Friday, June 07, 2013

Action in Downtown Fargo

After my little reconnaissance mission in Fargo, I was able to head out for a few hours in the morning of May 12 to see some trains. I got up at pretty much the crack of dawn and left the hotel (the Hilton Garden Inn, a very nice place) to head downtown. I saw the grand Northern Pacific depot and decided to take some photos there. As you can see, the shadows on the caboose and display train were a bit long at 06:50!
Caboose in Fargo

Apparently this caboose was Great Northern X227. It used to have a Great Northern logo on it but not at this time.

I heard some train horns so I decided to try to get a shot of a train with the depot in the background. Soon I saw an eastbound freight approaching, but it stopped by McDonald's and waited.
BNSF 6222 in Fargo

The reason became obvious when a fast westbound intermodal came around the corner. This baby had five engines on the head end, led by Dash-9 BNSF 5122.
BNSF 5122 in Fargo

Within five minutes, the train was gone and BNSF 6222 was on its way.
BNSF 6222 in Fargo

BNSF 9071 was pushing on the rear of the coal train.
BNSF 9071 in Fargo

After those two trains passed, I wandered around the depot, taking a few photos.

Soon enough another train came rolling in, only to stop by the McDonald's.
BNSF 4920 in Fargo

Note the trailers on this intermodal train.

The BNSF Twin Cities division headquarters is right there too, and it looks like they did a crew change.
BNSF in Fargo

Soon enough, BNSF 4920 was on its way past the depot.
BNSF 4920 in Fargo

Here's a shot of a couple of UPS trailers of differing sizes.
UPS trailers on a BNSF train in Fargo

Trailers on flat cars (TOFC) are quite common on BNSF through Fargo, whereas they are a rarity in Canada with only a few holdouts like the Hudson Bay Railway between Thompson and Churchill. I think CN and CP consciously got out of the trailer business several years ago, although blog partner Trackside Treasure notes they were in the business for several decades. I photographed UPS, FedEx, TIP Intermodal, Roadway, YRC Worldwide, Clipper, HMD, and Alliance Shippers trailers.

All of that action took place in less than an hour. After those three trains, I headed east into Minnesota to the Dilworth yard to see what was up..

Read on!

1 comment:

Eric said...

Those BNSF boys like them some Mickey D's do they, Steve? Perhaps it's just a convenient stopping place. Thanks for sharing,
Eric