Western Railroad Discussion > Grand Forks, ND-to-Superior, WI mixed manifest taking long route.

An eastbound (geographically southbound) 140-car (572 total axles) Grand Forks, ND --to-- Superior, WI mixed manifest freight train in a 2x0 power configuration is seen here passing ~MP44.50 on the BNSF Hillsboro Subdivision in the small town of Gardner, ND during the sunny, breezy, and warm noontime hour of 05/20/2023. This is at least the 2nd time in as many days that this particular train (H-GFDSUP) has taken the longer, less direct route by heading along the BNSF Hillsboro Subdivision toward Dilworth, MN and then continuing eastbound from there along the BNSF Staples Subdivision (and onward) instead of taking its normal (shorter, more direct) route, which is due east out of Grand Forks, ND along the BNSF Grand Forks Subdivision onto the BNSF Lakes Subdivision. Any ideas as to why this might be the case recently? Perhaps the train just has cars to setout along this particular route the last few days? Might there be MOW ongoing east of Grand Forks, ND? Any other ideas? Thank you in advance for any information! 

Train symbol: H-GFDSUP

Power:
BNSF #9023 (EMD SD70ACe; built: 10/2013)
BNSF #5505 (GE C44-9W; built: 08/2004)

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I hope this is just a temporary re-route. The Grand Forks-Cass Lake-Superior line seems to be on the decline, I believe the pair of manifests between Grand Forks and Superior operate just once, or on a good week twice, per week. You would think it would be a major grain route...but when I was looking into traffic on the line a few months ago...there just wasn't much at all. I wonder if there is even enough traffic to keep employing train service workers....maybe service is so infrequent that it makes more sense to operate via Staples?  As a long time fan of this line, it is hard to watch its decline.

I enjoyed seeing the Clichfield lettered hopper and the tank car with the BNSF swoosh in that quite long consist.

My "guess" is one of Jake's possibilities. They set-out and pick-up cars in Dilworth and the GF crew can bring back cars from Dilworth to GF (if I understand the rules the GF crew can do the round trip). In theory it would save a crew start out of Dilworth. Note: When I was driving for PTI, I had delivered a deadhead crew from Mandan to Dilworth and then was instructed to wait fro a return deadhead crew west. While waiting at the crew office, a conductor came up to my car thinking I was his ride to Superior. For the record our deadheading greatly increased after the furloughs of 2021. But wait, BNSF has fewer crew starts.

PCBill