Epic Adventure Pt. 2

Not having made it half way through our first day I had no idea how amazing this trip would be. After battling a never ending onslaught of east bound trains, we finally found a moment of peace in St.Cloud, MN. There were some BNSF GP38s there that we would catch running light a little later, but my favorite piece of motive power in town was Northern Lines Railways (NLR) ex-BN GP10 1411.

Moving north from St.Cloud things got a little light as a couple of WB coal drags made their way up the single track portion of the Detroit Lakes Sub. This one was headed up by a pair of SD70ACe's that we caught up with in Audobon, MN.

After getting our fill of BNSF for the day we turned the car north and under cloudy skies we headed to Ulen, MN to check out ILSX SD40-3 #1341 at the West Central Elevator.

Taking the back roads from Ulen to Thief River Falls we ventured off the beaten path a little. We would point the car at any Prairie Sky Scraper we could see on the horizon. The motto of the trip seemed to be: "Why not? When will we be this close again?" The next turn took us to Hazel, MN to a freshly painted, but not numbered CHS SW1200.

After a good amount of the day on the road, HK and I finally drove through TRF. In town there we found ILSX SW7 #1373 at the local elevator. It was tied up to a scale car, no doubt performing state checks on the lines elevators.

Over at the TRF roundhouse was a fantastic looking spreader, one of several we saw on the trip. CP has spent a few dollars getting ready for snow duty. SOO 900078 looked eager for snow that was a long ways off now.