A Day On The Skally Line

I want to thank the hard working crew of the Skally Line: Tavis, Bill, Justin and Dave. These guys are great people who also happen to be really good at running a railroad. They were good enough to let me tag along for a day and watch them work. The day was busy and long, but I got to see the Skally work from it's North end to the South end.
The day started on the south end of Hinckley where the NB train was waiting with outbound cars.

A quick interchange with the BNSF swapped cars heading out with ones heading to Rush City. The PRLX trio of GPs are still working the Hinckley Local.

 SCXY 1363 and 1352 were waiting in Rush and after switching out the yard, the twins were split up.

SCXY 1326 and ILSX 1345 would be doing the heavy pulling on the south end as well today.

SCXY 1363 ran ahead to facilitate the moves on the facing point switches.

What a great day, thanks again to my hosts! I owe you big time.

Skallyline Monday

On Monday, my friend Ken and I made a run up to Duluth and back. We made it back to Hinckley in time to watch the BNSF Hinckley Local interchange with the SCXY. The Local had left the cars for the SCXY north of the Skally siding switch. Here is today's power pulling south onto the siding with the train bound for Rush City.

As usual it was a nice mix of cars, empty flour hoppers, empty 2 bay sand hoppers and loaded wheat cars bound for the Horizon Mill. I shot pics of some of the flour cars. I may try to build some of these later this year in N Scale.

The BNSF was picking up a cut of cars that the Skally Crew had brought up to Hinckley last Thursday. Power for the Hinckley Local today was PRLX GP38-2's 717, 706 and 709. These ex-Iowa Interstate units are on lease to the BNSF right now. They do make a good looking lash-up. After airing up, the HIN Local pushes North, back onto the BNSF main.

Ken and I chased the Local South back to Rush City. Here, engineer Travis eases the SCXY 1363 and ILSX 1345 across the Snake River bridge in Pine City.

I love these GP's. After getting back to Rush City, the crew grabbed a cut of freshly cleaned out flour cars and moved them to the siding before tying down for the day.