ICE 100250, Derailed. Albert Lea, MN
The day's plan was to find a ICE plow train that was rumored to be heading towards Albert Lea. We departed the Twin Cities under beautiful sunny skies, cursing the meteorologists for botching the forecast - "mostly cloudy my [you-know-what]!"
Chatter on the scanner indicated that there was equipment between Owatonna and Byron, so we made a quick U-turn and backtracked a bit. After confirming something had recently cleared the line heading east (snow pushed into the road at a crossing gave it away), we high-tailed it along the right-of-way, looking for our prey, and thanking our good fortune - clear skies *and* snow fighting equipment!
After checking another grade crossing, we realized we had overshot our target. We started backtracking along the line again, until we saw a headlight in the distance. We turned around again, and setup for a lovely shot on a bridge...
After about ten minutes, we realized something was fishy. After a brief drive, we approached the stationary headlight on the horizon.
"Hey," John said, "where's the power?"
"Oh Lord, that's not self-propelled, is it?"
Yes... it was self propelled. The Jordan Spreader we had been expecting turned out to be some dinky little MoW snow jet/blower that had an awkwardly ginormous wedge mounded on the back of it. A cursory glance revealed two things: one, it clearly wasn't capable of producing the large drift bursting display we were hoping for, and two, it was stuck in the snowbank next to a private grade crossing and wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. We gave up on it, and resumed our course towards Albert Lea.
We got to town and were happy to see snow covered tracks - excellent, we hadn't missed the plow. We started heading east, again, looking for our train.
As we continued east, we noticed the sky was starting to cloud up... perhaps the weather guy had been onto something. No worries though, we noted the posted speed for the line was 40 MPH, which almost certainly meant our plow train could easily hit the 20+ needed for a nice dramatic drift bursting explosions of snow.
We stumbled across the train fairly quickly. Unfortunately it wasn't the spreader I was hoping for, it was going about 2 MPH instead of 20, and the light was getting worse and worse. To add insult to injury, the leading power was an old DME patch job, dashing John's pure consist fantasies. No matter, the situation was still salvageable - there was neat interlocking tower at Albert Lea - we could just follow the train back there and make the best of the situation. We got a couple of shots around Hayward, and boogied back towards Albert Lea.
Ignoring the pulsating bladder pain induced by the Diet Mountain Dew I had consumed on our ever lengthening drive, we passed a heavenly looking truck stop and got into position at the interlocking tower.
After waiting a bit, we figured that the plow was continuing at its leisurely 2 MPH pace, and that we probably had time to make a pit stop. After taking care of business, we went back to the interlocking tower and waited some more.
We eventually realized that something must have been amiss. We headed east again, and quickly discovered the problem... ice packed flangeways at a grade crossing had gotten the best of ICE 100250, and derailed it just beyond the street. Once again, the fierce roads of Minnesota had thwarted our ability to pursue snow fighting on the IC&E.
ICE 100250, Derailed. Albert Lea, MN
The day's plan was to find a ICE plow train that was rumored to be heading towards Albert Lea. We departed the Twin Cities under beautiful sunny skies, cursing the meteorologists for botching the forecast - "mostly cloudy my [you-know-what]!"
Chatter on the scanner indicated that there was equipment between Owatonna and Byron, so we made a quick U-turn and backtracked a bit. After confirming something had recently cleared the line heading east (snow pushed into the road at a crossing gave it away), we high-tailed it along the right-of-way, looking for our prey, and thanking our good fortune - clear skies *and* snow fighting equipment!
After checking another grade crossing, we realized we had overshot our target. We started backtracking along the line again, until we saw a headlight in the distance. We turned around again, and setup for a lovely shot on a bridge...
After about ten minutes, we realized something was fishy. After a brief drive, we approached the stationary headlight on the horizon.
"Hey," John said, "where's the power?"
"Oh Lord, that's not self-propelled, is it?"
Yes... it was self propelled. The Jordan Spreader we had been expecting turned out to be some dinky little MoW snow jet/blower that had an awkwardly ginormous wedge mounded on the back of it. A cursory glance revealed two things: one, it clearly wasn't capable of producing the large drift bursting display we were hoping for, and two, it was stuck in the snowbank next to a private grade crossing and wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. We gave up on it, and resumed our course towards Albert Lea.
We got to town and were happy to see snow covered tracks - excellent, we hadn't missed the plow. We started heading east, again, looking for our train.
As we continued east, we noticed the sky was starting to cloud up... perhaps the weather guy had been onto something. No worries though, we noted the posted speed for the line was 40 MPH, which almost certainly meant our plow train could easily hit the 20+ needed for a nice dramatic drift bursting explosions of snow.
We stumbled across the train fairly quickly. Unfortunately it wasn't the spreader I was hoping for, it was going about 2 MPH instead of 20, and the light was getting worse and worse. To add insult to injury, the leading power was an old DME patch job, dashing John's pure consist fantasies. No matter, the situation was still salvageable - there was neat interlocking tower at Albert Lea - we could just follow the train back there and make the best of the situation. We got a couple of shots around Hayward, and boogied back towards Albert Lea.
Ignoring the pulsating bladder pain induced by the Diet Mountain Dew I had consumed on our ever lengthening drive, we passed a heavenly looking truck stop and got into position at the interlocking tower.
After waiting a bit, we figured that the plow was continuing at its leisurely 2 MPH pace, and that we probably had time to make a pit stop. After taking care of business, we went back to the interlocking tower and waited some more.
We eventually realized that something must have been amiss. We headed east again, and quickly discovered the problem... ice packed flangeways at a grade crossing had gotten the best of ICE 100250, and derailed it just beyond the street. Once again, the fierce roads of Minnesota had thwarted our ability to pursue snow fighting on the IC&E.