Epic Adventure Pt. 9: Heading Home

It seems everywhere you turn in Minnesota there is another grain elevator. As we headed back toward the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul we were fortunate to stop in Walnut Grove, where we got permission to shoot a vintage ex-BNSF SW1200 waiting for the upcoming grain rush.

The Harvest Land Co-op in Springfield, MN has this beautiful ex-Conrail GP10 as its power.

Pulling into New Ulm, MN we made the mandatory stop for an authentic German lunch. The food did not disappoint, neither did the railfanning. Ex-SOO IMRL GP9's #123 and 124 were hiding downtown.

Pulling into Mankato we photographed LOCX SW10 #1237.

From Mankato we follow UP's "Spine Line" back up to Hoffman Yard in St.Paul. We grabbed some shots of the leasers there, including GMTX GP38-2 #2620.

We were now just a few miles from where we started the adventure. Three days of railfanning had worn me out. I was very happy to be sleeping in my own bed that night. I want to give a special thanks to HK for doing this trip with me. It takes a good friend to go chasing prairie skyscrapers for three days straight. I think we drove something like 1200 miles in the three days, only crossing into North Dakota for a few hours. It was fun looking through the pictures afterwords. We saw so many things in such rapid succession that it was hard to remember what we had seen in the morning by the time nightfall hit. I'd love to do another epic adventure next year, who knows what other hidden treasures are hiding out there...