Railfanning Along the NSM| 1/13&14/2024

A few months after my last visit along the NSM I wanted to see them operate in the winter. While it was cool to see them in the snow, the weekend I picked for this trip was likely the coldest weekend of the year making for tough shooting conditions and trying to make sure my phone stayed alive while recording.
We start off the Saturday at Toimi, still inexperienced with NSM’s operates I was thinking an afternoon eastbound would show up but to my surprise a headlight was coming from the east. Westbound empties heading back to Babbitt with the 672 leading. I bailed after that knowing there wouldn’t be another train for a significant amount of time.
The next day, I got out early trying to catch the eastbound loads. 90 minutes of waiting I was finally rewarded with a headlight coming from the west. I easily beat them to the McNair bridge as they made their way to Silver Bay. I didn’t record the final runby at Silver Bay but it was 10am. I waited around at Silver Bay for the westbound to go back empty but unfortunately driving around I got stuck in the snow and it took a while for a tow truck to come by and I missed the empties but fortunately I had a chance at beating him to Toimi for one last runby in the sun but the wind was so strong it blew the tripod over as the train was approaching. After all that, I had enough of NSM. I’ll be back in summer, as long as this railroad is still active.

[@BNSF1458]

Wow that P5 in the cold sounded impressive. Good stuff!
2:59 truly the moment of all time

[@MinnesotaRailProductions]

Super cool! I’ve gotta go see this some time . How often do they run? And where is the best spot to catch them at?

[@ahtrains]

Nelson Road at Toimi is the best place to wait, hardly anyone uses that road. They only run 1 train a day per direction. Eastbound in the morning and westbound in the early afternoon. Chasing is very easy once you find the train. Silver Bay also has a few nice shots and they also have what they call a tailings train which does a 7 mile trip around silver bay multiple times a day with the usual pair of SD40-3s.

[@GEVOlutionCPKC]

🆒 Lashup!!✓