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. 

Sun, Snow, and Steam (and Clouds)

 Saturday morning October 24 revealed a clear blue sky and significant snow on the ground. Seemed like the kind of day that should be captured for posterity. What better way than to take some train pictures?

I had been sniffing around the former DWP main out in the Munger area and thought the snow and morning sun would make for a nicely lit backdrop for a southbound CN train. Off I went to the crossing Maple Grove Road, where I could sit and wait and observe the glory of a Christmas scene in October. 

The wait was relatively short, and I was ready when the southbound passed by a row of flocked evergreens. 

That zebra painted second unit inspired me to have another go at this train, so it was off to Becks Road, where I shot this at the overpass.

It's kind of crazy how just a little drop in elevation reduces the amount of snow on the ground. That shot looked more like early November than Christmas. 

On my way home, a stop at the overpass on the north end of Proctor Yard yielded a shot of pellet loads steaming alongside a tunnel motor leader pointed toward the range. The overcast had moved in by that time, giving the scene a wintry appearance. Why not capture that?

With that, my morning was complete and I headed for home thinking Santa would show up any day. Another railfanning outing in the books.

A Dandy Lashup

 With the year end creeping up on us and vacation needing to be used before that date, I burned a day Friday. That allowed me to venture out into CN territory in the morning. I looked at ATCS before leaving the house and saw a southbound lined from Simar to Steelton. I made the dangerous assumption that he would get a light all the way to Pokegama and headed for the Wisconsin side of the Oliver bridge in the hopes of getting a drone shot of the train creeping across the river. 

No such luck, as he stopped in Steelton, and I ran out of patience waiting. ATCS looked like the main was tied up by a switch job at Pokegama. I made a swing through Superior and saw nothing much of interest, but there was another southbound waiting at Simar so I galloped up Highway 2 just to find myself once more waiting for a train to move. Since that one had his headlight on, I figured he would be moving as soon as a northbound coming up the hill cleared Nopeming. I had a little longer to wait, though, as the northbound was through Munger before the soutbound started to roll. I figured I would shoot him at Maple Grove Road since it would allow me a quicker getaway than waiting for the whole train to pass. Here's what I got:

As the train rolled by me I noticed the consist was interesting enough to warrant a second look. Draper bodies are getting rare and deserve a bit of extra effort, so I tried to think of where I could get a good broadside to capture the whole mess of power and settled on Steelton Hill. Off I went, and after a short wait he rolled down the hill and into view. The train, along with a late season fisherman, passed me at the same time.

That's a nice change from the steady diet of late model GE's that are usual on these CN trains. 

And that was it for my Friday adventure. I headed home and went to work (yes, on my vacation day!) for a couple of hours. But any day I get to take a train picture I will count as a win!

Before the Snow

This afternoon I was able to sneak out of work a little early (with permission, of course) and venture out to see what was moving on the CN. I knew there was a northbound coming up the hill, and it looked like something headed south on the Rainy Sub too. 

As I reached Highway 2 at the Morris Thomas Road intersection, I was greeted by the passage of the lone locomotive at the head of the train. After a right turn, I managed to get in position for a shot at Munger, but the clouds made it a pretty blah attempt. 

So I swung over to Simar for a peek up the tracks, which revealed a train on the main with the headlight off. Not being sure what that meant, I ran down to Adolph and considered waiting for another train coming up the hill, but the clouds were still pretty thick. Some blue sky to the west inspired me to backtrack. A glance at ATCS revealed that the train at Simar now had a light so I headed back there for this shot.

Headlight was on now! With that one bagged, I checked the status of the next northbound and found he was close to Adolph already. With the sun peeking through the clouds from time to time now, I decided to try Canosia Road for the final shot of the day. A wonderful sucker hole appeared and I opened fire at long range, getting this.

And then the sun slipped behind a cloud, which resulted in the bland image below. If it was just a couple of GE's I wouldn't mind so much, but a pair of SD75's up front is not so common. Would have liked to have had the sucker hole here.

Feeling frustrated and with nothing close by on the radar, I headed for home. Still, can't be too disappointed seeing 3 in a long hour. It was better than staring at outlook and Microsoft Teams, for sure. Maybe tomorrow there will be first snow shots to get.

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. 

A Quick Morning Outing-or the Story of A Minute Late and a Mile Short

Well since I have resumed railfanning on a fairly regular basis I figured why not start blogging about it? Even if no one reads these posts, they still are fun for me to look back on. So here goes the re-launch of the blog formerly known as look4trains. 

This morning dawned bright and crisp. I had the itch to take a train picture, so after ATCS showed me a southbound approaching Nopeming and a northbound leaving Pokegama, off I went. Best case scenario was to catch these two meeting on Steelton Hill, worst case I figured I would get the southbound somewhere in good light. Those southbounds really move, so when I reached the overpass on Becks Road, I could see the headlight of the southbound up the hill. I bailed out and trotted (which for me, nowdays, is a fast walk) back to the bridge to get the shot:

Well, that was nice. Nothing special but better than striking out. I wasn't sure where the northbound was, so jumped back in the Escape and headed downhill. The northbound came into view as I rounded the curve near Gary crossover. And the southbound was closing fast. With no time to change lenses I made the-well, not the best, but what I could of a great situation. 

60 more seconds, and I could have snapped on the short lens and had something presentable here. But no such luck today. I considered chasing the southbound to Oliver but decided to go snoop around Duluth a bit. I stopped to check ATCS at the I-35 on ramp, and noticed something headed down Proctor Hill. Again the chase was on. Again it turned out that I was a minute late, as the train was nearly on the dock when I arrived. No time to launch and get a shot before the run around. 

So I continued on to the Garfield overpass, in the hope of finding something interesting at one of the Rices Point yards. They were both quiet, though, so I just meandered around trying to think of something to do. I finally found a nice out of the way spot to launch and ended up videoing the CP yard. 

By this time I had endured enough frustration for one morning and so I headed back home, to see how the shots turned out. 

Now you know the story of how I was a minute late and a mile short. Thanks for reading!

The Trials and Tribulations of Crossing the Tracks in Parkman, Wyoming

My Big Horn Sub layout models some of the BNSF mileage between Sheridan and Parkman, Wyoming. One of the modeled locations is the siding at Parkman, which is the summit of Parkman Hill and the point where helpers will cut off to return to Sheridan and await the next westbound train needing help.

An overpass at Parkman allows access to both sides of the railroad. If you search for photos taken at Parkman, you will find that this overpass is frequently used by railfans to capture images of trains passing by.

It seemed that my layout needed a miniature version of this overpass. After a perfunctory search of the internet I was not successful in finding any good pictures of the bridge. As a result I decided to try modeling one of the wooden bridges at Hawley, MN since I did have a photo of this taken a few years ago that would give me something to work from.

Wrong state, wrong bridge!

After posting a picture of what I was up to on Facebook, I noticed a comment from Chris Atkins, who is also modeling this section of railroad (plus a lot more!) asking if I intended to model the bridge at Parkman. When I answered yes, he offered up numerous photos of the bridge which revealed a lot of detail, including these found on bridgehunter. Turns out my attempt to use the bridge at Hawley as a prototype was way off base.

You're doing it wrong

The bridge at Parkman is not only completely different, it is more interesting as it contains a pony truss and railroad rails as part of the support elements. Perhaps the most striking difference, to my eye, is clear in this photo. Rather than three straight sections with angled transitions between them, this bridge looks to have a more gradual curving line up and over the tracks. Which presented a problem from the modeling perspective, as in how do I create this gradual curve when all I have to work with is straight pieces of miniature lumber?

So I sat down to think. And ponder. And after extensive contemplation, I came up with the idea of soaking the tiny timbers in hot water followed by a drying session in a jig that held them in the bent position. Here are the main timbers in the jig as they dry.

Got carried away with the paintbrushes

And here are the results after drying overnight. The curve held well when removed from the jig!

In fact, it looks like my first attempt may have been bent too much. I certainly didn't expect that, but with this square timber priced at 79 cents at Hobby Lobby, I guess I can make an adjustment to the jig and try again.

After reviewing the scene, it's clear that I need to make the fill on each side of the bridge have more gradual slopes. So it will be back to the drawing board when I get time to work on the layout again.

Finally, one more shout out to Chris Atkins. Without his help I would still be trying to jam west-central Minnesota into Wyoming. Thanks again, Chris, the photos and assistance are greatly appreciated!