I know the subject line is nothing new but for once I was able to capitalize on Amtrak being very late.
My day started off by going swinging through Pig's Eye to see what I could see. I caught a tattered CSX EMD near the shops.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnfladung/3171726353/Next I headed out to Northtown yard to see what I could see. I swung over to the 44th Ave hoping I'd be able to find the Northstar units; sure enough I found them, behind a string of tank cars!
I parked my truck and made the long hike up 44th in a snow packed messy sidewalk with two cameras around my neck. It really wasn't worth it. At first I thought the Fridley Police Department was going to question me about something. The officer drove past me fast one time, then drove past me again a second time. Then the third time he drove past me he wiped a U turn on 44th and parked along the sidewalk but never got out to chat, hmmm. He eventually turned around again and left never to been seen by me again there.
After this I crossed the road and went to the side of 44th that has no sidewalk. I like how the wide shoulder area compensates for lack of a sidewalk and allows one to shoot from there cautiously. I took some shots of all the power sitting near the turntable but nothing really turned out. The car John Hill took photos of on its side is still over turned.
As I got back on University and started to make my way to Union Junction I heard the DS talking to a BNSF crew that would have to hold their train near Coon Creek for Amtrak. I then changed my plans and turned off onto Transfer Road and scouted out different angles around the station. I spotted a lone Superliner in front of the station and figured it was going to be added to the Late 8. I checked the Amtrak site several times on my phone but each time I checked it said that they couldn't provide any info so it was a guessing game. I waited for a good 30-40 minutes before and grabbed this shot of the MNNR:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnfladung/3171726479/As the sun was getting lower and lower in the sky I debated holding out to see Amtrak or heading over to Union Junction to try some shots with the new camera on that downgrade. I made the decision to move on. I got all the way over to Union Junction, got situated and heard Amtrak on the radio. I quickly made my move back over to the station and found that the MNNR had the Amtrak car coupled and ready to assist Amtrak. I didn't have to wait long before Amtrak crept into view. It was fun watching passengers get on and off the train, see kids run around to burn off excess energy, and so forth. I even heard an apology over the sound system for the delay! Amtrak employees were putting water (I think) into a car that was located 2-3 cars from the power and it seemed to be really thirsty. I was able to get shots of Amtrak from a couple different angles but have nothing to share at this point since I'm not very happy with the shots.
After everyone boarded the MNNR added the car to Amtrak and shortly after that a couple of chirps of the horn on the P42DC, Amtrak slowly rolled away from the station. With an official departure of 1620 I thought it would be interesting to see who would win the race to Hoffman. Well with rush hour traffic it's an easy win for 8 as I could see the rear lights passing through Hoffman as I rounded curves on Warner Road. Some 20 minutes after departing Midway 8 was running through Pig's Eye. It was now getting dark and it was time to head back to the apartment for rest.
Thanks for reading and sorry for getting so wordy.
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