Mid-West railroading in Winter

[John M]

Currently in the Mid-West visiting family which gives me a chance to railfan lines in ND and MIN when out grocery shopping!

 

Weather to date has been mild with little snow until early January and a 'Brown Christmas", greatest surprise is the amount of grain being shipped by rail at this time of year. Grain being trucked in large volumes to the elevators for shipping by rail

 

The area is mainly served by Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and Burlington Northern Santa Fe BNSF with shortlines Dakota Missouri Valley and Western (DMVWR) Red River Valley and Western (RRVW) acting as feeders for the respective Class 1 railroads.

 

It was mild when we arrived shortly after Christmas initial sightings were BNSF Unit Grain trains on the BNSF former GN main line south east of Beckenridge Minnesota

East bound BNSF Unit Grain shortly after departing Beckenridge MN  6787 was closely following another eastbound grain the BNSF line in this area has CTC signalling with intermediate signals between signal interlockings (passing sidings) which allow trains to closely follow through sections 6787 is probably running at caution or approach.

 

Trailing loco on Eastbound 6782.

A day or so later the weather had changed another East bound grain on the BNSF line approaching Campbell south east of Beckenridge

Cars on BNSF grain tend to be from the home road or leased.

Trailing loco on unit grain.

 

Beckenridge is the main operating base of the RRVWR and interchange with BNSF. Main change since I first visited the RRVWR in 2003 has been the change and development in motive power from ex-BN Caterpillar powered GP20-C rebuilds of 1st Generation GP20s to 2nd Generation GP38-2s to SD70s to reduce maintenance and increased tonnage as a result of longer trains as a result of the construction of on-line shuttle elevators and ethanol plants.

Line up of GP20-C,CF 7 and SD70 at Beckenridge. Another SD70 and a Crete Grain SW in the background

Crete Grain, BNSF and RRVW motive power on the yard lead at Beckenridge.

After two weeks I managed to catch a number of east bound CPKC trains on the former SOO line St Paul-Portal line near the NDMN border.

CRKC GE ES44AC on eastbound grain near Tenney MN. The SOO line is relatively easily graded, grain trains are usually single headed by the large GEs without a trailing locomotive,

Kansas City Southern cars in the train consist reflect the recent CP amalgamation-takeover of the KCS.

After seeing relatively few trains on the Soo line late this afternoon was something of a jackpot with three closely following eastbound trains on the SOO Line.

BNSF motive power on a RRVWR empty ethanol train from the BNSF to the SOO Line at Campbell MN. Approaching Campbell I passed a long train of tank cars on the passing track at Campbell and a pair of BNSF locos backing down on to the train. Crossing to the other side of the line I watched the railroader coupling up and had a chat when he returned to his pick up truck. The train was an empty 100 car RRVWR train for Hankinson on the SOO Line on GN running powers  dating from the 1950s. I later saw the train as it approached the interchange with the SOO line, but following the train would have involved a long wait for at least on east bound CPKC train to clear!

 

Another CPKC ES44AC hauled eastbound grain train on the SOO Line in MN. The train was running under caution with flashing yellow intermediate signals or several miles indicating that it was following another train.

Surprise of the afternoon a BNSF powered eastbound grain on the SOO Line near Tenney MN. Although topped and tailed by BNSF power the train consist was made up of CP and absorbed "fallen flag" cars.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Thanks for sharing these - would love to have space to model these: simple scenery, big trains and tall elevators, plus heavy traffic.  I think it could make a perfect basement-sized shelf layout (with plenty of staging).  Thanks again, Keith.

[F-UnitMad]

Yep, this is Mid-West railroading - low horizons, wide blue skies, grain elevators & covered hoppers. 

I too would love to capture that sort of atmosphere on a layout, but oh the space required, even in N gauge..!! 😱🤯

Closest I got to capturing a sense of distant horizons (but not long trains) were these scenes, in O scale, on my old portable 'Portway Center' layout, which was 8ft x 2ft scenic area.

 

 

 

[John M]

I have built a number of shelf layouts including an N Scale loft layout set in the North East which incorporated oNe Trak modules (12" wide baseboard).  I found that it was feasible to achieve greater depth of field within a slender baseboard width with the trackage placed close to the baseboard center line.

 

 

 

It was even possible to achieve a reasonable foreground effect within the yard modules within a 12" wide baseboard.

 

Bernard Kempinski used similar principals in his "Moose Lake" oNe Trak module featured in Model Railroad Planning during the early 2000s increasing the baseboard width to 18" modelling a corn field in the foreground and the backscene to achieve the horizon effect https://nrail.org/resources/Documents/oNeTRAK_Manual.pdf

 

The Delaware and Hudson layout never developed beyond the operating and basic scenery stage, the layout was dismantled following a move to New Zealand in the mid-2000s, though I have a couple on N scale elevator kits and carried out a lot of "research' in the Mid-West during the last 20 years.