Chasing A Train From Fargo To Grand Forks – 8 July 2008

[Jimbaux can’t pass up this opportunity to make himself absurd . . . ]

Or, The Consolation Prize?

The Northtown To Grand Forks Manifest

The real kicker about today’s story is the great opportunity that I gave up by going on this chase and taking these pictures, and today’s song is very appropriate on many levels, including the artist.  You’ll have to wait until the end to find out what the significance – the opportunity cost of getting these pictures – was, but when you do, you’ll probably have a newfound lack of respect for me.

Out Of My Way?

As class ended on Tuesday 8 July 2008, I had plans to do something that night per an invitation, but when I rolled out of NDSU, I heard “Northtown Grand Forks Manifest” over the radio!  Sweet!  The day before, I got my first shot on the Hillsboro Sub, which is BNSF’s line northward from Fargo to Grand Forks, but it was damned near dark when it happened.  Now, I have a northbound train and several more hours of daylight than I had the day before!

Act I, Scene I, Take II

I can’t remember where I first spotted the train, but our first shot is from the same place as yesterday’s shot on the northern edge of Fargo, but you’ll notice that we have much more light this time, as we see the M-NTWGFD.

A few seconds later, here is a closer view.

How’s that?  We even have an Oakway unit in the power consist.

Bonvillain

Next, we get to the town of Harwood, where I got I shot that gave me a mixed reaction.

In this moment, I was pleased to get the cliché Great Plains grain-elevator-behind-the-train shot, and in that same moment, I became simultaneously sick of it.  WTF?

Sugar Beet Country

Yes, we are in the deepest parts of the valley of the Red River of the North, and we will be for the entire journey today, as we will be no more than 10 miles from the river in northward course that parallels the river’s flow.  This is where many sugar beets are grown.

I guess I’ll chase this thing all the way to its destination in Grand Forks.

Multitasking

As I’m flying northbound on I-29 with the train to my right, I rolled down the passenger side window reached with leverage the heavy camera and lens combination toward the window, set the 70-200mm/f2.8 on the not-fully-rolled-down window, and got this broadside shot while going about the same speed as the train:

The broadside view adds some variety to what is otherwise a set of telephoto-wedge shots.

The Shot Of The Day, Kelso From Alton

We’re now in Alton, just south of Hillsboro, the namesake town for this part of the railroad, and here we have our shot of the day, as we see in all its glory the M-NTWGFD1-08A.

Well, now that we’ve gotten our shot of the day, can we go home?  I mean, there is something really important and cool that I should be doing back in Fargo right about now!  Heck no!  Using the excuse that the window of opportunity for that other engagement tonight was rapidly closing, we’re going to keep going north!  I’ve never been here and will not likely return.

Pivoting

Let’s turn and look north at the train leaving Alton, and you can see Hillsboro in the background.

Note the airslide hopper cars at the bottom right.  I suspect that those are for sugar loading from the sugar beets.  Having grown up on the southern Louisiana branches that hauled refined sugar from now-closed refineries, seeing these was a real treat that brought back memories.  Maybe this is what I should have been doing this evening afterall!

Buxton

I got to Buxton early enough to get a closer view of some of these glass insulators on the telephone lines along the rails.

Now, here comes our train behind the Buxton station sign.

Are we having fun yet?  Say goodbye to the train, but not to all trains for today.

The Forks!

We’re now in Grand Forks.  While I had been here three days ago, it was later in the evening, and I had three passengers with me.  Now, I was more free to look around, and I found the University of North Dakota.

Well, now I have been on the campus of North Dakota’s two biggest universities in two of its biggest cities.  Yeah, I know, big deal!

There are almost certainly many neat and cool places you’ve visited too.

Back To The Track

We are now back at the Red River and looking into Minnesota.

You will recall that, last time, I photographed this bridge from the other side of the river.

A Local Action

After the NTWGFD got off the Hillsboro Sub and into the yard, a local train apparently called the “West Lead”  RCO came out to serve the the Henningsen Cold Storage’s Grand Forks facility.

Note the beltpack that the trainman is wearing; this is a remote control job, hence the “RCO” designation.

Those graffiti markings look very similar to a refrigerator car that was in the NTWGFD that we just saw.  Would it have bee switched out of the train that quickly?

Twilight

Where I was west of town is near where Amtrak’s stop in Grand Forks is, and you can barely see an Amtrak sign in the below picture, showing where the Empire Builder stops.

After that, I found some unhealthy eatery to visit, but I have no memory of which eatery it was, but, as I type this, I’m very vaguely remembering some shopping center north of the yard.

That’s it for the pictures.

Absurd??

Yeah, are you listening to today’s song?  I told you that I did this train chase at the expense of doing something else really cool, and there is a reason that I really hope that you appreciate these pictures and the sacrifice that I made to get them; can you believe that I did this instead of going to a Seether concert in Fargo with three ladies?  See, I told you that you’d have a newfound lack of respect for me!  Hey, look, I had two really cool things that I could have done tonight, and I could only pick one, and there aren’t many trains on the Hillsboro Sub, especially one going in the direction that I wanted at the time of day that I wanted.  I always hope that you enjoy all of my pictures, and I think that the previous entry from three days before was quite special, but I really do hope that you like these pictures since I skipped a Seether concert with three women for them!  Oh, but what’s really funny about it is that they ended up not going anyway; I guess it was due to me skipping town as soon as class let out, but I’ll never know, and it doesn’t matter anyway.

All for now . . .

Jimbaux