The westbound TC&W Ruebel Turn traverses the flat, featureless farmland between Bird Island and Olivia, MN on the former Milwaukee Road mainline.

The Ruebel Turn is on its way back east after a trip to Sacred Heart to drop off some coal empties and pick up the West End train. Four locomotives and three covered hoppers catch the setting sun... (more)

The Ruebel Turn has brought a cut of empty coal hoppers from the sugar beet plant at Ruebel and is shoving them onto the siding at Sacred Heart. Once the entire train has been emptied and reassem... (more)

A crystal clear morning and a clean EMD SD70ACe leader made the walk up onto the highway 77 viaduct in Fremont worthwhile. When I was attending college here 15 years ago, I was used to seeing nea... (more)

The setting sun cuts through plenty of ice crystals in the air thanks to a fierce northwest wind and subzero windchill values. After dropping a cut of coal empties on the siding at Sacred Heart, ... (more)

Bathed in perfect winter light, the Ruebel Turn has a cut of empty coal hoppers from the sugar beet plant at Ruebel in tow as they head west from Renville toward Sacred Heart.

The Ruebel Turn works the former Lakeland Bean Co. (now owned by ADM) in Olivia on a sunny but cold February day. Their power for the day was a nice looking matched set of Red River Valley & West... (more)

The Twin Cities & Western is still at work at the sugar beet plant near Renville as blizzard conditions slow most everything else in the area to a halt. Groundhog Day doesn't mean much to Minneso... (more)

I was in Florida for some continuing education this week and worked a little railfanning in at Boynton Beach the morning before the conference started. A Tri Rail train shoves north toward West Pa... (more)

A southbound Tri Rail train hurries through Boynton Beach toward Miami on a sunny morning. The next few days would bring lots of rain, so no more pictures of trains, but at least I got a little b... (more)

The Ruebel Turn is working on one of the coldest days of 2016 so far, spotting a cut of cars at the sugar beet plant near Renville. The head end power is in sunshine as they pass the power for th... (more)

The switch crew at the west end of Willmar Yard is hard at work as the sun sets on a chilly but pleasant winter day. It's nice to see an end cab switcher still getting the job done in 2016.

A southbound BNSF train makes its way between the snow covered hills of the Buffalo Ridge south of Ruthton, MN.

A manifest behind a CREX leaser heads south past the ADM plant on the north side of Marshall, MN.

Thanks to the first "polar vortex" of 2016, fierce winds and a dusting of fresh snow the night before created a few drifts for the westbound Ruebel Turn to negotiate, such as this one be... (more)