A tale of two outings | 11/7 and 11/10/23
Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2023 12:19 pm
This is a long one, so bear with me, quite the story.
The tale of two outings starts with a planned attempt to catch Marquette Rail with my friend Guy (yes, that’s his name) on 11/7. Per a post from several months ago on this very site, the MQT apparently is known to tie down in the tiny town of Grant. So that was our first location we planned on hitting. It quickly became apparent as we rounded the curve on M-37 south at 112th street that we hit the jackpot. Z151 (northbound) was parked about 20 yards south of the 112th street crossing with a quartet of classic EMD’s: MQT SD40-2 3406, MQT GP38-2 #2040 (still in Union Pacific Armor Yellow with MQT markings), MQT SD40-2 #3408 and MQT SD40-2 #3391 (still very much showing it’s Canadian/GMD roots with a cab mounted bronze bell and classification lights).
Now, I’m no expert on the MQT and G&W operations, but when I saw the second unit (MQT #2040), I knew that this had to be somewhat special. I gave RRFan user Talk a call telling him what I found. He told me apparently that 2040 is almost never on the 151 run and that it’s pretty noteworthy for it to be on it.
While I was on the phone, Guy took a video of the parked 151 and posted it on the shared snapchat story for Ferris State (where I’m known as “the train guy”) and posted it with a funny caption (I’ll post a screenshot from the video). We stuck around for about an hour thinking maybe a relief crew would maybe show up, but they never did. So we went back to Big Rapids.
Fast forward to Friday, one of my closest friends here at FSU had been admitted to Forest View Hospital in Grand Rapids a few days prior, since Forest View is a mental hospital, her boyfriend and myself were amazed to get some visiting time with her at the hospital. We drove his absolutely clapped out 1997 Dodge Dakota, that I was half convinced wouldn’t even make it halfway there since the transfer case is kinda messed up and his ignition coil wiring is going bad. However it did fine.
We got to the place around 2:50 PM, and when we got into the halls and then eventually the room we were going be in with her, I could tell I was going to struggle sensory-wise. All white walls + white ceiling + white floors + autism sensory issues, not a good mix. I told my friend TJ (my friends’ boyfriend) that I was only going to say hi and stay only for a few minutes, I was already getting a VERY bad headache. I stayed for a few when TJ said that his keys were in the locker that we put our stuff in (personal belongings are NOT allowed in the physic ward) and told me “to go find some trains”.
I, again, called RRFan user Talk and asked where to go to find some sort of action. He told me Judd Road next to Wyoming yard would be my best bet, so that’s where I went. After dealing with the clusterf*ck that is the I-96 to 131 (pretty sure it was 131) interchange, and the school in Wyoming getting out, I made it to Judd Road just in time to miss Y297 leaving the yard engine light with #6514 (I think?) leading. However, once I got parked, I found Y290 (per Andy24) kicking cars inside Wyoming Yard with a pair of GP38-3’s, some of the cars being those ZVBX hoppers that have been talked about on the site before.
They didn’t pull out far enough for me to see the second engine number, but per Andy, the second unit was #2005, the leader was #2037 (which I could visually confirm), This was very impromptu and not planned, so I did not have my photo camera on me, all I had was my phone, and the photos were very ehhh. Still something though. I was there for about an hour then went back to Forest View to get TJ, and we drove back to Big Rapids.
That’s all for now, more to come soon!
The tale of two outings starts with a planned attempt to catch Marquette Rail with my friend Guy (yes, that’s his name) on 11/7. Per a post from several months ago on this very site, the MQT apparently is known to tie down in the tiny town of Grant. So that was our first location we planned on hitting. It quickly became apparent as we rounded the curve on M-37 south at 112th street that we hit the jackpot. Z151 (northbound) was parked about 20 yards south of the 112th street crossing with a quartet of classic EMD’s: MQT SD40-2 3406, MQT GP38-2 #2040 (still in Union Pacific Armor Yellow with MQT markings), MQT SD40-2 #3408 and MQT SD40-2 #3391 (still very much showing it’s Canadian/GMD roots with a cab mounted bronze bell and classification lights).
Now, I’m no expert on the MQT and G&W operations, but when I saw the second unit (MQT #2040), I knew that this had to be somewhat special. I gave RRFan user Talk a call telling him what I found. He told me apparently that 2040 is almost never on the 151 run and that it’s pretty noteworthy for it to be on it.
While I was on the phone, Guy took a video of the parked 151 and posted it on the shared snapchat story for Ferris State (where I’m known as “the train guy”) and posted it with a funny caption (I’ll post a screenshot from the video). We stuck around for about an hour thinking maybe a relief crew would maybe show up, but they never did. So we went back to Big Rapids.
Fast forward to Friday, one of my closest friends here at FSU had been admitted to Forest View Hospital in Grand Rapids a few days prior, since Forest View is a mental hospital, her boyfriend and myself were amazed to get some visiting time with her at the hospital. We drove his absolutely clapped out 1997 Dodge Dakota, that I was half convinced wouldn’t even make it halfway there since the transfer case is kinda messed up and his ignition coil wiring is going bad. However it did fine.
We got to the place around 2:50 PM, and when we got into the halls and then eventually the room we were going be in with her, I could tell I was going to struggle sensory-wise. All white walls + white ceiling + white floors + autism sensory issues, not a good mix. I told my friend TJ (my friends’ boyfriend) that I was only going to say hi and stay only for a few minutes, I was already getting a VERY bad headache. I stayed for a few when TJ said that his keys were in the locker that we put our stuff in (personal belongings are NOT allowed in the physic ward) and told me “to go find some trains”.
I, again, called RRFan user Talk and asked where to go to find some sort of action. He told me Judd Road next to Wyoming yard would be my best bet, so that’s where I went. After dealing with the clusterf*ck that is the I-96 to 131 (pretty sure it was 131) interchange, and the school in Wyoming getting out, I made it to Judd Road just in time to miss Y297 leaving the yard engine light with #6514 (I think?) leading. However, once I got parked, I found Y290 (per Andy24) kicking cars inside Wyoming Yard with a pair of GP38-3’s, some of the cars being those ZVBX hoppers that have been talked about on the site before.
They didn’t pull out far enough for me to see the second engine number, but per Andy, the second unit was #2005, the leader was #2037 (which I could visually confirm), This was very impromptu and not planned, so I did not have my photo camera on me, all I had was my phone, and the photos were very ehhh. Still something though. I was there for about an hour then went back to Forest View to get TJ, and we drove back to Big Rapids.
That’s all for now, more to come soon!
