The Royce Files

  BNSF 87 carries the name Skagit River and has been a track measurement car from at least since 2006. I found it in Fargo on cool late winter afternoon sitting on the mainline (former Northern Pacific) about a quarter mile from Dakota division HQ. These tracks parallel Main Ave through Fargo on the north side of the road. This car is former a Southern Pacific bi level commuter coach 3702 built in 1955 by Pullman. In 1985 this coach along with a few of its 'brothers' in the low 3700 series of bi-levels were sold to excursion line Transcisco Tours . 3702 was renamed Donner Lake for their Sierra 49er Express. Transcisco Tours did not do well financially.  In the early 1990s Burlington Northern grabbed up a handful of these bilevel cars from Transcisco to rebuild and put into their business fleet. As this point 3702 was renamed Skagit River, given the number  BNA 33  and painted in Burlington Northern business livery. It took on the aluminum look following the BNSF merg...

I found some additional photos of the BNSF 1885, a SD40-2 with a snoot nose that plies the yard in Fargo and occassional pulls a train west and visits Northtown Yard. That distinctive snoot and blueboonet  freightbonnet* Santa Fe scheme makes it easy to spot. I think I took these from Great Northern Drive near the throat of the yard.  Formerly SF 5121 and then BNSF 6805 after the merge. Built in November  1979 with builder number  786223-7. On the Santa Fe this engine saw time out west in California then made its way to the Midwest in the early 2000s and then to Minnesota and North Dakota around 2010. Sometime between spring 2019 and Fall of 2021, the BNSF 1885 was repainted in what looks like the H4 scheme (see here  BNSF 1885 in Oct 2021 ). Looks like they added an air conditioning unit or two too. From the angle of the photo I cannot tell if they reduced the nose size as well. *It came to my attention that bluebonnet was a color scheme only on passenger engin...

Hustle Muscle GN 400 Wow. I cannot believe it has been over a year since the last post. And double wow, what a year it has been and now continues to be -except for all the masks. But now for the trains. Last year Fargo hosted the Great Northern Historical Society's annual convention. The organization brought their prized asset Hustle Muscle GN 400, the first SD45 produced by EMD. Some major maintenance was completed on the historic SD45 in February 2019. From what I recall it needed a new diesel engine. I believe it was thought Hustle Muscle might have been out of service for quite some time. Then BNSF stepped up with some shop help to get the engine back in service. Like many of the 1st and 2nd generation diesels, Hustle Muscle's cab is pretty spartan:a control panel, brake and a throttle. Yes there is also a horn and a seat. I don't recall seeing the bathroom. But then there is also this control panel on the rear of the cab. Rear Control Panel in Hustle ...

I passed through the old Fargo Great Northern yard en route to marathon activities and noticed a blue big nosed diesel with Santa Fe markings intact and a patched number 1885. According to online sources the 1885 is a SD40-2. 2 different SD40-2s It is working in with another SD40-2 in the H3 paint without a long nose. 1788 had been in the Burlington Northern colors up to around 2016 when it got new paint.  Both these engines have seen local service in the Fargo region going back and forth from the Fargo Yard to Dilworth and occasionally out to Jamestown on the former Northern Pacific line. Previously, both saw time around of the Twin Cities area. 

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.

Fargo is a rail town. A rail town with a former commercially navigable river. Fargo came upon the scene when the Northern Pacific sought out a place to cross that river while forging a northern transcontinental rail link. I have said elsewhere in the blog that Fargo was served by 3 railroads- Northern Pacific, Great Northern, and Milwaukee Road. It lessened to 2 in 1970 with the merger that created the Burlington Northern. And then just 1 in the 1980s when Milwaukee Road finally gave up the ghost and the abandoned the branch line that went right by my house and workplace. Northern Pacific's and Great Northern's main lines cut through downtown on their way west. The GN's mainline veered northwest as it exited the edge of downtown. They main yard was placed out there a little south and west of NDSU. It is still in use by BNSF, although not quite as busy. Below are some photos taken from the 12th Avenue bridge back in May as I was returning from a stint volunteering fo...