Recent VIA's

Over the past few weeks I've been able to shoot a few VIA's mostly the eastbound Canadians. The first one is VIA 2 at the Kenaston overpass on Sunday July 31,

An interesting thing about this one is that it had a Coors light Silver bullet unit leading

The next VIA was Tuesdays eastbound Canadian this one was completely normal with no deadheads or wrapped units

The hard thing about shooting this train was that the sun was really bright.

The next VIA was "The Hudson Bay" at  16:06 on Aug 6 at the Kenaston overpass

This is the best shot I've ever gotten of this train

The next VIA was The eastbound Canadian on Sunday Aug 7 at 19:57

 The trailing unit was Loto Quebec

The next one is The Westbound Canadian on Saturday Aug 13 I hadn't seen The westbound for awhile so I really wanted to shoot it

The next day we went out to shoot VIA 693 leaving Winnipeg.

I kind of messed up on the shot because the engineer gave a horn blast which shocked me.

Then finally The Eastbound Canadian

Well that was nice to catch all those Via's

BNSF Staples sub July 19-22 part 2

On July 21 we headed out to shoot some more trains on The Staples sub around St Cloud.First we went to Minnesota road 301,I waited awhile and the signal turned green then a short eastbound coal train pulled a few cars past me,

Then we decided to head out,but just as we were crossing the tracks I saw a Westbound approaching.There was little time to set up and I wanted to get a picture an video so I put my video camera on my car and get the shot.

This was nice because I never see the blue and yellow Santa Fe locos that much anymore.Then when we were driving we saw a westbound empty coal train from Becker so we pulled into the driveway of a cement factory to shoot it.

Then after that we saw nothing and headed back to the house.Well that was a good day shooting trains

BNSF Staples sub July 19-22 part 1

From July 19-22 we were in Minnesota again but this time in The Central part around ST Cloud. On the first day we were busy doing other things so we could only go in the evening. When we went we saw an eastbound stopped on the far track ,Then we went to a country road and another eastbound showed up,

                   

Then after a little while later we went to Minnesota road 301 and shot an eastbound coal train  headed to The Becker Power Plant

Well two good trains for the start of our trip.

Stupid idiots

Well what else can I say this is the most dangerous thing involving railways on Youtube

These kids are ruining the fun of rail fanning and I bet are making the train crew really scared and nervous.I bet the engineer called railway police on them.I hope they got in trouble with law enforcement or got charged. Also read the comments this video has.

BNSF's Staples sub part 3 with a CP bonus

On July 7 we had our last filming day in Detroit Lakes and along The Staples sub. The first train we caught was a southbound CP train near Callaway,we first spotted it in our car along highway 59 and I took a grab shot

Then we set up on county road 260 to shoot it,it was going a bit fast so I didn't have enough time and had to set up quickly, heres the shot

I also saw a BNSF high rail truck

Then we headed to Verndale waited awhile then decided to head back. But just as we got to Wadena an eastbound showed up we chased it back to Verndale and was able to shoot it,

The sot turned out good with the Verdale sign.

After that a westbound intermodal went through

Then an eastbound coal train came through,probably bound for The Becker Power Plant in Becker Minnesota,

It also had a DPU unit on the tail end

Then the next train caught me by surprise,a westbound tank train,

One thing interesting about these long tank trains is that they each have one hopper car at the front behind the loco's and at the back, I think thats to protect the dangerous cargo.

BNSF's Staples sub part 2

On July 6 we headed to the staples sub to do more train filming. I stayed at The Amtrak depot in Detroit Lakes for awhile and nothing came.We then decided to head to the east. We eventually saw nothing but then I saw headlights so we pulled into county road 9 when a BNSF train rolled by

 9141 was in the lead

It also had BNSF 9831 as a DPU

As you can hear in the video the loco had a strange sounding horn.

After that something different showed up,a CSX train

It had something I've never seen,blinking ditch lights

Then a BNSF intermodal

After that we headed to Verndale along the way we saw a tank train

Once we got to Verndale an eastbound intermodal showed up

This train was going really fast probably about 50 or 60 KPH

then we headed back to Detroit Lakes their I caught to trains.First an eastbound mixed freight

 Then the westbound intermodal

Well that was another good day of filming trains on the Staples sub.

Minnesota-BNSF Staples subdivision part 1 with CP

Last tuesday we went for a three day trip to Minnesota to shoot parts of BNSF's Staples sub from Detroit Lakes To Staples.After we checked into our hotel we headed to the amtrak station in Detroit Lakes. At around 17:35 I heard horn blasts to the west and then soon enough a BNSF came through pulling a medium sized train. Here it is about a hundred or more feet away

 Heres the Official head end shot.

After that we headed east I then shot another eastbound at 18:20 near the edge of town, Heres a shot of it rounding the bend

This train was going a bit slower I think about 20 to40 MPH

Next we went to the west side I kept hearing train horns coming from the CP so we went to the CP tracks south of the city there we got two CP's .First the Northbound

 Then Southbound intermodal

Well that was a nice first day of filming trains in Minnesota.