The Royce Files

Fargo Main Ave- Block6 My mostly Finnish wife painted the above picture in oil and few years ago. It is of the eastern portion of block 6 on Main Avenue just across from the NP depot. Businesses at time of painting from left to right- Babb's Coffee, Rhombus Guys, Harvest Community Church, and Kittsona. Today I think Kittsona has absorbed the space that was the church.

West of of Dilworth yard  a few miles, the BNSF mainline makes its way into Moorhead and then over the Red River into Fargo. I captured these somewhat boring shots of grain hoppers off of US 10 not far from Moorhead High School on a frigid afternoon. They were sitting still but there was an approaching train heading west on the adjacent track.    Going west just about a mile you encounter a large junction referred to as Moorhead Junction.  Dilworth was a former Northern Pacific yard on the Staples sub-division of the St Paul division. It was also the point where the Fargo division began. I seem to recall that unit trains of coal from the Powder River basin were routed over these lines. It was in an article from an old Trains magazine I had lying around.