With plenty of cars on this day, the grade profile of this section of track is exemplified well as the tri-weekly Mankato to Aurora train crawls its way west on the Huron Sub.

MNAU slithers its way west through the southwestern Minnesota prairie on the home stretch to Aurora, SD. The portion of the run between Balaton and Lake Benton has a lot of cool spots, and this wa... (more)

RCPE 3452 wakes up downtown as they pull MMNAU past the former CNW depot.

Last light shines on Florence as RCPE MMNAU rounds the bend and heads downhill towards us.

RCPE 3452 pulls its train into the sun as they rock a downhill into the small town of Garvin.

RCPE MMNAU rounds off of the CP and onto home rails where track speed will pick back up to 40 and these guys will have a clear shot for Aurora.

RCPE MMNAU drops its speed from 40 to 25 just outside of Walnut Grove as they close in on Tracy. The grade outside of town makes our RCPE train look like a rollercoaster.

At milepost 213, just east of Revere, we find a lone code line pole still holding on from years past as RCPE 3452 blows past.

The nice thing about chasing RCPE's Mankato to Aurora train is that just about every little town along the way has something cool to shoot. Sanborn is no different. Here we see RCPE 3452 passing t... (more)

RCPE MMNAU rounds the bend into Springfield, passing the massive elevator just east of town.

Back on home rails, RCPE's Mankato to Aurora train flies through the frozen prairie on this cold winter evening just west of Balaton.

RCPE's Mankato to Aurora train is making good time as they fly west into Sanborn on this brisk winter afternoon.

RCPE 3423 leads MMNAU directly into the last rays of the setting sun, on what ended up being a great chase.

MMNAU is seen here West of Lake Benton. We were fortunate that the train showed up when it did. The shadows of the hillsides were rapidly closing in on the railroad right of way.

MMNAU is about to duck under State Highway 23, as the train makes its way towards Aurora, SD.