I've continued my pattern of taking photos on weekday nights, and doing "marriage maintenance" on the weekends. 
BNSF continues to do track work on the Canton SD sub, forcing trains to run after ~5pm, and at restricted speeds. The RCPE has been running a daily cement train from Huron SD down through Mitchell SD to Sioux City IA, on the BNSF core line (I think this is called the Sioux City Sub.) This is highly unusual! Combine that with the fact they're doing it at night and the result is an opportunity that is highly attractive to me! I was ready to go out after it twice, but each time it got delayed to the point where I'd be getting home at 3am on a week night! Getting up and going to work would just be a killer the next day. I might do it this week anyway and call in sick. 
They aren't going to keep running those trains much longer. Anyway, some shots I did get:
1. D&I running up the grade in Sioux Falls, SD, past one of the soccer fields.Three screaming EMD units notched up to full power, pulling 9500 tons up the steepest grade in the state and shaking the ground under our feet. 
Few paid any attention to the train.
2. A s/b D&I train exits the Hudson, SD grain complex. Any time now this place will be jammed with trucks unloading soybeans from the harvest, and I won't be able to take this shot. As it was, I had the place to myself.
3. A n/b BNSF grain train approaching the 26th St. crossing in Sioux Falls, SD. The irony is I've never taken a shot here before, and it's the closest tracks to my house!
4. D&I train passing the abandoned elevator at Fairview, SD, and a story. I went back the next night to get a shot even though the train left much earlier and I knew it would still be light when it got to Fairview. This is a tiny town with only one church, a tiny post office, a welding shop, and a few houses scattered about. There are no schools, bars, gas stations. It's another of the many fading towns out here. It sits in a bend of the Big Sioux River across from Iowa. There's a house that sits back from the tracks, by itself. As I was setting up for my photo, a pack of kids from the house surrounded me. They were 3 to 8 years old. After becoming bored with me, they began playing on the tracks, on a blind curve. I told them a train was coming in ten to fifteen minutes and they needed to be off tracks, and tried to shoo them away. A nice looking young women appeared and asked what was up. I told her I take train photos, that one was due pretty soon, and maybe it wasn't a good idea for little kids to be sitting on the tracks around a blind curve. She seemed unconcerned and said, "Oh, they'll get off when the train comes." I had visions of the three yr. old feezing when the big yellow engines showed up, with 9500 tons of rock behind them. 
I was thinking, "Mother of the Year," right there! Figuring the woman wasn't going to do much, I reached for my radio and talked to Mike, the engineer. I don't often talk to train crews on the radio, but this seemed like a good reason to do it. He said he's seen them there before and will go slow coming around. He thanked me for the head's up. Train came, the older kid pulled the little ones off the tracks in plenty of time, and all lined up and waved to the engineer, who began hotdogging on the horn.
I spent some time talking to the woman, and she's actually pretty nice. I think I finally convinced her to not let the kids on the tracks too. We sat and talked quite awhile. I had an 8x10 print made and took it to her tonight, and took another photo while I was there. This time I included the kids waving to the engineer. Can't show the photo yet as I took it with my Chamonix 4x5 on b&w film.
I meet all kinds of interesting people along the tracks; most all are very nice. For me, the stories I find & hear are often as good or better than the photos I get. It's all part of living on the Northern Plains. 
Kent in SD
