I'm going to be in Fairfax in the next few days and am hoping to have a couple of hours to railfan the MPLI. I know they tied down in Winthrop on weekends, but could someone give me a rundown of their schedule during the weekdays. Where should I head to possibly see them in action. Thanks!

Dan

There doesn't seem to be much info... Monday/Wednesday/Friday are pretty common times of operation on most shortlines... I don't know about the MPLI.

There really is no set schedule for the MPL other than on duty times. The Winthrop switcher goes on duty at 0600 (I think) and that job basically switches the ethanol plant with the 1206. The switch job does goes out on the mainline, but I think that's only when the regular job is off on the westend of the line. The regular or road job I guess you could call it goes on duty at 1600, or sometime in the afternoon in Winthrop.

I've railfaned the MPL very little, but my advice would be to start at Norwood and follow the tracks as closely as possible and you'll most likely either see the train enroute or you'll get to Winthrop and find the train there. If you don't see it before or in Winthrop, then they have to be west of Winthrop but they only go west of there when needed which is once or twice a week I think. The road job does use a FRED so you can listen to the FRED channels to help find the train.

Both jobs with Mon-Friday and sometimes on weekends if needed, which isn't uncommon.

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Mike/Frederick

Thanks for your posts. We ended up driving through the area on to Redwood Falls today. I did get a couple of shots of 1206 and TCW #3516. I drove around the area as much as I could, but did not find either MPLI locomotive around. I followed the line to Redwood Falls and even checked out the locomotive shop in Morton, but no avail. My only guess is that they were in the Winthrop yard, just out of sight behind a string or two of cars. Or, any other ideas where they could be.

I'm glad I was able to get 1206, though. Thanks again!

Dan

The 1206 and 3516 are the MPL locomotives. The MPL doesn't have any locomotives lettered for it and just uses whatever is available from the TCW.

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Mike

Did they get rid of #406?

http://www.tcwr.net/images/pictures25.jpg

If so, then rats! I was hoping to get a chance to see those. Oh well...

Thanks again for the info

Dan

The 404 and 406 are still alive and kickin on the TCW/MPL, but they are patched for RRVW.

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