#railroad-track-equipment

[edwincannan]

Chooisng Efficient & Reliable Railway Track Maintenance Equipment

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[trainz99]

Found these in a junkyard once a few years ago! They don't seem to exist online, and unfortunately playing them through an 8-track yielded nothing.

Cool stuff nonetheless!

[badolmen]

Marijuana Walter White where are you…

[ltwilliammowett]

Old naval slang

A small collection of terms from the 18th - early 20th century that were and probably still are known among sailors.

Admiralty Ham - Royal Navy canned fish Batten your hatch - shut up Beachcomber - a good-for-nothing Cape Horn Fever - feigned illness Cheeseparer - a cheat Claw off - to avoid an embarrassing question or argument Cockbilled - drunk Cumshaw - small craft - Chinese version of scrimshaw Dead Marine - empty liquor bottle Donkey's Breakfast - mattress filled with straw Dunnage - personal equipment of a sailor Flying Fish sailor - sailor stationed in Asian waters Galley yarn - rumour, story Hog yoke- sextant Holy Joe - ship's chaplain Irish hurricane- dead calm Irish pennant - frayed line or piece of clothing Jamaican discipline - unruly behaviour Knock galley west - to knock a person out Leatherneck - a marine Limey - a British sailor Liverpool pennant - a piece of string used to replace a lost button Loaded to the guards - drunk Old Man - captain of the ship One and only - the sailor's best girl On the beach - ashore without a berth Pale Ale - drinking water Quarterdeck voice - the voice of authority Railroad Pants - uniform trousers with braid on the outer leg seam Railway tracks - badge of a first lieutenant Round bottomed chest - sea bag Schooner on the rocks - roast beef and roast potatoes Show a leg - rise and shine Sling it over - pass it to me Slip his cable - die Sundowner - unreasonable tough officer Swallow the anchor - retire Sweat the glass - shake the hour glass to make the time on watch pass quickly - strictly forbidden ! Tops'l buster - strong gale Trim the dish - balance the ship so that it sails on an even keel Turnpike sailor - beggar ashore, a landlubber claiming to be an old sailor in distress Water bewitched - weak tea White rat - sailor who curries favor with the officers

Sailors' Language, by W. Clark Russell, 1883 Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases. Edward Fraser and John Gibbons, 1925 Sea Slang, by Frank C. Bowen, 1929 Royal Navalese, by Commander John Irving, 1946 Sea Slang of the 20th century, by Wilfried Granville, 1949 The Sailor's Word Book, by Admiral W.H. Smyth, 1967

[bluebellowl]

Made this back when I just posted my submas fnaf crossover art and yall started making headcanons and I got inspired again

You know, I almost thought I was slowly catching up but nooo, this was shortly after New Years. There's so much to come!

Anyway here‘s the context:

The twins run a railroad going through the Pizzaplex. The player has to defeat them by breaking through the instabile floor, ripping a hole into the tracks, and letting the twins, who are on board the train, fall and crash down said hole. During the landing impact, Emmet only gets damaged, but Ingo gets impales, destroying his memory card (a reference to his pla era amnesia).

Later when the player themselves gets dragged down the trash compactor by Chica and wanders the underground to find a way up, they stumble upon the ruins of the totaled train carts. The carts are so broken that the Subway Bosses are trapped inside, and Emmet can be heard and seen trying to claw his way out but failing. Here, the player can make a choice. Do they leave the twins down there to rot, or do they open the door with their conveniently equipped Fazwatch, risking being killed but also having the chance to make allies?

Time laps under the cut:

[seat-safety-switch]

You might think that buying a train is expensive. They're made of a lot of metal, after all, and scrap prices are quite healthy at the moment. Not only that, but the railroads own all the rails, and those greedy monopolists don't want you to bring your free-enterprise, private individual train on them. There is another option.

You see, railways have these special little trucks, called hi-rails. They're basically strangely narrow pickup trucks, with a little train part on their front and rear, used to maintain the railway (trains are too bourgeois to do their own maintenance, and leave it to "lesser" vehicles.) When these hi-rails get on the tracks, they can turn into trains. Rail cops hassling you? Pop off and drive away like a regular old pickup truck.

Here's the real secret: these things are super cheap at auction. And why wouldn't they be? The only folks who can use them are railways, who already have trucks of their own. Sure, they take the train parts off the truck to make sure you don't do exactly what I'm doing, but any idiot can take a tape measure to some train tracks, and figure out how to cut through the fence at the locomotive maintenance yard to get some wheels. Now, I'm commuting to work using efficient public transit – but doing so with heated seats, cupholders, and satellite radio.

Sure, there are some downsides. Most of my city's transit network is underground, so I spend a lot of time reversing really fast out of tunnels. Years of railway maintenance engineers jumping in and out of it have worn the seat bolsters down quite a bit. And it doesn't go "choo-choo," or even feature a train horn, which was a major disappointment the first time I got on it. Overall, though, I can strongly recommend picking up disused rail-maintenance equipment and committing several federal crimes. Getting to skip the long red light between the Home Depot and my house by jumping into a subway tunnel has paid for itself in, like, a weekend.

[beguines]

West Virginia miners, for various reasons, were slower to unionize than their counterparts in other states. This was true not only in comparison with northern Appalachian miners in the states of Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana (labeled the Central Competitive Field), but also in comparison with those in Alabama and other parts of southern Appalachia. They gave only partial support at best to national strikes in 1894, 1897, and 1902–​1903. However, as many analysts have noted, they were eventually to become the most fervent of union supporters. There were several interrelated reasons for these two characteristics. First, a larger percentage of West Virginia miners in the early 1930s lived in small, isolated towns (93% in towns with fewer than twenty-​five hundred residents) and in company housing (75%) than in other coal mining states. Second, fear of the union led coal miner associations to hire hundreds of Baldwin-​Felts guards and "detectives," so that by 1910, there was not a coal town in West Virginia in which they were not stationed. Whereas in earlier periods, union organizers moved around relatively freely in West Virginia, by this time not only union organizers but sympathetic miners were commonly harassed, brutalized, and murdered.

The growing militancy and solidarity of West Virginia miners was on full display when, in April 1912, Paint Creek and Cabin Creek miners struck. It was objective conditions (unsafe work, cheating on pay, company control, and sheer brutality), not southern or mountaineer culture, that led them to become a model of solidarity (a class solidarity so paradigmatic that it stimulated IWW (Industrial Workers of the World or Wobblies) songwriter Ralph Chapin to write the union anthem "Solidarity Forever". The mine owners were determined to crush the 1912 strike with force. Baldwin-​Felts guards "built iron and concrete forts that they equipped with machine guns throughout the strike districts," evicting miners from company housing and destroying their furniture. They then began to murder striking miners singly and in groups. In the most celebrated instance, they drove an armored train, dubbed the "Bull Moose Special," through the mining districts, machine-​gunning strikers and their families in tent colonies near the tracks. The miners, to be sure, fought back in kind, shooting mine guards and detectives with six machine guns and one thousand high-​powered rifles supplied by the national union. Women in the company towns were equally combative, engaging in gun battles alongside the men. It was women who prevented the "Bull Moose Special" from returning by tearing up the railroad tracks and who often attacked strikebreakers, driving them away. According to Wobbly Ralph Chapin, this was the appeal of famed United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) organizer Mother Jones, "who might have been any coal miner’s wife ablaze with righteous fury". Mineworker families not only fought, but in the tent colonies sang and danced, creating a new union solidarity culture, making the union "an intense, emotional unity".

The Paint Creek/​Cabin Creek strike lasted a year and was never broken, despite the declaration of martial law and the arrest and jailing, without trial, of hundreds of miners, while the mine operator and gunmen who drove the "Bull Moose Special" were never even questioned, much less indicted. Rank-​and-​file coal miners and their local leaders rejected a settlement brokered by district officials, UMWA national president John White, and Governor Henry Hatfield, continuing to strike until all their demands were met. They then demanded the replacement of all their district leaders, finally forcing the national union to call elections.

Michael Goldfield, The Southern Key: Class, Race, and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s

[20th-century-railroading]

Penn Central ex PRR GG-1 4877 with its head end heavy eastbound passenger train crosses the former New Haven Railroad Saugatuck River Bridge at Westport, Connecticut, 1969

Penn Central ex PRR GG-1 4877 with its head end heavy eastbound passenger train crosses the former New Haven Railroad Saugatuck River Bridge at Westport, Connecticut, 1969. This train which is operating on an express track has an interesting consist in that after the first four passenger equipped boxcars, there is a coach followed by a REA-baggage car, then another coach that is followed by another REA-baggage car bringing up the end. Straight ahead after the bridge end, there is a commuter passenger station and a parking lot to the left.

[heavenlybackside]

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s steam locomotive Southern Railway 630 exits Missionary Ridge Tunnel as it approaches East Chattanooga, Tennessee with a trainload of passengers, on April 28th, 2024.

According to Wikipedia: Southern Railway 630 is a 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive built in February 1904 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Richmond, Virginia for the Southern Railway as a member of the Ks-1 class. It is currently owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee where it resides today for use on excursion trains.

According to the Tennessee River Valley Tourism site: Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum's passenger trains run on an historic route which includes Missionary Ridge Tunnel, completed in 1858 and on the National Register of Historic Places. The tunnel is the primary reason TVRM runs on the three-mile section of the former Southern Railway. As railroad equipment grew too large to pass through, the single-track tunnel became a traffic jam for an other wise double-track railroad. Southern Railway abandoned the three-mile portion of the line and built a new section around the end of Missionary Ridge, avoiding the tunnel altogether. TVRM restored rails through the tunnel in 1971 and continues to use the pre-Civil War Tunnel daily.

#trainphotography #railroadphotography #trains #railways #trainphotographer #railroadphotographer #jimpearsonphotography #PassengerTrain #TennesseeValleyRailroadMuseum #TennesseeTrains #steamtrain #tvrm

[the-outer-topic]

1930 Queen of the South - Jim Jordan

Southern Railway’s green and gold PS-4’s, “First Ladies of the Pacific,” were created in the classic tradition of standard railroading between the 1920s and the 1930s. SR’s then President Fairfax Harrison was vacationing in England in 1925 and admired the brilliantly styled designs of green with gold leaf trimming on the London and North Eastern engines. He set about immediately on his return to use a similar color scheme on these new engines. The appearance of the PS-4’s on the AGS lines (Alabama Great Southern) in the south drew great crowds and netted the SR overwhelmingly favorable publicity. The beautifully decked out Queen and Crescent engine – 6689 made her first run in May, 1929 from Cincinnati through Chattanooga, Birmingham, Meridian, and on into New Orleans. Being the typical passenger locomotive she was equipped with all of the Southern’s needs – the ability to pull up to 14 cars with a top speed of 80 miles an hour, and 80,000 miles between overhauls.

The decade between 1928 – 1938 saw the first lady PS-4′ in their glorious, most fashionable years, racing up and down the lines from Washington to New Orleans. But by the early 1940’s with the inevitable competition of diesel power, the “Ladies of the Pacific” were seeing their reign o’er the rails coming to a close. Yet shortly, the PS-4’s were about to make one last comeback. Ironically, it took a world war to extend their reign of glory. The “Queen” and others were called upon for the unprecedented passenger train miles needed for troop movement. Heavy travel made it imperative that steam – the old faithful mode of transport – be kept working to the limits of its availability.

FURNACES

The Sloss Furnaces were built in the 1880’s in Birmingham – the chief center for coal and iron in the southeastern United States. For some ninety years, Sloss was an operating industrial site. Closed in 1971 – unable to comply with pollution standards – it became a National Historic Landmark where concerts at Birmingham are coordinating archaeological and preservation work on site. Volunteers are needed to keep the machinery and grounds in top condition for future generations.

Paralleling the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, the Sloss’ silhouette looms silently, yet oddly majestic in the Birmingham sky – just another reminder of an era quietly passing, like the stately ladies of steam.

[edwincannan]

Selecting a Leading Railway Equipment Company

When it comes to selecting a leading railway equipment company, look no further than Vancer. With our unrivaled expertise and dedication to innovation, we offer a wide range of cutting-edge solutions for the rail industry. From advanced track maintenance equipment to state-of-the-art inspection tools, our products are designed to enhance efficiency, safety, and reliability in rail operations. For more information, visit Vancer.com.

[subwaytostardew]

Update: Ginger Island content

Now there's more than just the bare minimum and their bar dialogue! Kade filled out the other dialogue keys for Ginger Island! Here they are!

▲ Ingo’s Resort Dialogue ▲

 "Resort_Entering": "I have always been told I need to rest my cab! Now I get to do so! This place is breathtaking! However... I do wish the seas were less choppy... I felt as if I was being subjected to a Seismic Toss!"

  "Resort_Leaving": "Alas, I must return to the mainland and to home station. As nice as this place is... I cannot help but worry about the work that needs to get done. They say to rest and relax, but I find it quite difficult to do so. Still! It was a nice day off! I would not mind returning to this terminal! The boat, on the other hand... Oh dear."

  "Resort_Shore": "Ahh... now this is quite the sight! Oh! Perhaps I could build a sand sculpture? Oh... What do I plan to build? Why, a train of course! EHAHAHAHAHA!"

  "Resort_Chair": "(Ingo seems to be fast asleep. He is snoring quite loudly. The book on his face does little to nothing when it comes to volume control.)"

  "Resort_Umbrella": "Owch. Owch. YOWCH. Nuuugh... @... I'd hate to be a bother, but you wouldn't happen to have any sunscreen on you, would you? I'm afraid I am ill-equipped for how bright the sun is here. It appears my cab has gotten burned in the process..."

  "Resort_Wander": "Ah, this place is quite relaxing... But what of all the paperwork that sits unfinished at the station? Oh dear...

No. No. Tut. Tut. Ingo. Do not derail. You are here to relax!

AH, @! Y-you hadn't overheard me, have you? Eh... eheheha... My apologies, but I am simply trying to remind myself that work can wait. After all, I'm here to relax! I heard many good things about the island here! To think this region has so many hidden wonders beneath its prickly thorns..."

  "Resort_Bar": "Bravo! Mister Vincent was indeed correct about the delectability of Cranberry Candy! He has quite a refined palette for such a young passenger- especially when it comes to that of fruits! Perhaps I will take along some cargo for him and Miss Jas before we depart back to the valley... Surely, that will steer them away from my personal supply of sweets..."

▽ Emmet’s Resort Dialogue▽

 "Resort_Entering": "Mmm... I did not like the boat ride. Trains are better. Maybe we can make a train come here! That will be much better. Yup."

  "Resort_Leaving": "I am Emmet... I am now verrrry behind schedule. But I am well-rested and refueled. Ready to work on the railroad all the livelong day again. Yup. The beach is nice. But trains are better! Remember that! ... Stupid boat."

  "Resort_Shore": "The water is verrry wet. The sand is also verrry wet. It sticks to me like glue. I do not like that. As nice as the beach is. Tracking dirt and cleaning sand from one's cab is not fun.",

  "Resort_Chair": "(Emmet looks to be busy sorting through a photo album. It is full of pictures of the shoreline and sea creatures that are around.)"

  "Resort_Umbrella": "Ow. Ow. Ow. I am Emmet. Ow. I did not apply enough sunscreen. Ow... This sucks. Yup. I burn verrrry easily... Ingo does, too. There is a reason why we do not usually make detours from our usual tracks. I miss the subway tunnels. The sun cannot cause damage there.",

  "Resort_Wander": "I don't know why I came here. I am Emmet. I have a lot to conduct at the station.$3#$b#Is this what a vacation feels like? I do not like it. There is too much work to be done. I will be verrry behind schedule. You. Why are you here, @? Aren't you busy, as well?",

  "Resort_Bar": "The Tropical Curry is verrry good! A little... spicy... though... I had to ask for less spice. It is still spicy. Because of the peppers. But I like the pineapple bowl. They are like Pinap Berries but not spicy at all! They are verrry sweet. Pinap Berries are verrrry rare in Unova. Yup. It is a shame. They taste good. I wish I could eat them more. I could just eat a pineapple. But I like curry. It reminds me of the Galar region. I ate some with my friend- Piers- back in Pasio. It was verrry good! I missed it. He didn't make it spicy."

I made one whole island animation for the twins. Here are the frames and a gif with their towel sprites!

Of course Emmet would kick his feet around. Ingo, I was a little more inspired for. I was thinking that he would fall asleep in the position he would have as a passenger: legs crossed, one hand in his lap, the other holding a (nonexistent) handrail. He probably goes "choo choo" in his sleep. Emmet just doesn't sleep.

▷ Station Steward Thylak

[mariacallous]

Since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Russian schoolchildren have increasingly found themselves behind bars on charges of sabotage for allegedly damaging buildings or transportation infrastructure. At least 20 Russians between the ages of 15 and 17 are currently in prison awaiting trial or serving sentences for these offenses. Many of them are from the regions along the Trans-Siberian Railway, which Moscow uses to transport military equipment and ammunition west. In English, Meduza shares key points from a new report on these minors from the independent outlet People of Baikal.

According to data compiled by Mediazona, approximately one third of the 66 people arrested in late 2022 and early 2023 for alleged sabotage attacks on Russian railroads were minors. Sentences for this offense can range from 10 to 20 years in prison, but if there are aggravating circumstances, the penalty can be as severe as a life sentence. Typically, the details of these cases are classified or published with the defendant’s name redacted.

Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service records the names of all citizens charged with terrorism, sabotage, or extremism in its public registry of “terrorists and extremists.” The appearance of a person’s name on the registry, however, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re in prison; it can also mean they’re under investigation, received a fine, or were sentenced to probation.

The “extremists” list currently contains 54 seventeen-year-olds, 21 sixteen-year-olds, and 13 fifteen-year-olds. At least 20 teenagers have been added to the list in 2024 so far. Its youngest member is Gleb Sinitsyn, a 14-year-old from the city of Ivanovo.

‘Out of desperation’

Maksim Makhnev from the town of Ust-Ilimsk turned 18 just a few weeks ago. The reason for his addition to Russia’s federal “extremists and terrorists” list is unclear. He’s one of numerous Russian teenagers who have spent their 18th birthdays in prison.

Among the others is 19-year-old Ilya Podkamenny, who managed to stop a freight train in the Irkutsk region in November 2022 by wrapping copper wire around the tracks. The train engineer found leaflets at the scene that read “Death to Russkies, freedom to Siberia” and “Putinists will hang from the trees instead of leaves, death to Putin the fascist.” According to state investigators, the engineer “became instantly vigilant and returned to the train to get a hammer to protect himself and his assistant in case of an attack.”

It took seven months for the authorities to identify Podkamenny as the perpetrator: he didn’t leave any fingerprints, there were no surveillance cameras in the area, and a police dog was unable to track him by his scent. Investigators recovered some DNA from the leaflets and wire, but it was too little to determine his identity. Eventually, they decided to search the phrases from the flyers online, which led them to a Telegram channel called “Siberian Liberation Movement — Republic of Siberia.” Podkamenny was one of the channel’s two administrators. Five days later, he was arrested.

Even after they found his Telegram channel, it’s unclear how the investigators were able to identify Podkamenny; according to him, his account was registered to an anonymous Estonian SIM card.

Podkamenny was initially put on house arrest, but after he was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, he engaged in self-harm, after which he was sent to pre-trial detention. Eventually, he was charged with preparing and organizing a terrorist attack. According to investigators, he planned to commit arson twice: first at a railway relay cabinet and then at a military enlistment office. Podkamenny had twice prepared incendiary mixtures at home, but his mother found both of them and threw them away.

In the fall of 2023, Podkamenny was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to the charges against him. In a letter to Mediazona, he said his actions were motivated by desperation and a desire to fight against the “encroaching darkness.” “I think all this insanity will be over by 2025, and I’ll definitely be freed,” he added. He said his dream is to move to Texas and make a cartoon about anthropomorphic jaguars.

The other administrator of the “Siberian Liberation Movement” channel, 17-year-old Oleg Beryozin from the Zabaykalsky region, was arrested at the same time as Podkamenny and sentenced to compulsory psychiatric treatment. The case had a third defendant as well: a 20-year-old named Danil Tomshin who was subscribed to Beryozin and Podkamenny’s channel. He hanged himself before his trial.

‘For a monetary reward’

Also on the list of minors convicted for sabotage is a 15-year-old from Siberia's Tyumen region whose father fought in Ukraine. The boy lived with his mother and his stepdad; the day before his arrest, his father came back to town on leave. According to investigators, on February 23, 2023, the teenager took a Molotov cocktail and a lighter and headed toward a military enlistment office. On the way there, however, he was apprehended by FSB officers. An unnamed source alleged that the boy was offered a monetary reward for the arson attack, though he had previously expressed opposition to the war on social media. He was initially put on house arrest, but later ordered to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment.

In November 2023, three more minors were arrested in the Tyumen region, including another 15-year-old. Investigators allege the teenagers tried to set three railway relay cabinets on fire. The two older ones were sent to remand prison while their case was being investigated, and the youngest was put in a juvenile detention center. “The arsonists acted under the orders of individuals whom they met on social media and who promised to pay them a monetary reward for committing illegal actions,” alleged the Investigative Committee.

In the spring of 2023, three teenagers were arrested in the Novosibirsk region: 18-year-old Kirill Veselov and two minors listed in open records as Pavel S. and Savely R. All three were charged with committing arson attacks on railway relay cabinets. Investigators allege that unknown individuals paid the defendants 10,000 rubles ($112) each for the attack. Around the same time, police arrested an 18-year-old from Novosibirsk named Viktor Skorobogatov for setting an Su-24 attack aircraft on fire. Eventually, investigators combined the two cases and declared the four teenagers members of an organized crime group.

In September of the same year, police in Novosibirsk arrested a 17-year-old college student for allegedly damaging one relay cabinet by force and setting another on fire the following day.

Five months earlier, a 16-year-old was arrested in the Kemerovo region on suspicion of setting two relay cabinets on fire. And that summer, three more teenagers were arrested for the same crime in the Krasnodar region.

Also in the Krasnodar region, a 17-year-old was arrested and sent to remand prison after purchasing materials for a homemade bomb online. When he went to pick them up, he found security officers waiting for him. Investigators allege that the teenager planned to set off an explosion at the city’s market. Upon searching his apartment, the authorities found multiple chemicals and smoke grenades.

Just two months ago, two teenagers in the Krasnoyarsk region were convicted of planning to set a relay cabinet on fire. They were sentenced to 4 years and 5.5 years in juvenile detention. One of them had set a cabinet on fire before.

[fenrislorsrai]

LASER TRAIN

LASER TRAIN

LASER TRAIN!!!

For transit agencies in the eastern portion of the U.S., the leaves falling off the trees can be a problem for their railways. Leaves have a slippery substance on them called pectin and, when crushed beneath the wheels of a passing train, said pectin can present a hazard to safety and operations by reducing friction between the wheels and rail. This condition can result in flat spots on wheels, higher maintenance costs, unsafe braking and even derailments.   Three different East Coast transit agencies -- Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Metro-North Railroad in New York, New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) in New Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in Philadelphia, Pa., have recently started using new equipment to clean the tracks of pectin to ensure trains continue operating safely and reliably.  The MTA’s Metro-North Railroad uses its laser train to clean the tracks. The laser train was introduced by Long Island Rail Road in 2017 before Metro-North began using the train on a trial basis in 2022. During the pilot, Metro-North Railroad safely cleaned more than 12,000 miles of track with the laser train, which resulted in a 40 percent reduction in slip-slide events.  The train operates on the Hudson Line, the Harlem Line and the New Haven Line and can travel at speeds up to 60 mph. Two three-kilowatt lasers are mounted on each side of the train to put down an approximate 1.2-inch cleaning band.  

LASERS!!!!

also dead at the previous rail cleaner is called "Waterworld".

[ryanfrogz]

Trains Down South, 10/23/24: Henderson Station, Old Steel, & Bad Luck (part 1)

Mankato is a city located 60-some miles south-southwest of Minneapolis. It's not all that big, but it definitely isn't small. That being said, there are some pretty cool trains there. Unfortunately, said trains are not easy for the public to access. The easiest way to see them is with a camera drone, which I just happen to have recently acquired. And thus, my journey began.

Henderson, Minnesota is a small town about 25 miles north of Mankato, located on the west bank of the Minnesota River. Henderson Station, Minnesota is an unincorporated community directly across the river from Henderson, and as its name suggests, it was home to the town's train station. Henderson Station is most well known for being home to Lake Minnetonka, a purifying body of water featured in Prince's film Purple Rain. Also an abandoned grain elevator. I stopped here to photograph said grain elevator because I'm a total sucker for historic grain elevators.

Directly adjacent to the elevator is a nature preserve & public park with access to the river, separated only by an active rail line and historic spur track. The spur track, once a short siding, passed between the former depot and the mainline. Boxcars full of goods for Henderson would be parked & unloaded there. In the modern day, it's occasionally used to store maintenance equipment. As I was pulling into the park to park, I noticed a green signal by the tracks. Train time! Soon enough! After walking around the grain elevator, I took to the spur. It was night & day compared to the well-kept mainline: the ballast was made of oily sand and fine gravel mixed with shards of long-gone ties. Loose spikes and unidentifiable pieces of rusty metal littered the area around the tracks. Two long sticks of 1937-made rail sat off to the side, awaiting installation (or conversion to spoons).

The rails complimented the spur quite well, with all the ones I could read dating to the 1920s and 1930s. I also found a joint bar from 1919, and some tie plates from the early 20s. Most of the rail sticks were made by Lackawanna Steel, with a handful of other (unrecognized) names thrown in as well. Halfway down the track lay a big, heavy-duty brake shoe for something railroad related. Alas, the part number was too far gone to find out what exactly.

After waiting for more than an hour, I decided to get back on the road. I checked the signal one last time before pulling away: still green. I looked down at my phone to check the time, and when I looked back up, the signal was RED! This signal was double-sided, and I thought I might be able to see the other side from the park. I drove down to a closer entrance gate, and just as I opened the car door, I heard a horn. A close horn.

Leaping back into the car, I drove back up to the crossing and got ready. Finally, after all that time, a train! Three big road diesels appeared from around the nearby curve, and they were FLYING! The head end was gone almost as soon as it appeared. And just my luck, the elastic band on my lens cap holder had slid forward, making it impossible to zoom in. This is the best shot I got. And then came the worst part. The train was tiny! Couldn't have been more than 20-some cars, I wasn't counting. The cars were super boring, too. All that time for nothing.