#train nerdy stuff

[silkyskykitten]

Something I forgot to mention back on my birthday last Saturday is that I actually went to a really rad event at the Minnesota Transportation Museum. My dad, grandfather, and my boyfriend went with me to something called "Railroad Reality Day" which was a neat event where you got to not only take a more in depth tour of the former-Great Northern Jackson Street Roundhouse (which nowadays is the MNTM's main facility) and the repair shops and locomotives and cars they were repairing/restoring, you even got the chance to operate some equipment and drive one of their locomotives. Specifically the ex-Andersen Windows EMD SW1 that they have (an interesting coincidence since I work at the main Andersen plant in Bayport where that thing used to operate). So that was fun as hell, and @kiba-the-nerd-wolf can testify to the fact that I dorkgasmed WAY too hard heh heh. I'd also would have loved to post photos but also they weren't keen on letting us have our phones out due to obvious safety reasons.

The kicker, though, is that technically the event was meant to garner interest in volunteering for the Minnesota Transportation Museum and they were handing out fliers for a training event they're holding in January. And this isn't just, like, volunteering at the museum itself or as a host on their excursion trains over in Osceola, Wisconsin. This includes helping restore and repair their equipment, and even training to serve as a brakeman, a conductor, or even an engineer.

Yes, that means I could totally be properly trained to drive ACTUAL friggin' locomotives and volunteer to drive trains for the Minnesota Transportation Museum.

... if you hear a strange high-pitched noise in the distance, that's probably me fangirl-squeeing at the mere thought of that.

[silkyskykitten]

Is it weird to feel sad when you read about abandoned/shut down railroads?

... no seriously. I actually do get oddly sad when I learn about or read about that kind of thing. I guess I'm just that much of a train-loving weirdo. For example: back last month when @kiba-the-nerd-wolf came to visit, we were driving from Ely, Minnesota down to Two Harbors when we passed over a railroad crossing. The crossing had no gates or the usual railroad crossing signs, just a white unassuming sign that said "TRACKS OUT OF SERVICE". The tracks themselves still remained, but they were clearly overgrown and abandoned as the sign implied. I didn't know exactly what they were for at the time, but I later figured out they were for the LTV Mining Railroad (later Cliff's Erie Mining Railroad for a very short time period). Said railroad once was a line that ran from Hoyt Lakes to the aptly named Taconite Harbor and hailed taconite and iron ore. It was actually a pretty fascinating railroad, since it used Alco and EMD F-Unit locomotives from the 1940's and 50's long after pretty much every other railroad in existence had scrapped those same kind of engines. It also had the longest railroad tunnel in Minnesota. However, due to the mines becoming unprofitable the railroad was shut down in 2001. It was reopened temporarily in the mid-2000's to clean out and fully empty the mines in Hoyt Lakes. But the last train ran over the line in 2008 and it's unlikely that trains will ever run on that trackage ever again. ... and that makes me sad, oddly enough. Especially once I realized that the mysterious railroad crossing with the "TRACKS OUT OF SERVICE" sign I drove over a month ago was once that very railroad. Yeah... I'm weird I know.

[silkyskykitten]

H’okay, preface before impending train photo spam...

Sooo over the weekend my dad got married. And on Sunday as a little after-wedding party-ish thingy I was up in Osceola, Wisconsin with him, my new stepmother, and family and friends of his/his wife’s. Now up in Osceola there’s the “Osceola and St. Croix Valley Railway”, which is a small heritage railroad that runs little excursion trains up and down former Soo Line trackage (now operated by Canadian National) along the St. Croix River. Now what does this have to do with my dad having a after wedding party-ish thing?

Well, my dad being a train nerd himself (gee I wonder where I got that from?), he rented out an entire train car on one of the runs of said excursion train. And thus the little party-ish thing was held in said train car.

So yeah! Got lots of cool photos as a result. And I’mma spam your dashboards with them. SO HOLD ONTO YOUR BUTTS, THERE BE TRAINS A COMIN’.

[silkyskykitten]

So to begin, here's photos of the train car my dad rented out! Specifically former Great Northern car A-11, which was a streamlined lounge/observation/business car that was used on GN's "Empire Builder". As you can see, the thing actually has a little balcony on the back you can go out on. I pretty much was on that balcony for the entire trip.

Also worth noting is that for the initial leg of the trip, the former BNSF/Burlington Northern/Great Northern SDP40 the this little heratige railroad operates pulled the train from the rear. And was hooked to this car, as you can see in the last photo. It was so close I could have touched it.

... yeah. Concealed nerdgasms were had.

[silkyskykitten]

As stated before, on the first leg of the trip the train was pulled from the rear via a former Great Northern/Burlington Northern/BNSF EMD SDP40 that was donated to the Osceola and St. Croix Valley Railway in 2009. GN 325/BN 325/BNSF 6327 (which currently is in Burlington Northern whiteface scheme, although supposedly will be repainted to the Great Northern big sky blue scheme in the future) was hooked onto the car my family was in. And I... well, nerdgasmed way too hard. Obviously. And took far too many pictures while the thing pulled us along.

Also as you can see in the last shots, it eventually was unhooked from the train when it reached the furthest point of the run. The train then continued back to Osceola being pulled by a former Burlington Northern SD9 that was hooked onto the other end, with the SDP40 following us just out of eyesight.

[silkyskykitten]

After the train ride was over, the SDP40 that pulled us initially parked off in a siding along with GN 400 (aka the "Hustle Muscle", a silly nickname given to it due to it being the first production SD45 ever made). That former Great Northern SD45 sadly didn't seem to be seeing any action on that particular day, but ahh well. Still got to get up close to it and take some pictures of both GN 400 as well as BN/GN 325.

So yay for all that. And yay for me being a dork as usual.

(... although technically the first two shots in this set were taken on board the excursion train I was on and not after I got off but whatevs)

[silkyskykitten]

[silkyskykitten]

Took these a few days ago and forgot to upload them. But fun fact: the factory I work at owns their own switcher locomotive. Now 99% of the time it’s sitting in a shed. Hell to be honest I’m not totally sure if they even really use it anymore, seeing as this place stopped shipping out stuff by train decades ago. But a few days ago (and to my pleasant surprise), the thing was sitting outside of its shed for once! So me being the dorky bastard I am I took pictures.

Now believe it or not but even a train nerd like myself has difficulties identifying switcher locomotives. But through some research I found out it’s an EMD NW2 built in the late-1930’s. So the thing is… well, pretty fucking old to say the least. Supposedly (if my research is correct) it was built in 1939 for the Great Northern railroad, originally numbered GN 5303 before being renumbered to BN 451 when the Burlington Northern railroad was formed in the early 70’s and then sold to Andersen Windows in the 80’s. Pretty fascinating if that’s true.

So yeah! Was pretty happy to see it finally.