Austin Bound

ICE 6452 heading for Austin
Originally uploaded by look4trains

Having spent a few days in the Austin and Owatonna area this week, I had hopes of catching some DME or ICE action. My last night in the area, I was staying in Owatonna. After checking into my motel, I heard a horn on the DME and headed out to check the traffic. Turned out to be an ethanol train headed east. Not knowing the town, I decided to try and get ahead of the train and finally accomplished that at the Highway 14 overpass south of Owatonna.

It was a cloudy day, and I tried to compose the shot in a way that would minimize the unattractive white sky. I also kind of like the way the cattle worked their way into the photo. As you can see, the EMD's were working hard on this long train as they passed under me.

Jim

Tie Project

Having caught the BNSF unloading new ties along the Staples Sub right of way earlier this spring, I have been watching for the start of what appears to be a major tie replacement project. It looks as if the project has kicked off, and major progress is being made. I caught them working on the project today as I passed through Royalton on my way home. The crew had just finished work and was heading into a siding when I stopped.

My first photo was of the "facilites" that are provided to the workers when they are working along the main. I really enjoyed the crescent on the door-it's a nice touch. (Remember, clicking on the thumbnails will open the full size image in a new window)


I grabbed another shot of the biffy as it passed by. This is quite an elaborate setup-looks like a water tank is provided for washing up as well.


The next piece of equipment that caught my eye looked to be a machine that picks up the used spikes. One of the things that attracted me to this was the CAT graphics on the machine-it was the only piece of equipment that I noticed that was made by CAT.


I grabbed a shot of about half the equipment in the siding at Royalton. I couldn't get a much better angle, with all the traffic and people in the area. I didn't want to seem like a psycho railfan to the BNSF people on site.


Next up is what I think is a ballast regulator. If you look closely, you can see the amount of work being done by the brush under the hood on the far end of this machine. There were ballast chunks being thrown all over the place. Definitely something you want to stay clear of, as a piece of flying ballast could make your day take a definite turn for the worse.


Just before I left, an eastbound manifest passed through the area at 25 mph. I heard the radio conversation between the foreman and the conductor and the the train crew promised to keep an extra close eye out for any workers as they passed through the area.


Obviously these shots were taken in high sun with less than ideal light. As the crew passes through the Wadena area I hope to be able to get out some morning and grab better lit shots of this operation.

Given the number of employees working on this project, maybe the best economic stimulus the government could have undertaken would have been to fund even more tie replacement projects. This was impressive, and the crew is making impressive progress, with the project seemingly complete from the Big Lake area all the way to Royalton.

Jim, out.

Fire One

Mrs. L4T and myself were set to celebrate Mom's Day with a trip to the Staples Dairy Queen this evening. After a lazy day recovering from the physical effort of helping our son move yesterday, we decided to head out about 5 PM. A quick glance at the ATCS display revealed a westbound train approaching Wadena, so I prompted the guest of honor to hurry and get ready. Even with my cajoling, we were a bit late in getting uptown as the train was just clearing the crossing. I vowed to catch up with him, even though he was headed away from Staples. After all, Perham has a Dairy Queen, too.

We reached the Bluffton curve in time to see the tail end of the train. When I glanced up towards the tracks to dream of what might have been had we left a few minutes earlier (could have shot this train in nice light rounding the curve), I caught a glimpse of smoke coming from the ROW. I immediately decided my citizenly duty was to investigate the source of the smoke. As you can see above, it wasn't a conflagration, but the smoke was enough to indicate something was definitely burning.

I wasn't going to try and put the fire out, and thought someone needed to know, so I called the BNSF emergency number and gave them the crossing number as a location. I noticed later that the rail looked freshly ground, and suspect that might have been the cause of this fire.


By this time the westbound was well out of reach. We decided to head east again, in the hopes that something would develop from that direction. I had an inkling something was coming up the Staples Sub, but just as we reached Aldrich, I heard a coal empty call the Staples dispatcher for a warrant as he came off the Brainerd Sub. He got his ticket, and word that he would have to wait for a westbound Z on Main 1 before he could enter the plant at Staples.

This gave us a chance to swing through the drive up at the DQ and grab some tasty fast food-chicken strips for me, and popcorn shrimp for the Mrs. We settled in for supper and to wait for the coal empty to head west. Soon enough the zipper passed and the coal train throttled up. I grabbed a shot as he swung onto the Staples Sub.


After trying a shot of the DPU ACE passing the depot, I decided that maybe we could still get ahead of this train for one more try. Turned out to be quite a struggle.

It took all the way past Bluffton before I could cut him off. I got him again at the Ottertail County 147 crossing as he rounded the curve.


All in all we saw three trains this evening, two backlit eastbounds and the westbound coal train. I guess you could call the tail end of the first westbounder a fourth train but I never caught up to him. I think we did our good deed for the day, reporting a tie fire, but the reaction at the emergency number didn't really tell me if they appreciated it or not. Anyway, it was a gorgeous evening to spend travelling along the tracks in early May here in central Minnesota, looking for trains.

Jim, out

A Few from the Road

I am lucky(?) enough to have a job that gives me the chance to travel the state. At the same time there are places I have to be at given times, so frequently I am along tracks with no time to stop and wait for a train, I just grab whatever targets of opportunity present themselves. This past week was a good example of that.

Monday morning I headed northwest with a destination of Warren, MN. I followed the Staples Sub from Wadena to DL, the CP Detroit Lakes Sub north to Erskine, picked up the BNSF Grand Forks Sub west to Crookston, and the Noyes Sub north to its crossing with the NPR at Warren. Yes, I am like that, and do plan my routes with railroads in mind.

Anyway, there was no traffic until I passed through Erskine and met what I believe was the Cass Lake local working the propane plant in Mentor. The sun was high, but I stopped and grabbed a couple of quick shots before moving on. This is probably the best one. (NOTE: I have changed the formatting of photos on the blog. Starting with the last couple of posts, clicking on the pictures should make them open in a new window, rather than the existing window like they used to.)


Looks like the swamp mats are still moving somewhere. I also noticed that the shuttle elevator at Erskine had a train stored on the loop. I found another stored train on the loop at Argyle the next day.

Now, I have had pretty good luck along the Noyes Sub in the past. Not a lot of trains, but one train a day each way has given me a chance at a shot almost every full day I spend up in the area. The flooding north of the border had really clamped down on the traffic this week, though. Seeing or hearing nothing for the first couple of days (with the exception of an eastbound NPR train in Warren that work prevented me going after), I figured the Noyes was as good as closed. But on Wednesday, I heard a horn while in Stephen and almost crippled myself rushing out the building, with just enough time to see a string of yellow rock cars of some sort head north. I never saw the power.

I was in Hallock that night, staying at the Caribou Inn and dining across the parking lot at the Caribou Grill, when what I think was the same train sailed through town southbound. All I saw from the window were the tops of two orange locos passing by. My view was obstructed by buildings and I wouldn't have seen the cars if they were along for the ride.

So flash forward to Thursday, on my trip home. I noticed that the unit trains stored on the loops at Argyle and Erskine were both gone. However, once again, traffic was light almost all the way to Perham. Finally I spotted the headlight of a westbound and pulled over to the nearest crossing to grab a shot of an ES44DC leading three Dash 9's on an intermodal.


Continuing east, I spotted another westbound just as I left New York Mills. I had a few minutes to spare so I made a u-turn and raced west, considering a shot from the Highway 10 overpass. I decided to try a shot at the Perham curve instead. This train was really flying, and I had hardly any time to get out and run through the ditch before grabbing this shot of him just entering the curve at Perham.


So, having travelled almost 600 miles (including daily trips along portions of the Noyes Sub as I worked in that area), and paralleling railroad tracks the entire way, I came home with a grand total of three shots. This was not my most productive railfanning week by any means. Strangely, on Saturday Mrs. L4T and myself were up and out early as we headed to Fargo to help the Son & heir move from Fargo to Grand Forks, and I met 5 eastbounds between Wadena and DL, along with passing a westbound. So there are still trains out and about. You just have to get lucky.

Tonight we will probably head out after supper and see if any traffic is moving. The skies have cleared and the temp is a very pleasant 60. Next week, I will be travelling the Staples Sub, the UP in southeast MN, and some DME and ICE trackage, so with any luck, I will get some shots to share from that part of the state. Thanks for looking!

Jim, out

That "New Loco" Smell

Along with a number of other OMR members, Mrs. L4T and myself spent a little time on the west end of the Staples Sub Sunday afternoon. I thought a few westbounds would show, and sure enough we got a couple of chances. First up was this empty coal train, that passed through Wadena a few minutes before we left. I caught up with and passed him around Frazee and decided to try a shot at the curve near Richards Spur:


A quick getway allowed me to pass him once more and grab a shot from the Highway 32 overpass. I like this location a lot, and I got a friendly toot on the horn from the engineer.


I soon heard another westbound clear up a warrant, and fretted about where to shoot him. In hopes of a new angle, I headed to the crossing south of Hawley, and got there with only a couple of minutes to spare as this intermodal with three like-new GEVO's on the point with two more trailing in the consist roared down on me. I thought I could smell fresh paint as they rolled by.


I decided to try for another shot of these new locos, and chased him all the way to East Dilworth. However, the sun angle was pretty much head-on at that point and the shots didn't turn out too well. It did give me the chance to gas up in Glyndon for $1.93 a gallon though so it wasn't a wasted trip.

After supper at the Hawley Dairy Queen, where people were lined up 4 to 5 deep at the counter trying to get tasty treats, we decided to meander home to Wadena. I made it almost all the way back (halfway between New York Mills and Wadena) before meeting a merchandise train with three Dash 9's up front. Time for a u turn and a run back to the overpass west of NYM. A short wait yielded this shot.


Met one more westbound coal train before getting home but we didn't try and catch him. We had a good time and managed to see a few trains. What more could a man ask for on a lazy Sunday afternoon?

We had to have crossed paths with Jeremiah and Bryant at some point that afternoon, as I heard the 8300 working its way east just behind us on the trip home. Looks like the two of you had a great outing. Keep up the good work.

Jim, out.

What is ATCS?

What if I told you that as I sit here typing out this meager offering I was also monitoring the train traffic on almost the entire Staples Sub at the same time, watching a display that is very similar to what the dispatcher in Texas is seeing and having it updated in real time? That I can see the passage of the train I just heard blow for the crossings in Wadena? (According to the radio, it's BNSF 5254 east, clearing up a warrant just now.) And, it's all free?

Click to open in a new window

I first learned about something called ATCS Monitor about a year ago. When Mike and Craig came down from Canada last May, they were set up to monitor signal indications remotely (using a radio and laptop) and I remember being fascinated by the possibilities this offered.

A little research put me in touch with a group in the Twin Cities that was very involved with this technology. They were looking for someone in this area to host a radio and server for capturing the signal information from the Dower Lake and Wadena control points, and thought I might be able to do that. One thing led to another, and I was soon sent a radio and got the instructions and help for how to get my install up and running. I was seeing signal indications from Dower Lake and Wadena on my server. These guys are good!

Life, as it often does, occupied my time and put installing and getting ATCS running on my main computer on the back burner. Finally, a week or so ago I decided to get with the program, and with some help from Don Schoenberger in the Twin Cities, got my display operating. The results are shown in the picture above. I have to say, it is impressive. The work that has gone into this is very extensive.

So, what are some of the highlights and shortcomings of ATCS? First, it only works where CTC signalling is in place. That covers a majority of the Staples Sub, but if you look closely at the screenshot, you can see that the two sections of TWC territory are greyed out. Richards Spur to Wadena and Gregory to St. Cloud are not covered by CTC, thus ATCS Monitor can't capture any information on these segments. As you can see, the rest of the Sub is CTC and thus the radios and servers in various locations capture the signal indications that are communicated by radio between the various control points.

Not every trackside signal is shown. I don't know the proper technical term, but I think of the sections as being between crossover switches or sidings, and approaches for them. I'm still trying to figure out how to interpret the information I see. Basically, the red sections are occupied by a train, and the green sections have a signal lit up allowing a train to enter them. The small diamonds along the side of the track represent the signals. Sometimes you will see a train stopped at a red signal. Other times they will have green signals stretching out a long way in front of them. The route through turnouts and crossovers will be shown. Trains will sometimes (logically) occupy multiple sections at one time.

Given that we are blessed with a couple of sections of TWC, radio traffic is required as well as signal indications, with trains being issued and clearing track warrants. In my opinion, this makes for an almost perfect railfanning environment, with ATCS allowing you to see trains well in advance of their arrival, and track warrants being cleared and issued giving you some idea of what train you are seeing on the display. Defect detectors also help to ID trains, given that intermodal trains are usually in the 200-300 axle range, coal around 480-500 axles, with manifests being the wild card.

Last night Mrs. L4T hinted that ride would be nice, and the sun was peeking out from time to time. I took a look at the ATCS display, and sure enough, there was a westbound looked to be stopped at Wadena on Main 2, and another leaving Staples on Main 1. By the time we made it uptown and crossed the tracks, I could see two headlights to the east, and set up for a shot.


I knew there were a few more westbounds out there, and we managed to get some more chances that I will share later.

I think ATCS is a great railfanning tool, and it's one more "piece of the puzzle" when you are trying to figure out what is happening on a certain stretch of railroad. I'm a fan, and want to encourage others who might be interested to try it too. There are a lot of helpful users, and it's not as hard as you would think at first glance.

One drawback: as far as I know, this is Windows-only software. I know there are some faithful Mac users out there, sorry.

A last thought as well. There is at least one webmaster that is hosting the dispatcher image, and has it set up so it refreshes every minute or so. I have emailed him asking how he does it. If it is not too difficult or costly, that is something I would like to try and do in the future.

Jim, out

A look4trains.com Birthday Celebration

A few weeks ago I had a feeling that I had been doing this blog thing for quite some time and checked back to see when I had made my first post. Turns out it was April 26, 2008, when I rolled this blog out and decided to share some railfan observations on an irregular basis.

About the time I started the blog, I also set up a sitemeter account to track the traffic I was getting. After a few months a sitemeter problem led me to switch over to Google Analytics, which is what I have been using since August 1, 2008. I thought I would share some of the stats with my few faithful readers.

How do people find this site? Well, just over 50% of the 3238 visits (since August 1) have been from referring sites-the most common of which is groups.yahoo.com, which makes sense given how closely linked this site has been with the Outstate Minnesota Rail group. The next most common referrer is railroadradio.net, followed by google and a couple of qstation sites. Also in the top ten are Trains magazine message board, trainorders.com, and trainspotter-usa.com (thanks Ian!). johnfladung.net is just behind, in 12th place, so thanks for your link as well, John.

As of this morning there have been 8965 page views since the blog was established. I don't have detailed info from the sitemeter days, but since last August 1st, the most viewed pages have been: the home page first, obviously, followed in order by a post about DEEX coal cars, my Valentine's Day post from this year, a post on an SD70 confab in Staples, and my first coal car post, about BN and BNSF cars.

Has this been worth doing? For me, the answer is a definite yes. For one thing, Mrs. L4T likes to read about her part in the look4trains fact-finding outings. It also has helped me to share information with other people who have similar interests. Railfanning in a small Minnesota town can be a solitary pursuit, but the internet has helped people with similar interests to make contact with each other, share information, and develop friendships. Hopefully this blog has contributed in some small way to that goal.

So, after 72 posts, thousands of photos sorted through to try and find something interesting enough to post, and a lot of good memories, what does the future hold? More of the same. I plan to keep shooting train photos, sharing them occasionally, and trying to tell semi-entertaining stories about railfanning along the Staples Sub and sometimes other places. Thanks to everyone who reads this blog, and especially to those of you that take the time to comment, either on the blog, on a mailing list or message board, or by email. I would probably do this if no one ever responded, for my own enjoyment, but hearing from people who read this junk makes it a lot more fun. And that's what a hobby should be, in the end. Fun.

Jim, out.