Midweek Photos 3/26/2014

Tim!  Boy I'm I glad you showed up.  It was getting late and I was afraid I'd get stuck putting up some photos to get things going again.  Well, I headed back up north again, hoping to see some snow.  While it's been cold, there's been very little snow.  I headed back up to the old MILW highline from Milbank SD and ended up on the old GN line that goes through Appleton, MN.  Never been quite that far before!   It's an odd corner of Minnesota.  The trains were running so I wasn't disappointed. The snow is pretty much gone, even there.  What's left is that gray and brown scenery that's not really winter and not really spring.  And, it's cold.  Trains are running though, so I go out anyway.

1. BNSF e/b train through the deep cut at Big Stone City, SD.  This is one massive cut!  The cut was made through a tall glacial morraine.

2. Odessa MN, e/b train.  I let a w/bounder pass (actually, it snuck up on me,) and eventually the e/b came.  This is a very tiny town with a lot of early buildings.  Note the white building on the left.  It's a horse livery stable.  At one time all towns had these, but only a handful are left now.  My dad said he didn't remember any by the early 1930s when he was growing up.  There's a railroad story about Odessa I've been researching, but I'll tell it another time.

3. The train goes through the wye at Appleton MN and then immediately past the elevator complex.  Most of the bins here have fallen into disuse as a bigger, more modern facility was built not too far away out of town.  That's become common out here.

4. The e/b continues towards Benson, MN.  Here, it rolls past the Oakes Baptist Church cemetary.

5. At Benson, a w/b train showed up from Twin Cities and headed back towards South Dakota.  I set up at the cut west of I-29 and just east of Ortley SD with big lights, and marked a spot to take the shot.  Unfortunately, I was blinded by the headlights of the train, couldn't see my spot, and muffed the shot!  Two hours of waiting out in the cold, and I missed.   Hey, it happens.   Not even The Master, O.W. Link was 100%.

6. The train sped off into the distance, heading for the large elevator complex at Webster, SD.  I gathered my lighting gear and noticed the brilliant stars in the cloudless sky.  The temp had dropped to 14 degrees and frost was turning my clothing white.  I love all this!  There is much beauty in the night, but few seem to seek it out.  I missed the w/b train shot, but how could I "miss" sitting out on a cold night under all those stars?   Final shot of the sky, looking down the tracks in the cut towards the tiny town of Summit, SD.

"How often at night, when the heavens were bright,

With the light of the twinkling stars

Have I stood here amazed, and asked as I gazed,

If their glory exceed that of ours."

   ---B. Higley, 1876

The song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArgMK2kAjzw

Kent in SD,

On the Northern Plain

Amazing views, as always, Kent!  

I was just taking some pictures to post this on eBay, but I thought this one turned out pretty cool.

Isn't that a bit too clean to be outside?

Here is a shot taken back in 2009 during the double header that the Pere Marquette 1225 and the Nkp 765 ran in Michigan.

I really, really like this picture.  Just imagine standing there at that red sliding door, ready to walk into the building and here comes a freight train just feet from you.  Really cool

Thanks for sharing, your pictures are amazing.

-Mike

Well thank you, Mike.  Most of my photos are more about the feel of railroading on the Northern Plains than they are actual "train" pictures.  I am generally trying to show how railroads are entertwined with life here.  My goal is not so much to show you what a BNSF Dash 9 looks like, but more to give a sense of what life is like for the trains, the men, and the towns.  What I liked about the elevator shot is it shows the scale of the elevators, and it gives a sense of their disuse.  Time has moved on but the elevators have not.  The railroads change names, what's along the tracks rise and fall, but the tracks remain as the trains roll through the decades.

JD--

Hard to go wrong with big steamers in b&w!  

Kent in SD

Great photos everyone.

Jdevleerjr that photo is excellent.

Old one.

Thanks!