Impeccable Timing
The rolling conveyor belt that is Northshore Mining's ore trains are pretty easy to catch, since they run more or less to a schedule. The morning train gets on duty around 0500. Add in about a ~1.5 hour trip to the highway 11 bridge, and it's easy chasing all the way to Silver Bay.
After catching the 0500 train returning to the mine in Babbitt for another load, I decided to kill some time on CN's Iron Range Sub, where luckily, a southbound ore train for Two Harbors was in the vicinity. Once I finished chasing him to Fairbanks, I hustled back to the bridge to wait on the 1130 train. Though NSM has a radio channel to listen too, for some reason, I was unable to pick up any transmissions, apart from chirps from their EOT's. That was all I needed to know it was on the way. About 20-30 seconds after arriving at the bridge, a distant headlight alerted me to the presence of the oncoming ore train, lead by 672.
What's better than catching a train? Not having to wait for one.
Impeccable Timing
The rolling conveyor belt that is Northshore Mining's ore trains are pretty easy to catch, since they run more or less to a schedule. The morning train gets on duty around 0500. Add in about a ~1.5 hour trip to the highway 11 bridge, and it's easy chasing all the way to Silver Bay.
After catching the 0500 train returning to the mine in Babbitt for another load, I decided to kill some time on CN's Iron Range Sub, where luckily, a southbound ore train for Two Harbors was in the vicinity. Once I finished chasing him to Fairbanks, I hustled back to the bridge to wait on the 1130 train. Though NSM has a radio channel to listen too, for some reason, I was unable to pick up any transmissions, apart from chirps from their EOT's. That was all I needed to know it was on the way. About 20-30 seconds after arriving at the bridge, a distant headlight alerted me to the presence of the oncoming ore train, lead by 672.
What's better than catching a train? Not having to wait for one.