St. Paul railfan trip pictures and videos

For those that might be interested, I went railfanning today just outside of downtown St. Paul along the Mississippi river and the bluffs on Childs Road. The spot I camped at for an hour was along several tracks that lead into the humping yard and CP Rail's engine shops. I thought for sure for all these years that the yard was a BN yard, however, the majority of the traffic was SOO and CP Rail.

I went to check out another spot hoping to get some humping footage, however, there was no humping going on, and add to that there were a lot of tall automotive train cars on the foreground track blocking a lot of the view.

4 pages of pictures and videos are posted at the following link:
http://www.boche.net/trains/railfanning_8-13-03_St.Paul/

Included in the pictures and videos are BNSF, Soo Line, CP Rail, Union Pacific, and RRV&W (whatever that is.. never heard of them yet).

I also made another 360 panorama of my railfan spot. As you follow it around, you can see the downton St. Paul skyline in the background as the sun starts to set.

I used Adobe Photoshop to make thumbnails this time. Hopefully that will make your visit a little more enjoyable.

Jas

 

Jason, in your 1523 photo you have the back side of a solar panel to provide power for something. It looks like a second one is behind it and just shows under it. May be to provide power for switch stand lamps but hard to tell.

 

I'm not sure about that, however, speaking of Milw 261, I stumbled on to it's resting place about a month ago while walking up and down the tracks behind one of our buildings at work. The 261 is sitting inside some sort of storage facility. It reminds me of an older style airplane hanger. There are many passenger cars outside the hanger and fenced in along side it. The fenced in cars appear to be in working order. The cars sitting outside the fence appear to be undergoing a restoration process. There are many wheel and truck sets arranged in various spots outside the building. The wheel and trucks appear to be for the passenger cars.

If you want some pictures, I could probably get some of the outside, but I have no access to the inside of the hanger to see the #261 loco.

Jas

 

Yes you are correct, those are solar panels, however, I did not pay attention to what they were powering. You might be right about them powering turnout direction lamps which can be seen coming up out of the ground in various spots like little parascopes.

 

Yes you are correct, those are solar panels, however, I did not pay attention to what they were powering. You might be right about them powering turnout direction lamps which can be seen coming up out of the ground in various spots like little parascopes. </font>[/QUOTE]Well look what picture I stumbled on to coincidentally:

 

Jas, looks like they are cycling the CAT's again. Sometimes the TC&W and RRV&W swap out locos so they can get to the CAT dealer in Minneapolis for work. Normally that pair are based out in Breckenridge along with the last of the GP10's (if still online).
As a sideline, the TC&W is dispatched from RRV&W's offices in Breck.

 

oops

[ 14. August 2003, 13:52: Message edited by: Coaltrain ]

 

261 will be running on a fall trip. The place where 261 is stored is called Minneapolis Junction. At one time the Great Northern owned and operated it. Then it was used by the Chicago and Northwestern. Now it is only used by 261. The fall trip will start at MPLS Jct. and head to Winona and back. I get luck and in the summer they sometimes run a trip to Duluth on a track that runs by my house. I can hear the whistle blowing at the grade crossings and my kids and I run down the street and watch it roll by at track speeds. 261 will be running on a fall trip. The place where 261 is stored is called Minneapolis Junction. At one time the Great Northern owned and operated it. Then it was used by the Chicago and Northwestern. Now it is only used by 261. The fall trip will start at MPLS Jct. and head to Winona and back. I get luck and in the summer they sometimes run a trip to Duluth on a track that runs by my house. I can hear the whistle blowing at the grade crossings and my kids and I run down the street and watch it roll by at track speeds.

I think the area that you were at in St. Paul is CP's Pig's Eye yard (ex-MILW, then SOO LINE). The small yard along side of that yard is the old CGW Belt yard (then CNW, now UP). There is a road that goes between the two yards. The road looks private, but it is not. I used to like to go down that road and park to watch all of the locomotive movements around there. The road goes right next the then SOO engine shops, and there were always all kind of locomotives moving around. There is also a turntable and a wash rack back there. The area on the west side of the yard (the part that ducks under the road and heads back to St. Paul) is known as Hoffman. When I first started to go down there, there was a concrete interlocking tower know as Hoffman Tower.

That area around the Bluffs was a great spot to watch trains. Everything that came into the "cities" had to go through there.

An interesting note: Iain Rice's new track planning book has a track plan to model a small part of this area. His plan is for a spot just a few blocks east of the Bluffs and its focus is the lift bridge that crosses the Mississippi by the old St. Paul union depot.

 

St. Paul yard(Pigs' Eye) Used to be the MILW(south half) and CB&Q(north half) next to each other. It's now SOO-CP/BN.. so you were partly right Jas

Too bad you didn't see where the 261 is stored a few years back. There was a large roundhouse there that burned to the ground one night.. .total bummer.

I also missed when they took down Hoffman tower. ugggghh.. I'm getting all choked up now..