Western Railroad Discussion > Kwik Trip to Support a Friend

I did spell "Kwik" intentionally - more on that later. A familiar name to TO, "rrartist", lost his mother to cancer last week. Although I never met Rose personally, I wanted to support Jim so I made a quick trip to Kwik Trip country. (Kwik Trip is an amazing c-store chain based in La Crosse, WI. Their headquesters is adjacent to the Grand Crossing and their main office is directly across the street from the BNSF North La Crosse Terminal. Their stores are immaculate, well oragnized[not cluttered with merchandise] and staffed with really friendly people. They have their own bakery and dairy as well. Wish they were every where.)

I departed Bismarck on Sunday after work and headed east. The funeral was at 11 am Monday so my plan was to get beyond the Twin Cities and go on into La Crosse Monday morning. A wise person would jump on I-94 and get there, but not I as I followed old US 10 as much as possible to follow the BNSF Jamestown Sub which amounts to about 50% of the distance between Bismarck and KO Junction. I saw seven westbounds. Six were parked at Pierce, Driscoll, Steele, Medina, Windsor and Koldak. The one moving was a vehicle train I saw near Crystal Springs Lake, believed to be the V-DILPTS. I didn't/couldn't shoot any of these trains because they were far from the highway. I did stop by the Spiritwood Station to shoot a close up of a unique covered coal hopper that runs on shuttle trains between the Falkirk mine and Spiritwood.

As I approached KO Jct., a headlight was approaching from the east which dictated a stop at KO Jct. After that I jumped on I-94. Now it's 4 pm and it's 4.5 hours to St. Paul via I-94, the wiser choice due to the time of the day. But I-94 is not the way to see trains. So I go via US-10 and limped-in to  Prescott, WI at 9 pm. Along the way I ran into (1) heavy traffic returning to the Twin Cities after a weekend at the lake (one of 11,842) and heavy rain showers. I checked ATCS at Prescott and saw that the DS had a westbound lined across the St. Croix River bridge. It was raining a getting very dark.

Then I headed on to Red Wing, MN for the night, thankfull arriving safely at 10:30 pm. The next morning I departed Red Wing with plenty of time to shoot some CP trains along the way. However I hadn't "padded" my schedule for road contruction so no time to shoot trains this morning. Rose's funeral was very nice. She accomplished much in life on this earth, not the least of which was giving birth to Jim. I look forward to meeting her someday. I know I will - if you wonder how I am so sure, send me a PM and I'll explain. I had a good visit with Jim after the service and also got to see my dear friend quakerengr. Departing La Crosse I could now stop and shoot any trains that I might come across. However not much was running on the CP River Sub.

After slugging my way through the Twin Cities evening rush hour, I headed west on Minnesota Hwy 55, which follows the CP Minnesota Sub. This was a very scenic route with little traffic west of Rockford. I overnighted at the CP terminal of Glenwood. Tuesday morning didn't produce much train activity.After a quick stop at Breckenridge toshoot the RRV&W, it was back home ASAP. Thanks for coming along on this journey.

BB

1. Covered coal hopper at Spiritwood Station. I couldn't get this shot in April as the access road to trackside too muddy.
2. BNSF 6844 west leads the D-SPISAS throungh KO Junction. The tracks in the foreground are the Jamestown Sub.
3. East of Little Falls, in moderate rain, dashcam video of a westbound stack train, believed to be the S-CHIWEN

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/19 06:31 by bmarti7.

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4. At Prescott, WI, a BNSF westbound approaches the St. Croix River bridge with a sand train (dash cam video)
5. Headlight shines on the bridge operator's tower. You can see the silhouette of the operator's car parked at the tower
6. UP 1041 leads the LTA-41 using trackage rights on the CP River Sub to get to Winona, MN.

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7. Hot CP 198 Train led by the CP 8820 east of South Haven along MN 55
8. CP 8736 west leads a manifest west of Kimball, MN during the golden hour
9. Home is where you make it, but the CP railroaders based in Glenwood, MN are really blessed. Glenwood is located at the north end of Lake Minnewaska. The CP yard is behind me 100 yards.

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10. CP 9820 east pulls to a stop at East Glenwood, arriving from Enderlin, ND.
11. Good looking SD40-2 at Hoffman, MN
12. Junction of CP and BNSF Morris Sub, west of Nashua, MN

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13. This sign is on the BNSF at the Y switch (BNSF east to CP west). I thought the name was odd as there is the BNSF Appleton Sub to Aberdeen, SD that branches off the Morris Sub west of Willmar, MN. However when looking at the BNSF Sub map, it shows a non-BNSF connection from this point to Aberdeen, SD.
14. At Breckenridge, MN the RRVW 2001 rests next to their Jordan Spreader

Thanks for looking

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'Sorry to learn of the passing of Jim's mother.  Good wishes to him and his family.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

Nice series Bill. I'm very sorry to hear about Jim's mother, my prayers are with him and his family.

Larry

Great narrative and visiting with you at the service.  Thanks for sharing these images!!!  The UP 1041 is a newbie on the LTA 41,  hope to see on Thursday.

Pat

Thanks Bill for the series of photos/videos and the nicely composed thread.  Sending our Prayers to Jim and his Family.

SouthWest RailCams
CA, NM, CO, TX, AZ
https://SouthWestRailCams.com

Thank you Bill for the trip, I never expected you or anybody to make the trip! It was very nice to see you and speak with you! Still doing pretty good!

Posted from iPhone

Sending our prayers to Jim and family. Thanks for the trip Bill.

Ed