Noah Bolte
Snaking
KCS 4845 leads CPKC train 2K53 (2nd section of K53, Marquette, IA - La Crescent, MN turn) heads southbound through Lansing, IA with a healthy sized train from La Crescent bound for Marquette. Hours later, this crew would make a second run (that we knew of) back to La Crescent for even more traffic. It kind of seemed like it was handling traffic that'd normally get tacked onto 260/261, but those trains seem to be up to greater things, with them being resymbolled to 280/281 and going all the way to Sanchez Yard in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, just across the border from Laredo, TX.
I've always sort of struggled to make this particular angle work because I'm not a huge fan of the cars abruptly ending on the right side of the frame with no natural break between the edge of the photo and the cars- a build or a few trees right there would solve that issue, or maybe if I stopped being so picky the issue would be nonexistent, who knows? I'm not giving up on getting the perfect shot at this location, but I think for now, I did alright. Side note, I keep thinking the singular cloud right above the locomotive looks a dust spec on the sensor, and I'm ashamed to admit how many times I've been fooled by it when looking at this picture.
Taken on the CPKC Marquette Subdivision south of Lansing, IA on 8/23/25.
Snaking
KCS 4845 leads CPKC train 2K53 (2nd section of K53, Marquette, IA - La Crescent, MN turn) heads southbound through Lansing, IA with a healthy sized train from La Crescent bound for Marquette. Hours later, this crew would make a second run (that we knew of) back to La Crescent for even more traffic. It kind of seemed like it was handling traffic that'd normally get tacked onto 260/261, but those trains seem to be up to greater things, with them being resymbolled to 280/281 and going all the way to Sanchez Yard in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, just across the border from Laredo, TX.
I've always sort of struggled to make this particular angle work because I'm not a huge fan of the cars abruptly ending on the right side of the frame with no natural break between the edge of the photo and the cars- a build or a few trees right there would solve that issue, or maybe if I stopped being so picky the issue would be nonexistent, who knows? I'm not giving up on getting the perfect shot at this location, but I think for now, I did alright. Side note, I keep thinking the singular cloud right above the locomotive looks a dust spec on the sensor, and I'm ashamed to admit how many times I've been fooled by it when looking at this picture.
Taken on the CPKC Marquette Subdivision south of Lansing, IA on 8/23/25.