Old Days

One of the great blessings of my railfan "career", if such a thing exists, has been the willingness of Mrs. L4T (that's my wife for those of you who have always wondered) to humor me by tagging along on "train hunting" expeditions. We have explored nearly every inch of the Staples Sub together, and she has gotten to the point where she occasionally sees the train before I do. She even questions why I am taking a shot from time to time, commenting that "the light is no good here". We've been great friends as we cruise up and down Highway 10, always on the lookout for the distinct pattern formed by a headlight and a pair of ditchlights.

With an impending move to the Twin Ports just a few weeks away now, something Chris Muller posted on Facebook today inspired me to check ATCS, and sure enough, the westbounds were lined up all the way to Gregory. Mrs. L4T and were out the door with visions of GEVO's and ACe's dancing in our heads.

My first move was east. It seemed a good bet we could catch the leader of the pack the other side of Verndale, but he beat us to the punch and surprised me just outside Wadena. If not for the glorious consist of new BNSF covered hoppers I would have passed, but these cars called for a u-turn and chase. The slow order near Bluffton allowed us to just beat the train to a crossing.


Hoping to beat something to Staples, we once more headed east, and this time made it almost all the way to Aldrich before a Z train sailed around the corner. Once more we were ready.


The action was pretty steady at this point, as the next train was approaching Dower Lake when we got there. This time is was a crude oil empty, led by a GEVO. You might also notice a blur of color in the distance that will come into play a bit later.


But the interesting unit was third out. For the third or fourth time I got the H3 painted 8987, an SD70MAC. The paint sure holds up nice, as this is at least two years old.


One of my goals for the day was a shot from the new overpass in Staples. Alas, it was not to be, as the final westbound was passing the depot as we neared the parking area. Plan B took us back to the Dower Lake crossing, where we captured a manifest with lots of oilfield traffic, including pipe, sand cars, and empty tanks. I even noticed an ADM car placarded for crude oil in this train.


This thing got me excited. I wonder what it hauls and where it hauls it?


The treat of the day was next. A manifest train sat on Main 2, sans power, just west of the Dower Lake crossing. It was only a few minutes when the power for the train ran back west from the yard. It was great to see a 4 unit set of SD40-2's "leading" this power as it backed up onto the train. What a sight! I hollered "Nice Power" to the conducter as he passed by and got a smile and wave back.


After getting the air pumped up and the train underway, we were able to swing by the Staples yard and shoot three more classic EMD's sitting at the west end, including a fairly uncommon GP40. Second one I have seen this week, the other was in Superior.


And so you have the story from today. We probably won't get many more chances to fan the Staples Sub, but I'll always remember this one and the day Mrs. L4T once again brought me luck!

Squiggiling Through Staples

Wednesday afternoon was my annual trip to the Minnesota Office of Pipeline Safety spring conference. For, me it's kind of like Verndale Rail, just less fun, as I see a lot of people I know.

Anyway, you can't get there from here without going through Staples. And wonder of wonders, just west of there I overtook an honest-to-goodness worm train. Not one of those mostly worm trains with a few white cars mixed in to spoil the effect, but the genuine article. New cars and all. It was worth a delay arriving at the meeting to shoot him.

In the second shot, you can see a couple of the new, but different, cars, that were the only flaws until the very end where two of the older and dirtier red cars were the final revenue generators before the third Dash 9 pushing.

And that's all for now. Blogger has made some changes and I have no idea how this will come out.

Morning Coal, Afternoon 'Bonnets

A day trip to Lake Park always brings out the railfan in a person, and today was no different. By the time I made it to Detroit Lakes, the sun was peeking up over the horizon. When a westbound coal empty showed up, it seemed like just the chance to try to catch him with morning sun lighting up his flank.


Knowing there was a DPU on this train, I waited to get a shot of the end as it rounded the curve at Richards Spur. The DPU's sometimes have FRED hanging off the coupler, but luckily this one didn't. Some fans pet peeve seems to be open cab doors, but I'm more put off by a DPU facing the right way and nicely lit, but wearing a FRED.


There was no way I could get to the S-curves in Lake Park ahead of him, or even behind him, as the tail end of the train was just disappearing when I pulled up. So off to work it was, just a couple of blocks from the tracks and stewing as every train passed. You can be just about anywhere but on the bridge in Lake Park, and not see the train that is passing through town due to the cut. The railfan's frustration sure entertains those he is working with, though.

Soon enough it was time to head for home. Before even reaching Audubon, though, circumstances dictated a u-turn. A dandy looking warbonnet was leading a string of grain cars west, with a CSX EMD the other unit in the consist. This one was shot near my third favorite Staples Sub tree, just east of Boyer Lake.


CSX must have farmed out a lemon to BNSF in this case, as not long after this was shot, the 706 called the dispatcher to inform him they had lost the second unit. With the downhill run to Dilworth, they should have had no problem with power but maybe needed a bit more brake since the EMD's dynamics might have been AWOL as well.

Before reaching Richards Spur, another u-turn was needed. The target was another warbonnet-led train, this one looked to be a solid block of DDG cars. 97 of them to be exact, as the Lake Park detector later announced he had an even 400 axles. Here's the shot, just west of Audubon with the elevator in the background.


I missed one more coal empty just outside DL, and a pretty Z train with what looked like a matched set of four H2 Dash 9's on the point near Perham. That was the end of the rail action for the day, but what I saw was entertaining. Next week I will be over that way a couple more times, so may get a chance for more Staples Sub action.

West of Wadena

A trip to Perham last Friday morning (April 9) gave me the chance for a little incidental railfanning between Wadena and my destination. It's just barely over 20 miles, and travelling at freeway speed the trip is less than half an hour, but as I approached the overpass west of New York Mills I was lucky enough to spot an eastbound headlight. Turned out the train was a GEVO led bare table, headed who knows where at a good clip.


Morning light is just about perfect in that location this time of year. I also like seeing the Perham water tower in the distance, along with the large crane working at the site of the new Perham hospital. The little farmstead peeking through the trees is just a bonus.

On the way home after lunch, I chased a worm train out of Perham heading east. By this time the sun was pretty much gone for eastbounds but I caught him in New York Mills anyway. The train seemed to be slowing as he passed me, creating hope for another catch somewhere near Wadena.


However, I soon passed the train as it drifted to a stop just outside New York Mills. The plan of shooting him again near Bluffton was dashed.

It soon became clear why he was stopping-another train was stopped as well, just a couple of miles in front of him. This one turned out to be a unit DDG train. Throttling up just as I approached, he called for quick work, and I barely beat him to the CR 75 crossing just west of Wadena. Here the pair of Dash 9's have just made it to the top of the short grade out of the Leaf River valley, and are working at picking up speed as they approach Wadena.


And with that, another short railfan adventure on the Staples Sub was concluded. Three trains in less than an hour on a work-mandated journey are hard to beat. I'm a lucky guy.

Jim

Train Huntin'

Greetings train fans. A couple of photos for your enjoyment tonight. Mrs. L4T and myself plied the roads around Wadena this evening in search of trains and found a few.

I knew there was a westbound out and about from the ATCS display. This coal empty off the Brainerd Sub was in Staples when we left home, so I decided to have a go at him at the Wing River. I clambered this old frame up on the Escape bumper for a little extra elevation, but it's nothing like balancing on the side of Jer's Silverado. Anyhow, here's the resulting shot:


I didn't even realize the lone leader on this train was my old friend the 9999 until after I looked at the shot. I just saw this engine last week on a COLX train headed down the CP River Sub. Since then he's been upgraded from DPU to leader.

Mrs. L4T likes to call these little outings "train hunting", a term that has caught on in the L4T household and even the extended family. When the Mrs. calls her mom a few minutes late some evenings, the question is always "Have you been out train hunting again?" She also has a friend who, when she heard the term, thought we were out looking for tiny toy trains. Turns out she was too embarassed to ask what it really meant.

Since I knew there weren't many other westbounds out tonight, I chased this guy to Perham for a second shot. If it had been any almost any other MAC I would have likely passed, but I have a special affinity for this unit. I shot him from a new angle (for me) as he rolled around the curve east of Perham.


As I was setting up for this shot, I heard a horn to the west. When I turned around a worm train was bearing down on me with three Dash 9's in the lead. The plan became an eastbound chase with the hope of a glint shot as the sun got lower. When I reached the overpass between Perham and New York Mills, I decided to try another new shot for me, and I was kind of pleased with the results.


In this view the train has just passed over old Highway 10. It's one of the few places where you can show foreground and background along this section of track without having to worry about a huge pole line or the road interfering with the shot. I'm sure I will try other shots here in the future, especially later in the year when the sun gets around to the south more.

ATCS showed another westbound in Staples, so I decided to continue east. I was so focused on getting a glint shot of the worm train that I was surprised by the fast moving westbound right just as we entered Verndale. I considered a u-turn and chase, but I knew I wouldn't get him before Wadena and wasn't going to run all the way to Perham again. So after a couple half-hearted attempts at a glint, we called it a night and headed for home.

That's all for tonight, thanks for reading and keep on train hunting.

Jim