. The folks I was working with had their own work to do, and were in a hurry to get done, so a relatively early trip back home was in order. Sometime between 9:30 and 10:00, while leaving the shop in Perham, I heard a horn. This called for an investigation.

I found the Wadena local sitting in Perham, pointed east. With a set of old grungy hoppers in tow, an imminent departure seemed likely, and sure enough they started to pull before I even got a shot. Traffic was wild on crazy days, and it seemed like the train would get well ahead of me, but as quickly as they started, they stopped, and uncoupled from the train on Main Two at the east edge of town. I reached the crossing in time to see them back into the trailing point spur, grab a few more of what I believe were tie cars, and run back up to the main, as seen here.


Just as all this was going on, a headlight appeared at the curve near the Ottertail River bridge. Although the light was awful for a westbound, the power was unique enough (for Perham at least) to warrant a shot. For the second day in a row CP GE's graced the lens of the Pentax.


With the crew putting the local back together, a quick trip a mile or so east found me at the bridge. Before I knew it, the GP's came flying down the hill and around the curve, surprising me so much I only got this shot showing the dark side.


Hopping back in the Escape I gave chase, finally getting a bit of breathing room east of New York Mills. Here comes the local once more, undulating across the swales of the Staples Sub.


I figured if I hurried I could get him once more as he rounded the Bluffton curve. Sure enough I was in place with a minute to spare. They still had these GP's wound up as the train climbed out of the Leaf River Plain.


It's always enjoyable seeing how the train works Wadena. To the best of my knowledge the only run-around that is available is down by Drywall Supply, and when I stopped to watch them work, I found that track occupied by a covered hopper being loaded with what I think is edible beans. This is again new business for Wadena to the best of my knowledge.


This raised the question of how the hogger would get his power on the proper end of the train. As they backed into the spur, it seemed that somehow the loading operation would be interrupted. Was I ever surprised when, after clearing his warrant, the dispatcher and conductor started talking about work they had to do in Staples! All of a sudden they headed up the spur, light power, and indicated they would be leaving as soon as everything was properly lined.

With that I was off, intending to grab a shot of the pair of geeps as they made their way east. It was a competitive chase, and I barely managed to get ahead of them on the west side of Verndale. In fact, this was shot out the car window as there was no chance to dismount.


Well, now you know the story of shooting the Wadena Local "over and over", plus what happens where Jer gives me free reign to shoot red GE's. Thanks for looking!

"Too Much Work for a Friday"

Friday forenoon, lots of errands were awaiting me as Mrs. L4T was out of town for a few days and had left some domestic chores for me to clean up. One of the last things I did was stop at the insurance office on the east side of town to drop off the paperwork related our roof replacement. The Wadena local was sitting on Main 2 at the K line switch when I came out. I decided to play a bit of hooky and swing down to Drywall Supply and check out the makeup of this Friday's train. It was a doozy, for a Wadena local.


There were boxcars, an empty centerbeam flat, tankcars, lots of tankcars, and a covered hopper or two, along with a single coal gon making the lonely trip back to Dilworth. In addition to the eight tank cars in the consist of the train, four more were sitting on the former "K" line main. I've seen the engines run around the cars in this location, and they were planning to do the same thing today, but the four tanks were in the way. The engineer was also holding on to two boxcars on the south end of the power.

(If you want some idea of locations mentioned in this post, since I'm using names I have made up unless I've heard the crew using a name for the sidings, you can find a map I put together here.)

To make room for the runaround move, they grabbed the 4 tanks with the boxes, pulled them back toward the Staples Sub, and pushed them back down into the Drywall Supply spur. In a couple of minutes the trucker was back at work unloading what I think is magnesium chloride for dust control on roads as the engineer began his runaround by drifitng south on the K line main. Soon we'll come to understand the purpose of the pair of boxes tied onto the south end of power set. It was somewhere around this time that the engineer made the comment on the radio that the railroad had given them "Too much work for a Friday!" This was reinforced when the dispatcher called with the news of a pair of approaching Z trains.





I realized things were even more complicated when I headed uptown to wait for the local to set out the two boxcars that were now on the front of his train. It was then that I spotted an eastbound stacker sitting on Main 2 just west of the 2nd St SW crossing. Combined with the local now on Main 1, Wadena was totally blocked.


So I watched as the local, with a brakeman riding the boxcar protecing the front of the shove as the train slowly made its way down Main 1, until it was well clear of the crossing.


Then they uncoupled from the body of the train, ran ahead a bit, and backed into the runaround far enough to clear the switch into the bean track. When they were past the switch, the brakeman lined it for the spur and the engineer shoved the two boxcars into the track, backed out, and reversed the previous actions to get to the front of his train and couple up.


After a brief pause to charge his brake line, he was off as quick as could be, headed to Perham to clear for the Z trains just behind him. The first Zipper was already waiting at the plant in Wadena, and accelerated quickly as he got a green signal.

This was the most extensive work I have ever had the chance to witness the local doing in town, and it was interesting to see how they solved the various challenges, especially the problem of reversing direction at the end of the run. I also learned something, specifically that a switch off the main that I never knew about exists behind Hide and Fur.

Potpourii

A week ago tomorrow a trip to Bagley and Fosston was on the agenda. With a meeting in Bagley scheduled for the evening, I didn't leave Wadena until approaching noon. As it turned out this allowed me to catch the local as he worked in town. The trip north was delayed just a few minutes as I captured a few images of the train, led by a pair of blue GP's and with a caboose of all things bringing up the rear. With so little time to spare these are the best I can offer of that outing:


The interplay of the Wadena local and the "Local Cars" sign caught my eye and I had to try and work the sign into a shot.


In the image above, the power is picking up a boxcar spotted at the loading dock in Wadena. The only thing I've ever seen loaded here are beans in giant bags, so I assume that's the lading here as well, but that could very well be mistaken. These boxcars have been more frequent as of late, with MDW, CSX, and BNSF reporting marks all making an appearance.

After shooting the local it was off to the Grand Forks Sub, where I figured on little if any traffic as MN Chris was reporting the presence of a welding crew along the line. A text from Jer reported that westbound was headed up the CP's DL Sub, but I didn't expect to get that far west. Things changed when I finished up in Fosston around 3:45. With no need to get to Bagley until 6:00, I was westbound with Erskine as a goal. Chris was out and about by this time, reporting a BNSF eastbound in addition to the CP train. Erskine seemed the place to be, and I waited for one of the trains to arrive. Chris planned to run over to meet me, but the CP train beat him there and I called him to report the fast moving freight. His detour north left me with only the BNSF train to wait for, so I set up on the Highway 59 bridge for a backlit shot. A short wait yielded this black and white effort:


Since I needed to get to Bagley, I chased the train back east and got a broadside of him near Fosston, shown here.


That was it for train photos, but I was still to be entertained by the tale of Chris's misadventures chasing down the CP westbound. He had travelled the "world's worst road, fit only for giant tired-fertilizer equipment", criss-crossed northwest Minnesota, and encountered a 200 man CP track gang just north of Thief River Falls. The story loses most of its effect in the retelling, but suffice it to say the call I made on the way home was long on entertainment value.

That's the story of my potpurii of a railfanning day. The sun was high and time was limited, but I still managed to shoot a couple of trains.

Summertime at the Sag

Summertime, and the shootin' is good, at the Wing River sag. Mrs. L4T suggested a ride, and after a check of ATCS I agreed. We headed east, and I pulled off just outside Verndale, spotting a headlight approaching as we crossed the tracks. Here it comes:


A preview of Verndale Rail 2011.

When we got back to town, I had to stop by Drywall Supply to shoot a couple of the 8 tanks of magnesium chloride the Wadena local had delivered for transloading. Talking to a truck driver earlier in the day I learned that this product will be used on gravel roads in the Park Rapids area to keep dust down. The modeler in me really liked the rust on this one:


And the other white car was decorated by taggers.


This is the first time I have seen this take place in Wadena. Hopefully the local has found some new business that is sustainable. According to the driver I visited with he will have them all unloaded this week. That's a good number of trips to Park Rapids.

Just Like Old Times

An afternoon trip to Perham resulted in my most exciting photo opportunity so far this year. A headlight approaching from the west as I topped the overpass between New York Mills and Perham provided enough motivation to quickly pull over and slip on my winter boots. After a short trek through the snow I was in position to shoot an eastbound manifest train behind BNSF 8018, one of the former SD40-2's that is now plying the Staples Sub. But what made it really special was the collection of classics behind the lead unit-three more SD39-2's, and GP38-2 2284. The consist was set up BNSF 8018-BNSF 8012-BNSF 2284-BNSF 6821-BNSF 1777. I never, ever thought I would see a train powered by a consist like this again on the Staples Sub.


Just the sight of all those curved fuel tanks in a row sends chills down your spine. Or, maybe that was the weather?


These kinds of power sets were uncommon when I moved to the Wadena area more than 5 years ago, and at least to me, unheard of now. Of course I'm sure that some of the units were being moved, as the train certainly didn't seem long enough to require that amount of power, but it was exciting to see an all-EMD lashup once again plying the rails!

And if that wasn't enough of the EMD's, when I arrived in Perham the Wadena local was working with a pair of GP's. I got a shot out the window of the Escape as I crossed the tracks.


Westbounds were out in force on the way home, with an intermodal flying through Perham, a manifest with DPU near New York Mills, and the returning Wadena local just west of Bluffton. But I was chasing coal loads, and managed to get in front of them at Bluffton, for a backlit B&W shot.


So, all in all, a very cool afternoon, with two all-EMD powered trains totaling 7 units sighted, and in the sun, no less! Kind of gets the juices flowing for some more adventures out along the tracks.

Jim

The Second Coming of 4449

On Tuesday, October 13, the SP 4449 "Daylight" steamer began its trip home from the Twin Cities area back to Portland, Oregon. Seeing as how it was using the Amtrak route, which includes the Staples Sub, to head west, it hardly seemed like a Staples Sub railfan could ignore the passage.

I had made extensive arrangements to fan the trip east in July. This time, having just returned from a week long vacation, taking the entire day off hardly seemed doable. I still wanted to get a glimpse of the engine passing through the area, though, and Mrs. L4T and I managed to sneak out on a late lunch break to wait for him in Bluffton. I figured this was the only spot nearby where I would have a chance at decent nose light, so Bluffton it was. Before we even made it out of Wadena, we came across the Wadena local posing for a photo on the siding north of the mains at the depot, so out came the camera.


After that shot we headed west. We made it to the crossing about half an hour before the crowd began to arrive. Soon after parking and setting up the video camera, a couple more vehicles pulled up. One was carrying two older gentlemen who were following the entire trip, from the Twin Cities to Portland. The rest were locals who just wanted to see the steam engine pass. I got a shot of the fans as we waited for the train.


Before the steamer showed, we were treated to the passage of a Z train the dispatcher had run around the former SP engine during the Daylight's service stop in Staples. The crew on this train probably never expected this kind of attention in the sleepy burg of Bluffton.


I had the ATCS fired up, and along with the GPS on the steam train it was obvious that we didn't have long to wait. The video camera was all ready to go, and shortly the wailing of the steam whistle could be heard approaching. I decided to try a long range tele shot down the throat as the train crossed the Leaf River bridge, and it didn't turn out too well:


I liked the results of the wedgie a lot more-this is the first sunny shot I got of the 4449, after a bunch of cloudy shots on the earlier trip.


Now that's more like it.

And then it was time to say so long to a new friend. Farewell 4449, and may you return again, soon.


I slowly packed up and watched the rest of the crowd race off to the west. Mrs. L4T, my trusty railfan companion, made the comment that chasing the engine all the way to its Portland home seemed a little excessive, and I couldn't help but agree.

We talked about the runby, and agreed that the second coming of the 4449 didn't stir the same excitement as the intial trip. It was still fun to see, and well worth taking the time out of the day, but it's hard to match a person's first encounter with a steam engine.

Jim

Wadena Local Action

Tuesday evenings are famous throughout Wadena as the night of competing burger specials. Since we were three this week, with Granny L4T spending her last night for this visit, we decided to hit the Boondocks for the buck burger special, which now costs $1.25 (but I digress).

After finishing off our vittles, and being only a couple of blocks from the tracks, we swung by only to find headlights galore to the east. The local was working the Drywall Supply spur and a coal empty was headed back for another load. The local was hiding behind the equipment bungalow by the time I touched off this shot.


Since the local was at work, I headed down to watch him. He ran around his train on the spur, and backed out onto the main. Here comes the power, stepping lightly on 100 year old rail as it prepares to get on the "right" end of its train for the run back west.


Since the light was so nice, it seemed a waste to not run back uptown and get one more of the local as he departed for Dilworth. After a short wait, surprisingly, it was off to the west on Main 2. It's fairly unusual to see a train head west from Wadena wrong main, given the lack of CTC between Wadena and Richards Spur.


It was a nice little treat for the evening, and the crew was friendly. A family with three small kids came out to watch them switch, and the crew waved and tooted the horn for the excited young ones.

The burgers were good, too.

Jim

Wadena Local Power

Mrs. L4T and I spent much of this cloudy Saturday searching for treasures hidden in rummage sales throughout the Menahga and Park Rapids area, which made for no railfanning opportunities until we made it home to Wadena. As we crossed the tracks, a headlight to the east called for attention and I complied.

After pulling in near the crossovers, I walked a little ways east and managed to shoot this photo:


I figure it must be power for the Wadena local.

I googled BNSF 3207 when I got home and found out that it has been working the Staples Sub for at least a few weeks, as shown in a photo by OMR member Bryant Kaden here.

The number on the second unit seemed unusual, and sure enough, it was one of the re-numbered SD40-2's that have been running around. This is the first time I can remember seeing six axle power on the Wadena local.


And that's all from Wadena so far today. We may venture out yet this evening if the clouds offer any hope of abating.

Keep on lookin!

Jim

Wacky Wadena Local

Saturday evening the wife and I decided to go for a ride and see if any trains were out and about. A visit to Dairy Queen was also part of the plan. Since this was more of an informal railfanning trip I left the scanner in the Escape and just took the camera in the car.

When we got to the Highway 71 crossing in Wadena, a quick glance to the west told me a westbound had just cleared the crossing. I pronounced that we were off to the races and would be chasing the train as the sun was just right for a westbound. As I waited impatiently at the light I hoped I would be able to catch him by the time I reached New York Mills.

Imagine my surprise when we got to the County Highway 75 crossing just west of Wadena and I saw the westbound headlight in my rear view mirror. The only way I could have got ahead of the train that quickly was if it were first, real short, and second, not moving very fast. The first fact was quickly obvious, but the second was changing fast.

It was a VERY short Wadena local, three locomotives (the first time I have seen that) and only two boxcars behind them. A quick grade crossing shot out the window and a plan had formed in my mind.

We were off to the Hwy 10 overpass between Perham and NYM, where I shot him as he approached.


Before I got out of the car I told Valerie to be in the driver's seat with the engine running ready to go when I jumped back in. She was, and as soon as I managed to climb back in, we were off. With my expert coaching she paced the 53 mph train very well, and I shot this:


As you can see, a fairly unusual second unit for this train. The four axle GE's are rarely seen on the local, as a matter of fact I have only seen that once before when a pair in warbonnet paint did the duty.

When we got to Perham, I rewarded the Mrs. with some kind of waffle bowl brownie concoction and praised her pacing ability. My camera skills, on the other hand, leave something to be desired. The trip back to Wadena was uneventful, and the only other train we saw was an eastbound Z train heading through Wadena just as we got back, that was crossing over from Main 2 to Main 1.

Nice weather, and an unusual train, combined with good company, made for a fun evening of train watching.