Ain't nothin' like the real thing...

Last Monday was the Martin Luther King Jnr. holiday hereabouts and as a result I had the day off work. The weather forecast had been quite promising so I decided to go over to Saint Cloud to photograph and film some trains on the main line. (I am TrainspotterUSA after all) Unfortunately the predicted sunshine never materialised. So all my photographs and video are somewhat grey. But I was rewarded with some film of the Northern Lines Railway working the Northern Siding at Phillips recycling. The Northern siding is where the gondolas are loaded with scrap metal.

Enjoy.

After I had posted this on YouTube, Jake Nelson, a fellow outstate Minnesota railfan alerted me to some film he shot a while back of the Northern lines working the West siding. This is where cars are left for scrapping. His video is here:

With these two pieces of film you get an insight into the rail operations at this small industry.

If you want to see more of my Youtube railfanning videos they are on my YouTube channel

http://www.youtube.com/Trainspotterusa

Spare us the Cutter...

So, I had a piece of wood for a baseboard. But what should I model?

As I said the first things that jumped into my head were rivers and docksides, probably because of that nice flowing curve but strangely I went in a totally different direction.

A scrapyard.

Don't ask me why. Perhaps it's because the wife and I drove past one on our way to dinner on Friday night. More likely its because there is one sited across the track from the St Cloud, MN Amtrak depot. I have lots of photographs of this particular scrapyard. Here's a few for you.

This is a favourite shot of mine. These boxcar ends are being used to hold up a pile of scrap.
There are lots of wheels lying about
Some gondolas being loaded with scrap
A boxcar waits to be cut up
A big pile of scrap stands alongside an unlikely tree. Both would make good view breaks

So really it was too good an idea not to pass up. Rail served at both ends of the process. A perfect subject.

So on to making the baseboard proper.