BNSF in Grand Forks, Round 2

Continued from part 1. We stayed in Grand Forks until noon on Monday. I woke up before sunrise and headed out to see what I could shoot in the few hours allotted to me. Railfanning involves a lot of negotiation at times!

BNSF 2271 and 2327 were sitting at the west end of the yard with a mixed train in tow. Soon a train headed by BNSF 9147 and BNSF 9138 pulled up beside them. I think they were arriving from the east, because I saw those two units later by the roundhouse.


At the time I thought 9147 was going to head out, so I relocated to the wye just west of US 29. I didn't know whether they would take the wye track to go south or go straight west. I had a lot of indecision, but eventually parked at Amtrak and resolved to wait and see. Soon I heard a horn blowing for crossings, and ran over to see that the train was taking the wye. I hastily planted my tripod (with the Canon S3 on it for video) and grabbed a few shots with my T1i. The problem was that I still had the long lens on it so I couldn't get any wide angle shots.

BNSF 2086 (GP38-2) and BNSF 3207 (GP50) took a train south to Fargo.


I soon heard more horns, and BNSF 9840 (SD70MAC), BNSF 6396 (ES44AC), and BNSF 6065 (ES44AC) took a long empty coal train south to Fargo. I didn't get any video of this, alas.



I went to the east end of the yard and found quite a few units parked near the roundhouse. BNSF 3126 was still parked in the same place I saw it the day before, but this time it was joined by BNSF 2256 (GP38-2).


BNSF 8178 and 8154, both SD60M engines in Burlington Northern green, were visible in the back.


BNSF 4106 and 4191, also seen the day before, were parked but looking like they were getting ready to go.

Other units visible were BNSF 5639 (AC4400CW), BNSF 6205 (SD39), BNSF 5256 (Dash 9-44CW) and BNSF 8225 (SD75M). Off in the distance I saw two small switcher units switching, BNSF 3703 and xx34. 3703 is an MP15, definitely the first of that type I've seen.

After cataloging the units visible, I headed north on Washington Street to see if I could find some grain elevators. I did... and a few industrial units too!

(back to part 1)

Grand Forks Sightings

We were in Grand Forks, North Dakota for a quick shopping trip to the good ol' USA. I managed to finagle a bit of train-watching time and spent it around the BNSF yard in town. When I first arrived, little switcher BNSF 3429 (SW1500) was working the west end of the yard but I was unable to get a photo of it.

I went to the east end of the yard where the turntable is. I parked my van and walked across Demers Avenue to get some shots from the sidewalk. BNSF 1745 (SD9) was working the east end but wasn't really in a good photo spot. BNSF 3126 was posed quite prettily, though.

BNSF 3126 is a GP50, built in August 1985 for the Burlington Northern. I found a photo of 3126 with BNSF 2886. You may recall that 2886 was a resident of Winnipeg for less than a month from late September to mid October 2009. This might be the first time I've seen a GP50.

Also parked in the yard were BNSF 4191 and 4106, both Dash-9s, unfortunately not in a great position to be photographed.


BNSF 2327 and 2271 (both GP38-2s) were also parked near the "roundhouse", and 2327 was in a nice spot for a photo.


After taking all the roster photos I could, I went for a drive west to see if I could find any trains there. No luck, but I did find a BNSF truck getting off the rails at Emerado, so that pretty much guaranteed no trains for a while. On my return to Grand Forks, as I approached the Amtrak station on the west side of town, I saw a coal train coming north from Fargo. I parked just east of the wye and shot BNSF 8880 and 9354 coming into Grand Forks with a loaded coal train.

BNSF 8880 is an SD70MAC and BNSF 9354 is an SD70ACe, both quite modern engines.

That was the end of my railfanning for Sunday. Not a bad haul!

Remember you can click on most photos for a larger version, and the complete list of units shot can be found in my railway sightings database.

On to part 2