August 20, 2007 Weeks prior, MilwaukeeRoadMatt and Xray poured the foundation for a late summer "greater" Minnesota railfan trip. Beside the instigators, Brahamfireman and I were pegged to attend. Newest blogger John F was invited but did not travel with us due to his work schedule and our estimated time of arrival home to be '???.' Our adventure would be a reprise of the inaugural trip up the BNSF's Staples Subdivision last year.
Lessons learned from our previous trip to the same territory, led us to agree that an earlier departure would not only increase rail traffic seen, but would get us further by sunrise. Yet events out of our control - clouds and rain, right-of-way washouts and a family emergency - would negate the extra planning.
X picked me up at my in-laws in Roseville at o'dark thirty and we made our way to the Home Depot in Fridley. Northbound on 35W we crossed under the rail bridge in New Brighton. In the dark we could just make out a pair of cascade green SD40-2, evidence of re-routes discussed at lenght in Internet chatrooms as a result of flooding. There was no time to stop and check out the train, besides, it was still too dark for photography. X continued driving to our meeting point.
The parking lot was speckled with darkened cars, save for one sedan with its parking lights on. X drove towards the car as we believed it to be Matt's - wrong car and not Matt. Ensured that we were the first for the rendevous, X pulled into a spot by the vet clinic. Watching the parking lot for about 10 minutes, a car pulled in and chose a space amidst the sea of dark vehicles. Again it was not Matt but it was Home Depot's apparent fearless leader. All of the cars X and thought were vacant came to life. Domelights popped on as doors swung open; a funnel of staff washed towards the oversided sliding doors and disappeared into the store. Brahamfireman pulled in and transferred himself into the Tahoe.
Waiting a dreadful 25 minutes after Braham's arrival, we reached a consensus that MilwaukeeRoadMatt was not showing up. On our way out of town, we discussed the numerous unanswered phone calls and emails to Matt. Aside from the worry the three of us expressed throughout the trip, in Matt's absence we noticed there was no scanner and no unit heritage expertise.
We decided 94 was an acceptable route. At Monticello, X took MN 25 north into Big Lake where we picked up the Staples sub and travelled on MN 10. A thick layer of grey clouds leaked drizzle and delayed the flourescent glow common of thinner cloud cover. At speed, the most extreme settings on my camera were no match for the trains. We caught two intermodals and Amtrak before we reached St. Cloud.
It was obvious, Z trains were the only movements being made on this portion of the northern Trans-Continental route. X spoke of Amtrak terminating at each La Crosse, WI and St. Paul, only to be linked by bus. Because of the deadly southeastern Minnesota flooding and missing sections of trackage, most traffic was at a standstill, higher priority stuff was being re-routed.
The third to last train cross-country train we would actually see in motion was passing the St. Cloud Amtrak station. In hazy and drizzly air, the three of us lamented at the lack of viewable activity in the rail scrapyard. From here Braham wanted to see the yard from which the Saint Cloud local originates. Crossing the river X pointed to our right, to draw our attention to the bridge he wished he could photograph a train on. Pointing before he looked (he was driving), he failed to notice the local traversing the bridge as he spoke. Taking the first available turn, he doubled back towards the Amtrak station. Loitering in the essence of baking bread, X parked in the parking lot of a corporate bakery conveniently at a grade crossing ahead of the local. A pair of Geeps pulled this 30-or-so car train towards Northtown.
At a few more grade crossings between St. Cloud and Staples we stopped for a couple of intermodal hotshots. Taking a back road we ended up in Randall, MN and found a slug of Maintenance of Way machines and thier masters sitting on a siding at the Station Sign. The only manifest train we would encounter on the Staples blasted past eastward.
Members of this "core" TCR railfan group have each brought "jobs" that enhance our outings. X is the driver; MilwaukeeRoadMatt carries the scanner, keeps minutes of our adventures, and is a shotgun encyclopdia of railroad heritage lineage; and Braham brings railroad knowledge as a former employee and a keen navigational acumen; and me, I am not sure, but I like tagging along!
Braham directed us off the paved comfort of Highway 10 onto an obscure county road that abruptly went from tar to beige, compacted dirt. This road led us directly to a single home sitting mere feet away from the double tracked Staples sub. The sole structure made me think of the general store of Green Acres - this is probably what it looked like from outside. A signal bridge and a station sign pronoucing this location to be Philbrook.
Winding a bit more west brought us to a T intersection. While the main road continued to the west via a 90 degree turn in the dirt road, a small private road was straight ahead of us. It lead up a steep incline and crossed the tracks. Chuckling turned into belly laughing when eyes found the reflective octagonal shaped warning. While it was clearly a former stop sign, in the field of red, a single exclamation point posed a conundrum. The backside of another stop sign was seen on the otherside of the tracks. No longer a stop sign, it was now painted green, with large white letters spelling GO.
We were just a few miles out of Staples. As we strode into town from the south, a coal empty came off the Brainerd sub. Like a feline slinking around the perimeter of a unsuspecting rabbit family peacefully nibbling grass, we drove around the Staples' yard hoping to find a better perspective of the multiple locomotives. From the south we saw a vehicle train comprising of autoracks sitting in front of a TOFC intermodal. We reached the westend of the yard and saw complete trains about seven deep filling up the yard limits. Construction is changing the face of Highway 10 on the yard's northside. Since nothing was going to be moving soon, we examined the Amtrak station before returning to the southside of the yard.
Large power would be easily tugging the intermodal train in the future, but at present, not a light or human being was to be seen. On the vehicle train, a more eclectic array of power was witnessed. Two SD40-2s were behind a pair of Geeps. A long, thick strip of grassland lines the yard, we exited the Tahoe and ultimately walked an 1/8th of a mile to find opportunities to "catch our rabbit!" Finally, before leaving the town of Staples, a second coal empty blasted through.
Now fully understanding the (small) amount of traffic we could expect on the Staples, a change in destination was discussed. While Xray had no preference, Braham suggested following the Brainerd upto Superior. I, on the other hand, suggested Wilmar. After a few minutes of pros & cons, we were following Hiway 71 south towards Wilmar. At Belgrade, MN, we had a quick glimpse of a baretable string on the Canadian Pacific. We were let down just as quickly when we found that there was no power on this sidelined cut of cars.
Rolling into Wilmar, Braham only had a vague rememberance of "hot spots" but dutifully got us to a walking bridge over the yard. There was plenty of action, yet it was equally out of camera range to either side of the pedestrian overpass. Come to think of it, as much as Xrayguy wanted to see it, we never did complete a visit to the static display of a steam locomotive just a few blocks from the bridge. But we did take in a lot of yard switching action.
On the westend there was a compliment of Maintenance of Way work going on by station sign Souix City Line Jct. Just into the yard there was a white-nosed EMDX GP38-2 tugging our way. It labored with a blue bonnet BNSF 2408 and green BNSF 2970. As it tucked back into the depths of the yard not to be seen again, an EMD SD60 and BNSF SD40-2 pushed a long string of cars towards the Souix City sign. It too disappeared; now all the activity was on the other end of the yard.
We momentarily pulled into the depot yard to check out a pair of locomotives. One of five remaining BNSF MP15s sat with BNSF 2963 nearly hidden behind some heavy duty trucks. As X pulled out of the parking lot, I don't think either of my comrades noted a small scale test car attached to the locomotives, but I got a photo through the tinted windows. A few blocks east of here, there is a great area that allows views of the yard and turntable without being railroad property. A pair of Executive SD70MACs, a GP60M, a FURX in BNSF H1 paint, and two Dash-9s ticked, sputtered and hummed as they idled.
On our way out of town on the way home, we found the next and last moving train. It was pulling into Wilmar from the Metro. We stopped numerous times when we spied rail cars along the way. The first was immediately outside Wilmar. Although we were unable to get to the headend.
A quick stop in Litchfield allowed us to dodge grain trucks in order to snag photos of a former Burlington Northern GP7. Further east, in Dassel we found a manifest train, broken apart to clear crossings. BNSF H1 SD40-2s bookended a Canadian National SD70I.
Finding our way through Delano, an overpass gave us a view of a grain train. Again, it was chunked into three sections, all of the ends were well over 100 yards from each crossing. To get to the headend of this once eastbound unit train, we found a private crossing. Three SD40-2s sat silent, not even idling, this fact only drove home the point that nothing was moving any time soon. All three units were elephant-style, the last two units were consecutive H1 units, BNSF 7843 and 7844.
Staying on Highway 12, we were tricked by the signals in Wayzata. The stop paid off in any event. While we didn't see any trains, I showed the vantage point of the dock in the bay. X found the historical markers and we were able to stretch our legs.
This last part of our trip could be documented in its own blog, but I will abridge it to wrap up this account. Throughout the day X talked about a part of Minneapolis in the Bryn-Mawr neighborhood. You can see very dilapidated trackage. At other times in our travels today, Braham would recount working a CP job in the equivalent of inner city "dark territory."
Highway 12 turns into I-394. At Penn Ave, X asked if we minded detouring for a tour hosted by him. Kismet or just coincidence, the tracks Xray was so intrigued by were the very same that Braham travelled with a veteran engineer. Several industries are served by this early a.m. job. From Humboldt or Shoreham, boxcars and gondolas are taken to this warbly tracks in a hidden part of Minneapolis. View it here
We finished out trek with a run over Northtown at St. Anthony and 42th Ave NE. As it turns out, despite cloud cover, an absent Matt with no warning or word of his whereabouts, and no traffic, it was nice to get out of the Cities and find new areas.