Pine City Bridge

I thought I would update you on the N Scale Skally Line progress. I've been working on the Pine CIty Bridge over the Snake River. I am scratch building the bridge in styrene, using an Atlas girder plate bridge. I have alot of material left to add, but I have finished the majority of the wood and concrete sections. I need to start adding some steel next, but I wanted to show that I have been getting something done...

Skally Line Update

I was checking out the repaired bridge in Pine City when I had a suprise drive by with an unusual load for the SCXY.
Here SCXY GP9 1363 hits the bridge. Some of the smaller repairs can be seen underneath. Here the 8 axle TTX car rolls the bridge. Thank goodness this was after the major pier repairs that can be seen to the lower right. The crewman rode the car from Hinckley to Rush City. Thank goodness it got up to 26 degrees!

Twin Ports Drive By

I was in and out of the Twin Ports (Duluth, MN & Superior, WI) earlier this week for work. The clouds broke late in the day, but the scenery is always good.

Bessemer & Lake Erie SD40T-3 909 and some CN units were town picking up some limestone in Duluth.

CP SD60 6047 and its wide cab brother waiting for duty at Stinson Yard.

Also idling at Stinson today was CP GP38 4511, which I posted pictures of from Red Wing just a couple of weeks ago.

BNSF ES44AC 6224, no stranger to the unit trains, is idling on the ready line at the Belknap engine servicing facility.

Shakopee, MN

Did a little railfanning down in Savage and Shakopee, MN last week and the sun came out for a bit! That area has alot of great industries and a small UP yard (Valley Park) that would translate easily into a layout.

UP GP38-2 308 running light to service some of the local businesses. The lights are off because he is running away from me in this shot.

Rahr Malting would be fun to model, lots of cars in-cars out traffic, the UP main runs through the middle of the complex, every building type I know of from brick to precast. And massive elevators. This place is awesome!

Harvest States EMD SW1 sitting idle at the CHS Elevator in Savage

Something different...

Maybe you can tell I'm stalling. I've gotten very little done on the Skally Line lately. I painted the Rush City Mill and am getting ready to start adding some details. I added 4 more Tortoise machines to the layout and added a Digitrax DS52 to control the switches on the North Branch Chinook spur. I did start building the North Branch Mill as well. I'll try to get some more done this weekend so I can post more N scale pics soon.

But until then, here are some shots I got driving through Redwing last week. Again it was overcast, that seems to be the trend for me this year...

CP SD40-2 5975 Pulling a southbound manifest, heavy with Canadian Grain cars.

CP GP38-2 4511 idles away in downtown Redwing, probably servicing the local industries today.

The SD's are still out there

Here are some random shots I got back in October around the metro. Enjoy.

BNSF SD39 1913 working Northtown.
BNSF SD40-2 7884 Pulling a ballast train to a bridge project on the St.Paul Sub.
UP SD40-2 3225 waiting for it's next job at Hoffman Yard.

SD40-2 8018 taking a freight out of Northtown.

Hugo Local

I was able to get out and follow the MNNR Hugo Local for an hour with my girls last week. The first shot is just after passing under 35E in Vadnais Heights. A couple of lumber loads and a couple of tank cars are allowing MNNR 42 to build up a decent amount of speed.Later the crew cuts free from some box cars they picked up and get ready to handle the tank cars at Loadmaster Lubricants in Hugo. Someday I'll get some sunshine to take pictures in, today was overcast and snowy.