WCfan
Reverse Curve
LTWI661 twists through the reverse curve just east of De Graf, Minnesota on the former Great Northern main, now BNSF Morris Subdivision. Acting as the de facto caboose is a scale test car seen on the left; something of a rarity in 2025 now. 661 was a Wilmar-Aberdeen local that took the GN main to Benson. From there, they would hop on GN's branch to Watertown, continuing west to Appleton where, they would hop on the former Milwaukee Road transcon for the rest of the trip to Aberdeen. BNSF has combined the Benson-Appleton part of the GN Watertown branch with the Milwaukee Appleton-Aberdeen main and this whole line is now known as the Appleton Subdivision. The well powered local will need every horse they can get to lug heavy stone loads up the eastern flank of the Coteau des Prairies; 13.5 miles of 1% grade starting near Twin Brooks at MP618.5 and ending east of Summit at MP632.
This was my first little taste of the Minnesota-Dakota tristate area. Back then I was fascinated by BNSF's Watertown local. At the time they were using sets of geeps and usually had large trains making 2 trips a week. So our initial goal was shooting them west of Appleton. However, a TCWR west end job with four CAT motors parked in town peaked our interest. We had heard they would have a 1500 crew to head west. But as the sun set lower to the horizon it was becoming more clear that would not be the case. Also concerning was that the Watertown local hadn't shown up yet.
Instead of waiting, we hightailed it to Willmar, finding the place in a meltdown mode that was typical of the oil-boom era. LTWI661 got kicked out first, so we chased them towards Benson before doubling back to shoot LTWI675, the Watertown job, until the sun set into developing tunderstorms. It wasn't what we wanted but at least we got some shots.
We still wanted those 4 CATs on the TCWR west end job. So we camped in our car by Appleton's water treatment plant while severe thunderstorms popped off to the north and south of us all night. It was a miserable muggy night "sleeping" in a puddle of sweat. I was awoken at 0330 the next morning by the sound of 4 CATs beginning their trek west to Milbank. This would occupy us the rest of the morning. I'm glad it worked out but that would be THE LAST time I would ever sleep in my car.
It's really funny looking back now with the perspective of hindsight. The 2731 was a neat geep with the large Wagon Wheel. But back in the day we thought the RV camper air conditioners looked ridiculous. Man...if only I knew what BNSF was capable of only 5 or 10 years later.
Reverse Curve
LTWI661 twists through the reverse curve just east of De Graf, Minnesota on the former Great Northern main, now BNSF Morris Subdivision. Acting as the de facto caboose is a scale test car seen on the left; something of a rarity in 2025 now. 661 was a Wilmar-Aberdeen local that took the GN main to Benson. From there, they would hop on GN's branch to Watertown, continuing west to Appleton where, they would hop on the former Milwaukee Road transcon for the rest of the trip to Aberdeen. BNSF has combined the Benson-Appleton part of the GN Watertown branch with the Milwaukee Appleton-Aberdeen main and this whole line is now known as the Appleton Subdivision. The well powered local will need every horse they can get to lug heavy stone loads up the eastern flank of the Coteau des Prairies; 13.5 miles of 1% grade starting near Twin Brooks at MP618.5 and ending east of Summit at MP632.
This was my first little taste of the Minnesota-Dakota tristate area. Back then I was fascinated by BNSF's Watertown local. At the time they were using sets of geeps and usually had large trains making 2 trips a week. So our initial goal was shooting them west of Appleton. However, a TCWR west end job with four CAT motors parked in town peaked our interest. We had heard they would have a 1500 crew to head west. But as the sun set lower to the horizon it was becoming more clear that would not be the case. Also concerning was that the Watertown local hadn't shown up yet.
Instead of waiting, we hightailed it to Willmar, finding the place in a meltdown mode that was typical of the oil-boom era. LTWI661 got kicked out first, so we chased them towards Benson before doubling back to shoot LTWI675, the Watertown job, until the sun set into developing tunderstorms. It wasn't what we wanted but at least we got some shots.
We still wanted those 4 CATs on the TCWR west end job. So we camped in our car by Appleton's water treatment plant while severe thunderstorms popped off to the north and south of us all night. It was a miserable muggy night "sleeping" in a puddle of sweat. I was awoken at 0330 the next morning by the sound of 4 CATs beginning their trek west to Milbank. This would occupy us the rest of the morning. I'm glad it worked out but that would be THE LAST time I would ever sleep in my car.
It's really funny looking back now with the perspective of hindsight. The 2731 was a neat geep with the large Wagon Wheel. But back in the day we thought the RV camper air conditioners looked ridiculous. Man...if only I knew what BNSF was capable of only 5 or 10 years later.