Tuesday while at work in the Brainerd area I caught a coal train headed to Staples from Superior. That alone is no big deal, but this one had a SD 40-2 as the lead unit and a Santa Fe dash 9 trailing. I haven't seen a SD 40-2 on a coal train for years. Here is where it gets strange. Tacked on the rear was around 50 grain hoppers. My only guess is that BNSF was bringing them to Staples for storage as they like to keep them in the yard there.