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Day 14: Morris, MN to Hartland, MN

Woke up and was very sad to see only the tiniest little dusting of snow on the car. I packed up and shipped out; it was a relief to get out into fresh air again! I hit the road and soon passed this, in I believe Cyrus, a town of 303 people.

Which reminds me. Even though Morris is only a town of 5000, there were signs everywhere for churches of every denomination. That's something I've noticed out here on the plains: religion is far more common. In Utah you pretty much just have the one religion, though Helper is a little unusual in that the Catholic church is the main church in town. In California… well, I don't don't to say anything. Nevada I noticed the odd church, but over here on the great plains I've noticed signs for Lutheran, Methodist, etc etc etc.

The other thing that is BIG over here is the anti-abortion campaign. It was big news on the radio news every day (who cares about the deficit, or the recession, or cr...

Day 13: Aberdeen, SD to Morris, MN

I'm nearly at my destination! Aberdeen is a junction for BNSF and the DM&E, and the Dakota, Missouri Valley & Western RR. I figured I'd have a good chance of seeing some interesting locos, so headed on down to the yards. What I found was pretty bleak, and pretty cold. But I did find 3 geeps saddled up and ready to go, coupled to a pair of snow fighting spreaders, no doubt preparing for the snow storm that had been nipping at my heels ever since I left Utah.

I was impressed, and wouldn't mind taking one home with me. Suspect the airlines might have something to say though! Wandered down the bleak street and spied some locos at the roundhouse, seems to be a wee bit of everything here. BNSF, old BN greens, a GP30, and a blue & white BNSF rush job.

The BNSF depot here is amazing, completely different architecture. It is a very distinctive style, in fact the architec...

Day 12 – Spearfish, SD to Aberdeen, SD

I had one thing in mind for this day: to catch some DM&E locos. DM&E stands for the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad, and they along with the IC&E (Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad) have a beautiful blue and gold paint scheme, on classic SD40-2 locos. I was doing a little research though and saw mention of the "Mount Rushmore State", which jogged a memory of mine; something about Mt Rushmore being in the most unlikely of places, somewhere like South Dakota. 30 seconds later and I discovered I was less than an hour away from that most famous of monuments! Wow!

Spearfish, South Dakota. I think. Nice church anyway.

I hit the road and headed for Rapid City, the end of the DM&E and so hopefully a logical place to find some locos. I was tossing up in my head whether to go to Rushmore or not; it would mean a little less time for train chasing, and it is very touristy, but then it is Mount Rushmore! So spent a while in R...

Day 11: Powder River Basin

Well it's currently -21°C here in Billings Montana, but this story is about the Powder River Basin, one of the busiest railroad sites in America. I started off from Rawlins by checking out the local rail yard. Was rewarded with 3 trains in as many minutes. This seems to be a refuelling point as the trains would come in, stop for a bit, then continue till the DPU was at the fueling station, stop for a bit, then continue on their way. I saw a train of auto-racks, a grain train, and a local doing some switching.

Passed by the local horse HQ, and on the way out of town there was some very weird and distinctive looking rock faces.

Soon I passing through Casper, WY. A pleasant town, although no railway so no use to me. They had cool street names though: Fox, Otter, Mink, Bobcat and so on. Note, not Fox Rd, but just plain Fox. So your mail would be addressed to: Joe Sixpack, 2 Fox, Casper, WY.

The scenery o...

Day 10: Utah to Wyoming

And so begins a 2000km trip across four states. I'm now so far behind I can hardly remember what I did each day, but I remember for whatever reason peering through the blinds on this morning and seeing the local cop driving rather slowly through the motel car park… bit nosey no? I packed up and hit the road, turning right and heading down the main street of Helper to check if any trains were waiting. Nope. I noticed now that said cop was now following me. I turned down Poplar St to get onto US6 and noticed that the cop also turned down here. Hmm, I thought, I think I can see where this is going. I turned onto US6 planning to head up to the Utah Railway Depot; if nothing else, I would confused him. However the moment I touched the accelerator lights started predictably flashing in my rearview mirror. Sigh. I pulled over and waited for him to come over.

About 20 minutes later he'd finished with me. Sigh. He was friendly enough, I guess, although a little surprised anyo...

Day 9: Soldier Summit Railfanning

Woke up and prepared to move out for a day of railfanning on Soldier Summit. The Pillow Talk motel where I'd been staying had some fairly cryptic advertising on their highway sign, including "Y5", for "wifi". Took me a long time to work that one out.

Went to start he car and saw some amazing frost flakes on the windscreen…

Checked in at Helper but nothing was happening. Checked in at the Utah Railway yards, but again nothing was happening. And there was nothing at the Savage load out when I drove past. But Helper itself was looking quaint as usual:

 

Started driving up the hill, got behind a truck towing a truck towing a truck towing a car… and the car was on a trailer.

On the way up the hill I say the DPU of a westbound manifest, so jumped on the gas and pow...

Day 8: Nevada to Utah

Had a "wee" bit of trouble waking up this time! Still I had to, so I did. Was fairly brisk outside, and the weather seemed to know I was leaving so didn't make much of an effort; was pretty gray and boring outside.

I packed up everything, programmed the GPS and headed off on my way. Down highway 50 I went, through numerous valleys and down endless empty roads. After a while I was crossing the Nevada/Utah border, past the familiar gas station with a motel on one side, and slot machines on the other, and all just a short 77 mile trip from the nearest town in Utah. Amazing thing is, people do come here to play the slots, as every time I've passed, there have been cars outside and people staying there. Wow!

Passed through various small forests, although forests out here have obviously never met forests in other parts of the country; a few trees here and there equals "national forest" in Nevada!

It's a terrible photo, but the skyline in Utah can be pretty interes...

Day 7: The Nevada Northern Railroad (part 3)

Another early start, these 5am wakeups are pretty rough! Headed on down to the railroad and found that our train for the day was already assembled and waiting; no dramatic shed-emerging shots today.

Steve Crise attempted to remake a photo from the original railroad, however the early morning sun and long shadows made this pretty touch. After a while the train headed on down to the end of the yard where the lighting was much nicer.

We did a bunch of shots here, and as it was still pretty early the steam plumes were pretty amazing.

Soon we hopped on our train and headed back up the line for some photos. Curiously, all the photos I like from this location are looking back on the train.

Once again we headed up the li...

Day 6: The Nevada Northern Railroad (part 2)

Extremely early start this time, I was down at the railroad depot at 6am, well before sunrise. Had a quick bite to eat then headed off to the workshop with my tripod and shutter cable.

Wow! What a place! The moment I entered I was stunned; it was full of noise, damp humid warmth, thick with the smell of old oil, dense clouds of smoke wafted and the ceiling lamps cast beautiful cones of light. Inside a plethora of locomotives stood, ranging from beautiful RS3s, to "functional" Baldwin switchers, though to three beautiful steam locos.

 

Our two locos for the day, 40 and 93 were busy being prepared, having been woken at 3am by the crews. It was a bit like one of those thriller movies set in a power plant where every pipe and valve seems to randomly hiss and vent steam.

Day 5: The Nevada Northern Railroad (part 1)

So I come to the first big highlight of my trip: a weekend of intense railfanning on the Nevada Northern Railroad. I've been here once before and was a little underwhelmed… let me tell you know, I have completely changed my tune! This railroad is simply amazing! Lets start at the start.

I arrived at the depot, just around the corner from my motel and checked in. I got my "Michael Adam" name badge (kiwi accents and long distance skype calls do not work well together) and signed a waiver and then I was free to go anywhere I wanted on the railroad.

I wandered around a bit and introduced myself to other camera-toting, suspicious looking characters. Here is our train:

For those who aren't aware, this loco is a little bit special. First off, it obviously isn't a steam loco. Second, it's an Alco RS3. I guess I need to explain. Alco was once one of the great loco builders (Alco = The American Locomotive Company) but nev...